Valve adjustment when temp is below 60 degrees?
 

Is it to cold to adjust my valves? it is about 55 degrees outside. Any input would be super.

No.

For tech comfort? Maybe. It depends on the wind-chill factor. For the engine, no.


Sherwood

Cold is cold.....Just do it before your hands freeze to your tools...

Page 50 of Volume VII of Up-Fixin der Porsche books says there is very little difference in the running clearance between valves set in the hot of summer verses the cold of winter.

It might take a day or two to drain the oil but the thermal expansion of cold metal (air temp) is going to change very little between 50 and 70 degrees. You would do far worse by adjusting your valves after having run the motor (greater temp change)

50 degrees cold? Come on guys. I once flew to a place called Webaquai in northern Ontario where it was -45 C/-45 F (yes "minus") not factoring the wind chill (about 10-15 knots that day). It's about 300 miles north of Thunder Bay (which is north of Mineapolis). It was 50 here yesterday and I was out washing cars and monkeying around the engine bay.

I've found a definite difference when cold vs warm. I'd guess that a 40 degree change gives about .001 inches difference based on my experiences. The clearances tighten up when cold. If I were to set my valves on a 50 degree day I'd set them to .003 inches. (I like to have them on the tight side anyway). On a normal day (70 degrees) I normally set the valves to a "lose" 003 or "tight" 004 inches. Lose means little to no drag on the feeler blade. Tight means it's hard to put in and has noticable drag.

-Andy

Thanks for the help. As always, great advice.

So...if it's REALLY cold...and you can CONTROL how cold...the drill would be to set for ZERO lash..and forget about feelers...right ????

:) :)

Wil