jason191918

So my valve covers are leaking like no other, so I decided that I should probably do something about it. While under there, I decided that I may as well adjust the valves. Is this very difficult? I have paged through a chilton and fsm. Take it I should go to Toyota and buy the SST's?

So far I have the valve cover gaskets, and upper intake gasket, and plan on getting the cold start injector. (No EGR=No EGR gasket.)

Am I going to have to measure my gaps, then order the shims, then wait a week?

Thanks in advance.

zlathim

From what I've been able to gather on here, Toyota doesn't necessarily stock or even sell all of the SSTs needed for maintenance. I'd look for aftermarket tools. On the job you are doing, you need a tool that will compress the valve springs just enough to remove the shims. A magnet works well for fishing the shims out of the bucket. or you could just remove the camshafts, but that is a ton of extra work because all of the valve timing components need disassembled first ( timing belt, etc).

You will need to measure (as accurately as possible) the valve clearances and record them. Then you need to remove each shim and measure and record. Then you can use the charts in the FSM to determine which shims you need. Dealerships usually have a selection of shims on hand, but if you need 5 or 6 of the same sized shim they may not have enough. I had to go to 2 different dealerships to get all the shims I needed.

Keep in mind that a shim may not be correct for a particular valve, but it may be just right for a different valve. You may be able to swap a few existing shims to gain the correct clearances, thereby saving yourself a few bucks on shims. They are approximately $6-$8 each(IIRC), so reusing a few will definately help out.

jason191918

I have a feeler gauge that said it was for valve tappets that has .008, .01, .012, .013, .014, .015, .016, .018, .019, .020, and .026. Is that sufficient? I also have a 6" calipers.

zlathim

That may be sufficient, but IIRC, the chart in the service manual shows clearances to the ten-thousanth (.0001) so you will need to apply some guesstimation. The .008 may no be small enough if your valves are too tight. I remember finding clearances of about .005 or so. You may want to pick up a new set of feelers, just to be safe. I have not purchased any lately, but they can't be too expensive.

The calipers should work fine, as long as they are accurate. Are they the digital ones that show metric and english? If they only show measurements in english of course you will need to convert to metric in order to use the charts.

jason191918

The calipers show english, metric, and fractional english (digital). The english is down to .0005 and the metric is down to .01.

zlathim

They should be sufficient. Have you had a chance to look at the charts in the FSM? They will give you an idea of how things are going to work when you make the measurements.

jason191918

Yes I have looked through it.

abecedarian

I'm just gonna throw this out there-
for the time and trouble wasted, having a shop adjust the valves would probably be the better option. it's not something that needs done often and the investment from a pocketbook standpoint can be quite a bit. if you were maintaining a fleet of these engines, then maybe it's worth it but otherwise, I don't feel it is.

jason191918

Couple reasons why I am doing this.

1. Valve cover gaskets need to be done.
2. Has about 300,000 miles on it.
3. Slight lifter ticking.
4. Refuse to take it in.

Jay351

Let me know how it goes, I need to change out my drivers side gasket ( only 1.5 years on them..wtf) .. Looks easier then the passenger side though

jason191918

Well I decided to just do the gaskets and be over with it (partially because I don't want to screw up the valves, and partially because the nearest stealer is about 2 hrs away).

It went without a hitch and pretty smoothly. Took about 6 hrs.

Once the upper intake is off they are both pretty easy, and the upper intake isn't that hard to get off either. Just make sure you label/take several pics of the vacuum lines before and during disassembly.

Make sure you have the valve cover gaskets, upper intake gasket, EGR gaskets (if you still have EGR), and cold start injector gaskets or crush washers.

Also, make sure you relieve the pressure in the cooling system before you disconnect the TB coolant lines (unless you like the taste of antifreeze....mmmmmmmmm)

Here are some pics:





(Notice how there is coolant on the hoses here...oops)







Here is the coolant line that attacked me...(bottom left)

Jay351

Haha, when I did my throttle body gasket I spilled coolant EVERYWHERE out of that damn hose...

zlathim

Good job. It sure is satisfying to complete a repair yourself and save some money. Gaining the experience and confidence from a job well done is cool too.

I like the fact that you realized the limit of your situation and only tackled what you knew you could handle under the circumstances. I'm not saying that you wouldn't be able to handle doing the valve adjustment, but you were smart enough not to open a can of worms that was better left unopened. Bravo!

jason191918

Thanks!