Valve Clearances - I know..but damage???

If I have set my clearances wrong (they sound more rattely than before), will I do much damage driving the car around for say 30 miles ????

If your valves are loose, which would seem to be the case by them being loud, then there would be no harm in driving it. Just don't drive it hard. You will also lose a little bit of power because the valves aren't opening fully.
Paul

it depends on how loose they are. just a tad, no problem. 1/8" would not be good. the more you do it the better you get.hopefully you used a feeler gauge holder. impossible to do it right without it.

I made a tool which gave me the correct gap and was angled to fit but have since bought angled feeler gauges in the UK. I will probably run it over the next few days and see how it goes.

Yet another victim of the myth of "valve adjustment made easy". The first time I do mine will be with someone at my elbow who knows what they're doing.
regards,
jlex.

I understand it is easier to adjust the valves in an old 911 because there is more room to work. However I have adjusted my valves and with some patience it is not hard to do it properly.

First of all my valves were probably not that far out of adjustment in the first place. I did them because the PO told me they hadn't been done for over 12,000 miles.

I bought the angled feeler tool from Pelican to make the adjustment and the gasket kit.

One of the precautions I took which I haven't heard anyone else mention is that before loosening each valve adjustment I recorded the position of the screw head on a piece of paper. This allowed me get the adjustment back to the original position if necessary and I also recorded whether I had to tighten or loosen each of the valves.

By the time I'd got to the last valve there's no doubt that my technique had improved and I went back over them all and readjusted a couple.

When I'd finished I was hoping thet there wouldn't be a single tick from the valves but inevitably I have one that seems to be a little looser than it should be, you can really only hear it when the engine is cold. However there is no question that the engine is smoother, more powerful and I no longer have an exhaust popping problem on deceleration.

------------------
Allan Broadribb
'70-911E, 2.2l with Webers