Yota2k55

I just had a set of heads cleaned and I need to put the valve caps back on. The machinist is telling me that its going to be very difficult placing them correctly. Any ideas on how to make this job not so scary? The picture is of some bad heads I have that I plan to use for reference.

Wrenchinjoe

What do you mean by "valve caps"? Are you refering to the lifters and shims you have pictured, or do you mean the cam journal caps?

Either way you are supposed to lay those things out in the order they were removed during disassembly. Parts tend to "mate" together and you want to put them back together with their mated counterparts during reassembly.

MudHippy

Valve caps? Now that's one I haven't heard used before. Not quite sure what to make of it. Or what to make of what the mechanic means by "very difficult".

If the valves were removed from the heads prior to cleaning, then they should've been bagged/tagged for re-installation with their respective valve springs, spring seats, spring retainers, keepers, lifters, and adjusting shims. The camshaft bearing caps should've been kept seperate as far as their being for the LH or RH camshafts(they have numbers and arrows on them to tell you where/how they go on each head). Everything needs to go back where it was prior to disassembly. You can't go mixing/switching any of those parts around. If these procedures weren't followed, then "very difficult" doesn't even begin to describe it. It would be nigh on impossible to get everything back where it was. Way too many parts that look almost, if not totally, the same.

Anyways, the only tricky part to installing valves is getting the keepers set in their proper positions. You'll need a valve spring compressor, and a bit of patience. Sometimes when you release tension on the springs, instead of staying put, they'll pop out and go flying across the shop. If they do, you just need to track them down and start over. Nothing too difficult about it, but it can be frustrating.

Yota2k55

I apologize, I misunderstood the guy at the machine shop....and I am also still learning my mechanic skills haha. I was talking about the shims that are between the valves and the cam shaft. But it turned out he was talking about the bearing caps for the camshaft. Got all those put into the right location and took the heads back for resurfacing. NOW I need to put all the shim caps on correctly because I am too stupid to mark where everything is before pulling it all apart. So I basically have a fresh block, new heads, beautiful intakes....I am ready to go! Once again....sorry for the bad terminology haha.

Yota2k55

oh yea, by the way, thank you very much for the advice. Always helpful!

Yota2k55

Luckily the only thing I had to worry about was getting the camshaft bearing caps in the correct place (which I did, with help from my dad) I never took any of the actual valves out. I would be quite sad if I did all that wrong. Luck has been on my side

MudHippy

Oh, so just the shims then? Well, that's not so bad. It's not great, but it could be alot worse.

I dunno what approach to recommend. You've only got a 1-in-12 chance of getting any one shim back in it's original spot. So, I guess just throw them all on. Then bolt the cams on and check their clearances. Then you might have some idea which ones need thicker shims and which ones need skinnier shims. You should be able to swap them around to get some reasonable clearance numbers. Then again, this might be a good time to reset all the valve clearance specs. Meaning, replacing most, or all, of the shims and ordering new ones to put the valve clearance specs exactly where you want them to be. That might end up being the easiest/best route. But, who knows? You might get lucky some more, and not have too much trouble getting them set within the recommended clearance specs.

Good luck! You're gonna need it!

PS: If you're meaning the lifters too, you might be able to get away with mixing those up and still be alright. They should all be EXACTLY the same.