When adjusting the valve lash on the 3VZe is it best to try and hit the middle ground on the specs if possible? I know allot depends on what shims are needed as they come in .05mm thickness increments.

IE: Intake .007 - .011in so try and hit .009in if possible.
IE: Exhaust .009 - .013in so try and hit .011in if possible.

Cheers

 

Middle ground is Ok for the intakes, but max would'nt hurt. They don't close up too fast.

Best to shoot for the high end on the exhausts for sure.

When I last adjusted mine, a friend with a surface grinder custom milled my tight shims to size.

 

So the exhaust has a tendancy to close up over time? Does the exhaust valve eat into the exhaust seat?

The shims appear to be made of some pretty hard metal, although my one missing cam lobe did manage to wear a spot down on that particular shim.

Slowly, very slowly getting it back together.

 

Yes, the exhaust valves recede into the seats, effectively tightning the lash over time,

and to a lesser degree, the hot valve stems can stretch slightly, causing more of the same.

Ya, those shims are near hard as glass, but the carborundum wheel on the surface grinder took em.

I just cut the backs so the polish the cams had made wasn't disturbed.

 

So I will try and get the intakes in the .007- .009 range, and the exhaust in the .011 - .013 range if at all possible, depending on the .05mm increment on the shims. Does that sound pretty good?? It really would nice if had I something capable of cutting them down to hit that "spot on" mark. Thanks millball!!!


Cheers

 

I have heard tight on the intake side and lose on the exhaust side but i do not have personally experince with it. I think this is to help prevent the exhaust valves from burning but once again it's only info in passing.

 

And for the thickness I think they go up 0.002 inch per shim. Some one correct me if I am wrong.

 

I haven't done the conversion cbr but they go up in .05mm steps. I don't think I made that very clear in my earlier posts. From what I can find they start at 2.20mm and go to 3.40mm.

 

.05 mm is just short of .002 in.

.05 mm = 0.0019685039370078 in.

 

Ohhh i see. My mistake.

 

Pretty sure you got it right cbr, .05mm or .001968in, so unless one has a huge gap, the difference between .002in and .001968in is not going to matter. I wrote it wrong @ .005 in one of my posts when it should have been .05mm. I'm thinking it would be better to do all the measurements in mm's to eliminate the confusion of conversion since the shims are based on mm's. I'm old school and almost always used solid lifter cam setups back in the day, and we always used in's, hard to break old habits.

 

If any body needs to trade shims let me know. The way things are looking I am going to be buying some from Toyota $$$$.

 

My (excellent) local dealer charges about $20 each. Online, they're about 1/2 that, but then they have to ship them to you. http://parts.lakelandtoyota.com/prod...earchTerm=shim Money-wise, you come out ahead with about two or more. In either case, you'll probably have to wait, but my dealer gets them shipped in in about 2 days; it takes about a week for me to get them from Florida.

 

Wow. My yota dealer is $8 per shim. I felt like that was expensive.

 

Indeed they are in those increments and Toyota gets $8.88/ea for the darned things. And the specs you have arrived at are acceptable.

 

Depending on what shims you need I have 16 extra shims in a wide range of sizes just sitting in the shop. If you know what size you need just message me.

 

It has been awhile, but finally was able to order new shims and get them installed. Measured everything again and all my intakes came out really nice at .008in or .20mm. So I am in the lower side of the specs @ .007-.011in or .18-.28mm.

The exhausts on the other hand are still a little wonky. I was trying to hit somewhere around .30-.32mm on the exhausts. Spec being .009-.013in or .22-.32mm
I have two of them at .013in or .33mm. Should I leave well enough alone or go up one shim on those which would bring them down to .011in or .28mm?
I have one at .010in or .25mm, so I could go down one shim on that one and bring it up to .012in or .30mm
So on the exhausts I have
1 @ .25mm
3 @ .30mm
2 @ .33mm

Unfortunately a number of the old shims I had to work with were not in the best of shape and I was getting some odd thickness measurements with my calipers, IE not in .05mm increments.

 

Where did you order the shims from? I called 4 shops today that said they specialize working on foreign cars{toyota,honda,etc}
One wouldnt work on anything older then 96,one hasnt called me back and another one said Toyota doesnt sell the shims anymore 2 shops told me dont worry about doing it unless its giving you trouble.I have a 91 with the v-6 bought used with 124,000 miles on it,dont know if valves have ever been adjusted.

 

Adjusting the valves on a 3.0 isn't impossible , but it does require quite a bit of work. It's nothing like push rod / rocker arm heads. I suggest (if you really want to do it) pull the valve covers off and run some feeler gauges in there. See what you find. Most likely the valves have worn and they are getting tight, but if it's not running bad or giving you issues. It might be smart to just leave it alone. It's all about your preferences.

 

Ordered them from our local dealership. They definitely are not discontinued. Cannot recall price per shim, but I think approx. 8 to 9 dollars per shim.
There are a number of online stores where they can be ordered also.