I have a stock 22r. I just got it smogged and it passed with flying colors. I brought it home and thought it would be a good idea to do a tune up. I replaced the plugs, wires, cap and rotor. After that it ran fine. Then, I decided to adjust the valves. They were all way too tight. I adjusted them to factory specs. Now the engine knocks really loud. Should I tighten up the valves back to where they were since it was running better that way? Any thoughts on what I could've screwed up in the process to make it start knocking?

 

not sure if this is what you did...but the first time I adjusted the valves I screwed up and adjusted them to thousands of an inch, not thousands of a millimeter..it was loud as heck than did a and pulled my head out of my butt

 

I am thinking the same thing. I actually just about did the same thing. I was in the middle of adjusting all the valves and was complaining that they were all super super tight and I couldn't believe they were needing that much adjustment. Then my buddy asked me why I was using the inch tool and not the mm tool........ turned out they were only slightly off and had been adjusted recently

 

I did use the inch measurement but it has both the metric and standard size on the feeler gauge. 2big4, mine were super tight too when I was adjusting them. So I backed them off and adjusted them to what I thought were to specs. The manual says, intake: .008in or .2mm and exhaust: .012in and .3mm. On my feeler gauge it says, .008in, .203mm and .012in and .305mm. So do you guys think that little bit is enough to give me the problems I'm having?

 

did you adjust then hot or cold?

those specs are for adjusting hot... they'll tick if you set them there cold.

 

I adjusted them hot. I just got done about an hour ago. The valves sound a lot better but the knocking is still there. I read somewhere that if you have the wrong spark plugs, it'll make the engine knock too. Is that true?

 

if you overtighten the valve cover it will ride on the valvetrain,making a knocking sound.try loosening the valve cover bolts while its running and see if it quiets down.

 

Cman, I think you may have just solved all of my problems! I cranked down on that valve cover like there's no tomorrow. I'll loosen it up a bit and let you know if that fixed the problem. Thanks for the advice.

 

Yeah, only tighten the valve cover enough to keep it from leaking oil! Not very tight at all!

Good call cman

 

spend $15.00 and put a new valve cover seal kit in,i usually go finger tight,then half a turn,font forget to seal your half moon edges.

 

Half moon wedges are sealed. I did what you said, cman. Sure enough, I could hear the knocking get quieter as I loosened the valve cover bolts until it completely stopped. I went ahead and ordered new valve cover seals so I'll be replacing those as soon as they get in. Thanks again for the help. Crisis averted.

 

thats what we do here...