By Robert Emslie
There once was a time when valve adjustment was about as common a part of a proper automotive maintenance regime as rotating the tires (cross-ways in an X!) or changing the oil. This maker considers it so vital that this is the most prominent maintenance instruction to be found under this particular car’s hood. Can anybody guess what car?
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Jeff Glucker
Austin-Healey 100.
Either a 100-6 or a 3000 — this is a BMC C-series six.
To the mid 90's I daily drove an MGB. I had to set the valves every other week and adjust the timing about every three days. All I needed was a flathead driver and a wrench. I'd work on it while listening to a ball game on the radio, drinking a cold beverage.
I'd almost get another MG to relive that…
Almost.
I set my valves once or twice a year if I've race it extra hard or driven long distances (multi-state-trips). Back in the old days before Payen composite head-gaskets it used to be a pain always re-setting valves & retorquing head bolts. Now most of that is a thing of the past.
Can't remember last time I actually touched the timing. It never changes if your hold-down bracket isn't totally boogered up and you pop in a Pertronix. Most of the brackets are bent though, usually from previous owners over-tightening through the years.
That's a big Healey valve cover. I one just like it covering the oily mechanical bits of mine.
And that, Bret Dodson, is why the English don't make computers*.
*They can't figure out how to make them leak oil.
But just imagine the limitless potential of a computer with wiring by Lucas!
Imagining it would be about all you could do, of course.
Actually Lucas did make computers, specifically the engine management systems in just about any car powered by a fuel-injected Rover V8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_14CUX
Which, for the most part, was/is great. Never had any trouble with my Range Rover, other than a shorted out injector wire. I really love the diagnostic display. If the check engine light comes on I can just reach under the passenger seat (Or get my passenger to reach under, which really confuses them) and read what number the trouble code is. I've memorized most of them. Code 17 – Throttle Position Sensor is a good friend of mine. No OBD adapter or fancy cables needed; it's always there if you need it. It really makes me wonder why modern cars can't just have a display to read you the code instead of needing OBDII readers.
The money game.
Actually, given all the pulley wheels for the paper tape, I wonder if Colossus might have actually leaked some oil from time to time…
Do you have to set it to .012 even when it was on .011 before?
I would say NSX, but because Honda, you only gotta set the valves every 100k miles or so.
my 07 Fit had its intake and exhaust gaps reverse at the factory. The only time I noticed it was after 100k in the extreme cold when the car would almost stall but would improve as the car warmed up. It's amazing what it's cpu was smart enough to compensate for.
The factory used a random number generator to set clearances in my wife's Civic. The car always sounded a little funny with a weird buzz midway up the rev range, but it worked fine. The buzz went away after I adjusted the valves.
Do modern cars require more strict tolerances? Adjusting valves on an '07 required it to be overnight cold (according to the honda tech)
I suspect it's mostly a matter of whatever the engineers considered to be a reproducible condition. For my first car, a '59 Ford with a Y-block 292, the final valve adjustment is with the engine not only brought up to full operating temperature but actually running at idle during the procedure. The only sensible way to do it is with a set of go/no-go gauges.
If I'm not mistaken, adjusting the valves on a Corvair also needs to be with the engine hot & running (hydraulically adjusted valves means this isn't necessary very often). Great fun with hot oil going everywhere on a boxer engine with the valve covers removed… Hence people slicing (an extra set of) valve covers in half so that the bottom half can stay in place and catch at least some of that oil.