Pelican Parts Forums - valve clearances

Pelican Parts Forums (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/index.php)

- Porsche 914 & 914-6 Technical Forum (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7)

- - valve clearances (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=109849)

ok guys, FINALLY I have retrieved one of the lifters, and it appears to me that it IS a hydraulic lifter. It looks like this picture:
http://www.mondellotwister.com/HL-230-921.gif except the hole in the side is centered in the notch. It does have the little horizontal metal strips on the top, inside the round part. If this in fact is a hydraulic lifter, I read in 'How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine' by Tom Wilson that I should tighten the adjuster till it touches the valve stem + 2 more turns, and how to prep the lifter for reinstallation. But it seems that the rocker arm will still be dead against the spring (as it was before). So is there a way I can increase the clearance between the rocker arm and the spring so that I can tell when the screw and the valve stem touch? Anything else I should check while I have the thing apart? I read DD's FAQ in reference to hydraulic lifters, not sure I'm happy about this discovery...:confused:
Thanks to everyone who has responded, your input is both very very helpful, and is also keeping me semi-sane.

well if the cam is not a hydrolic cam it wont last long with the lifters you have
if you talk to jake he says it wwont last with the right cam
do you safe a favor tear it down and put the right cam and lifter for your engine intake combo

Is it a fair assumption that if there are hydraulic lifters, then there is also a hydraulic cam? How would I be able to tell if a cam is hydraulic? I'd like to switch to mechanical, but that seems like a pretty expensive proposition...I wasn't really planning on spending a ton on this car. Any idea what I'd be looking at financially to switch back to mechanical lifters/cam? How much work is involved?

Quote:

Originally posted by scott thacher
well if the cam is not a hydrolic cam it wont last long with the lifters you have
if you talk to jake he says it wwont last with the right cam
do you safe a favor tear it down and put the right cam and lifter for your engine intake combo

Something is definately wrong. Hydraulic lifters don't make noise (or at least they weren't designed to). I think we are all confused about the rocker/spring thing. The adjuster screw touches only the top of the valve stem. If anything else is touching the rocker at any point, don't drive the car or run the engine. As you can now see, if you follow the 2 turn instructions, the valves will never be free to use a feeler guage between the rocker and the valve stem.

At the top of the valve is a spring retainer held in by 2 round wedges called keepers that rest against a depression in the stem itself allowing the valve stem to stand proud of the assembly. Is this all in order on each valve?