Possible valvetrain situation

[HondaFan81]

I replaced or changed the following today:

oil change
dist cap & rotor
spark plugs
cleaned & painted valve cover

adusted cam timing to spec (Honda Dealer had it off from previous timing belt changed)

adjusted valve lash (three times so far, all times to specification in Helms manual)

lower spark plug tube seals
upper spark plug tube seals
valve cover gasket


Anyways, I go to start engine and it runs fine for a bit, then I hear CLACK, CLACK, CLACK...then it'll run fine, then the same noise comes back...it's random but always comes back. I also noticed one CLACK every now & then when I rotated the crankshaft over during valve lash adjustments.

Anyone think they know why? This car is a 90 Accord EX manual with almost 264,000 miles on it. I'm contemplating that the Helms specs don't apply to my high mileage car and that maybe I need to run mine tighter or looser.

Any suggestions???

[ACCORDianate]

Bad valve spring? A/C on? Engine smoke any?

[alb_accord]

i don' t know if it helps but here is something about the a4
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthre...threadid=10625

[HondaFan81]

No engine smoke, A/C was not on.

Valve springs look good visually and so did rocker arms. I have checked valve lash 3 times and set them to the

intake - .010"
exhaust - .012"


Anyone think it may be cuz my engine has 264K and maybe them valve lash specs above are too much or too little? Should I go tighter or looser?

[alb_accord]

yo man i got ur pm. right now on the top of my head i would say check the timing belt. maybe somethign wroingwith it. u never know. better safe than sorry.
if u put the lash into specification then u should be good.

let the engine warm up and see if it still does it agian. i don't think u will have any rod bearing issues.

or maybe u did somewith wroing when u did the lower spark plug tube seals.

[cb7-R]

Make sure the engine is absolutely cold when adjusting the valves. Also you DO need to compensate for valve train wear. Thats why the specs in your book have diffrent lash options. Stay with in the specs and adjust accordingly. Also make sure each time you adjust the valves that you are on tdc of the compression stroke NOT the exhaust stroke.

[HondaFan81]

yea, i've done what both of you said and I even went looser on the valve lash settings to

.012" on intake
.014" on exhaust

the noise wasn't present right away, but eventually came around when RPMs were around 1500 or above.

noise was not present at idle when at operating engine temp though, but between 2000-3000 rpm it was there again.

[alb_accord]

so u saying that when engine is a runing temp and at idle u can not hear it. but if u drive it u will hear it around 3000rpm?

[HondaFan81]

Car is at Honda dealer, I gave up in tryin to find out. We'll see what they diagnose and if I messed up something.

Anyways, thought I'd show you all this....it's an exhaust valve on # 3 cylinder...it looks bent. Now, I dunno if I did it installing the rocker arms (which I doubt cuz the valves to the left and right of this one all line up fine). So I highly doubt I went in cocked on the rocker arms. Maybe it was already damaged this valve and when I removed the rocker arms for first time...it relieved the pressure on this valve & now I see it as bent....after the matter. Who knows....

[91accord4door]

good luck i hope it works out for you and i hope the dealer does not rape you. let us know how it turns out.good luck.

[HondaFan81]

I'll keep you all posted for sure. I won't let the dealer screw me. I primarily want to use them to diagnose the problem seeing I gave up in trying to figure it out. I looked into everything I thought it could be, called up other knowledgeable peeps including a former Honda mechanic and got nowhere. Anyways, if it is my speculation and has to do with this bent # 3 exhaust valve and it's sometimes catching fine and other times slipping off to the side....and the dealer says I need a new valve and the total cost for the work is rediculous...I'll buy a valve spring compressor and do the work myself. However, there is no point in putting a new valve onto a used cylinder head with prolly worn valve seats, etc. I'm sure this cylinder head is not sealing properly (it's got 264K on it). With that said, I will weigh my options.

1) buy a reman cyl head without camshaft (can use existing one) I may even send it out to Delta for it's 260 and increase power of this car for kicks since it's cheap

2) replace that bad exhaust valve and replace any other bad valvetrain parts...get cyl head cleaned, 3-angle valve job & new valve stem seals by machine shop

3) if price is reasonable at honda dealer, have them do the work...


But for now that is all speculation...first I must find out what they diagnose, then go from there

[alb_accord]

no dude. if the vavle seat is fucked don't use it.

here is what u do. go to a junk jard. fing a car that has low miles and try to take off the engine head. then take it to a machine show and do the whole 9 yeard.

don't try to fix ur old one. specially when it has a bend valve.

[HondaFan81]

a bent valve will mess the seat up beyond repair? I can see the rocker arm assembly, if that is the culprit for bending valves, not being reused.

however, true your suggestion is another option that I can price & weigh out...if it's cheaper then a reman. cyl head with the work already done to it....then i'll do that

i still do not know what is the problem with my car though...so this is all speculation

[spirit7623]

same thing happened t me. vaive seais were getting bad and vaive guIdes were w0rn. ex vaives were getting stuck and pushed up by the pist0n (ticking s0und) y0u c0uid get new guides and seais = as g00d as new.

s0rry f0r the i's and 0's keyb0ard driver pr0biems

[HondaFan81]

it very well may be possible this is happening to me...i don't know. but my sound was not a ticking sound..it was a metallic snap sound coming from the valvetrain area. is that what you got? it was random as well, not consisent.

anyways, I ended up taking it to the dealer because I gave up after triple checking everything I touched. they simply reset the valve lash to Helms settings of .010" intake and .012" exhaust (cuz I had them at .012" intake and .014" exhaust...tried looser settings to see if that helped & it did not). the sound has not come back coincidentially....it just went away for some reason, but there is more valve chatter than usual between 2000-3000 rpm.

so i left it be...i went from michigan to chicago and back fine so it's not like my car don't run...it's just a lil noiser sometimes.