First valve adjustment on 82 911 SC..wow not good yet
 

Just did my first tune-up-valve adjustment on my recent 911 SC purchase...at least I thought I did?? LOL.. what an experience, not easy.. but, I can definitely see the reward.

Just completed it... Car was running like a beauty before.. First turn of the key, car was running bad. sounded like it was running on 4 cylinders, something is not right?

I've been adjusting valves on previous Porsche's 20 yrs.. owned 356's and 912's...this is the First 911 that I've owned.

I got all the literature from this forum.. Does the timing have to be checked after a valve adjustment on these cars, I'm not going to run the car like that.. I shut it off immediately.

I verified the firing order on distributor, rotor spins ccw 1-6-2-4-3-5. I verified the spark plug wires were good, with a meter.

I did remove the AC compressor and didn't put it back on the car. That's a project for later, if necessary.

Spark plug wires are all seated properly...All the valves, needed little too no adjustment... I have no broken head studs that's the good part.

What's next ? I have a very good car...I surely don't want to have it towed to automotive shop, to have them bail me out... at least not yet?

Thanks, any help is appreciated.

You said "tune up". Did you do any other work besides the valve adjustments?

Are all the plug wires seated on the plugs correctly? And all wires are on the correct plugs? Are the wires arching perhaps?

From my limited knowledge I don't think a valve adjustment would stop cylinders from firing.

Got a timing light? Put the lead on each plug wire to see if it's firing. Doubt it's the valves, unless you have some so tight they aren't opening (not sure that's possible).

Todd

If they're tight, they're always open. If they're loose, they make a lot of noise.

I'm in the camp that you disturbed wiring/vacuum or installed a defective/mis adjusted part.

Sounds like you may have been fiddling around with the distributor cap. Make sure it's seated properly. On my '88 I have to play with it quite a bit before it's seated.

On my 85, the distributor turns clockwise (cw), not counter clockwise (ccw).

The sc turns CCW.

What items did you do? Change plugs, fuel filter in addition to the valve clearance? I'd retrace my steps. Sometimes the distributor has been installed 180 degrees out but if you hardly moved the valve clearances, it seems that this is fine. I'd make sure that the leads are in full contact on both the d and the plug. Given what you've given us, my bet would be either loose leads or, leads set on the distributor either out of sequence or not starting on number one. Good luck

No timing is necessary after valve adjustment....I'm assuming she was running fine before the tune up.

The car was running strong and good before valve adjustment.. I'm starting to think a possible defective part?

I would try to determine which cylinders aren't firing. If you pull the plug leads one by one out of the distributor cap while it's running with an accurate tach hooked up, you can see which ones don't reduce the RPMs when you disconnect the plug wires. Be sure to use some insulated gloves when you do this. You can do a compression test on the suspect cylinders to see if the valves aren't closing all the way. My guess is that one or two cylinders weren't completely on the base circle of the cam when you adjusted them. My other guess was bad plug wires or terminals but you said that you have checked the resistance of the wires and they are all okay. Good luck and please report back.

Did not change my fuel filter, that was me next move after the tune-up. It's not the valve adjustment.. I re-checked number one spark plug wire on distributor cap and verified it was line up with the grove on the distributor body, so it is sequence.?

well it's definitely not the distributor rotor and cap... I put the old one back on and it ran the same

You might be running a few cylinder short... as I did once.

If you had removed the spark plug wires, remove them again and slowly plug them back listening for the metal sound when they connect. Once I though they were in and a full bank were actually not plug as the end wedge itself beside the plug but they feel like they were.

Get spray bottle with water or windex, with engine running, go under the car and spray the exhaust see which tube is cold. Cold is the water evaporating but not sizzeling.
Once you determined ne the cylinder you know where to look for the solution
Bruce

sorry, I'm afraid to run the engine too long with it running like crap...I don't want to run it until it gets hot

Thanks

Is it possible that you did not do the valve adjustment correctly and you now have some valves that are not seating correctly?

It's has to be, spark plug wires or a bad spark plug out of the box? The firing order is correct.

Well, finding top dead center isn't to hard.. Once I found TDC I verified that the rotor was pointing at #1 and the groove on dist. housing... Adjusted each valve to .004....

If you didn't move the adjusters much, [fraction of a turn]then i would also be inclined to think spark plug wires broken, if the tappets are too tight, then the valves will not close, therefore, that/those cylinders will not fire up, or they will miss-fire, i would first check the spark plug wires, make sure the metal connectors in the ends havent come out, then, as others have said, try and i identify which cylinders are not firing, you can check this by either pulling the plug leads off, [use a very well insulated pliers, or grips, and rubber gloves to be safe]one by one, and hearing if the engine rpm changes, or, check the heat of each exhaust pipe coming directly out of each cylinder, Warning! if the tappets have been adjusted way too tight, then there is a possibility of valve to piston contact, but you say you didn't adjust them by much, so i would suspect that to not be the case.
Hope this helps.
Anthony.

What is adjusting to tight, I was able to slide the feeler gauge back and forth on each valve... Can you be to tight and still not be able to slide the feeler gauge back and forth..

Thanks

People rarely get the valves too tight unless they use the wrong feeler gauge. Typically they are too loose if anything given the locknut pulls the foot away from the valve stem or they don't have the rocker on the cam base circle.

Your problem is not valve adjustment. You either have the plug wires installed incorrectly or screwed up the ignition in some way. Did you change the plugs?

Yes I changed the spark plugs and verified that they were gapped...they were properly gapped straight out of the box...each spark plug went in smoothly...

Swap in the old plugs and see if that fixes it. They can be no good right out if the box.
What brand and type of spark plugs did you use?

NGK=No Good Kind
Was words of wisdom from a Old German Mechanic many moons ago :)

The plugs I installed were Bosch , I'm starting to think something is up with the plugs also.. ? First thing in the morning, I'm going to re - install my old plugs.... And try that. All it takes is one faulty plug for it to run bad

Is there a way to verify if a spark plug is good straight out of the box

If you can slide the correct size feeler guage between the cam lobe, and rocker foot, then thats not your problem, its electrical i am 90% sure of that, spark plugs, distributor, plug leads etc.

A few items that may help you,
You say you changed plugs,the correct procedure is to check your valves
first before removing plugs,here is why if you removed the plugs first,because it
makes it easy to turn the engine over while checking valve clearance,but what can happen is while doing this carbon pieces can fall from the plugs or cylinder chamber and into the valves, so when checking clearance not getting correct spec. new plugs should be changed after.Also another source while threading your plugs in using the factory socket
you always have to be careful not to crack the side enamel on any plugs, as that will also
give you a bad miss.
go to www.google .com-----put in the words,---how to check valve clearance on
Porsche 911.-----our host Pelican has really info on there,regards.

I left the spark plugs in when I was doing the valve adjustment, then changed the spark plug after..removed the plugs with factory socket

Put in old plugs same result, still running rough... ?

What kind of resistance readings, should I get when testing spark plug wires. The spark plug wires look original to the car.. car has 117,000 miles

So, you put all the old parts back on the car and it still runs bad, just leaves the valves in question then.

Your right at this point its either the spark plug wires or I F$ck up the valve adjustment. I know its not the rotor and cap, I put back all the old spark plugs, and it still runs like crap.

I have one of these and it is great to test spark at each cylinder.

maybe you can borrow one.

Going by memory here, I think 4K ohms overall is normal.

I just changed my wires on my '85. All were 2.9-3.0 kohms.

Based on your description, I don't think your issue is valves. I think you cracked some plug wires internally when you pulled the wires to install new plugs or knocked a vacuum line off it's fitting. Just doesn't sound like a valve adjustment problem.

Agreed, unless you totally got the cylinders mixed up when doing the valves.... but that's not likely as I think you said you've done valve adjustments before.

Well im just fully confused, at this point... I'm hesitant to drain the oil and re-check the valves?

Im ready to take my car to a repair shop and get it going, and re-group and give it another try at a later date.