Anyone recently purchased valve shims for 3VZE and have a good source? The old places on the net seem to be drying up.

 

One possiblility for shims, I have not ordered from them but a member of the RV forum has. https://www.fastservsupply.com/searc...=valve%20shims

 

Tried the local Toyota dealer on the phone. Told me they did not carry them and could not get them. Seems odd?

 

A search with my '88 generates this https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/part...html?PNC=13753

And cross checking with other online sites shows them still available. Maybe try a different dealer?

 

Can you imagine? You're looking for parts for a 30 (THIRTY) year old truck, and they don't carry every little thing?

My local dealer doesn't carry them either, but I did get them from https://parts.lakelandtoyota.com/ (a dealer in Florida) The trick (of course) is shipping; so order every shim you are ever likely to need.

I came across a number of eBay sellers that were selling sets of four (all the same thickness). That's where you carefully plot out all of your valves and how much they are off. It's very likely that you can find four of a single thickness that will get all of your valves in spec.

 

I am not at all surprised that the dealer did not have them in stock.

However, I am surprised that they said they could not order them for you. My local dealers almost never have the parts I need in stock (except oil filters and spark plugs), but could always order parts that Toyota itself had available from one of its warehouses and were available to pick up within a couple of days.

I have found talking with the parts department in person at the dealer always helps in communicating exactly what part(s) I am looking for.

 

CS has really went to pot over the years, my Toy is a 93 and only 25 years old and already they do not stock parts for it, really sad

Of course the parts guy may be younger than my RV and not know what a valve shim is! I would have paid the extra to source the shims locally to get this back together but is not looking like that will happen.

Any experience in measuring shims? I found an online calculator which I tried, would appreciate if someone with experience could double check it for me.
Found an online valve shim calculator. Entered data for my first shim and shows I need a new shim of 2.63mm


http://www.maultechatv.com/techguide...ator/index.php


I entered recommended exhaust valve clearance of .013, measured valve clearance of .008, existing shim thickness of of 2.76 mm and it shows I need a new shim of 2.63mm.


Does this appear accurate or is there a better way?

I did find another online source but have lost the link.

 

Toyota OEM shims only come in .05mm / .002in thicknesses. Might have to get as close as you can to spec.

A little over a year ago I was able to order them through our local dealer. Cannot remember what I paid, think it was around 8-9 per shim. It can really help if your neighbor is the parts manager The one link you posted earlier seems to have good prices.

Can check someone like toyotapartsdeal.com and get the part #'s you need.

Cheers

 

This is a great source. Thanks for the info.

 

Who do you work for? NASA? Mixing inch and metric is going to work as well for you as it did for NASA . http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/99...ars.metric.02/ (They lost $125 million; YMMV.)

My feeler gauges are "actually" in metric, but they are labelled with both. So go metric.

The correct exhaust valve clearance is 0.22-0.32mm http://web.archive.org/web/201501160...e/64tuneup.pdf
Your .008" is .20mm (.008 * 25.4). To INCREASE the valve clearance you need to DECREASE the shim thickness. In your case, by 0.02 to 0.12. So you need to replace your 2.76mm with one between 2.74 and 2.64. (Very approximately, exhaust valve clearance tends to decrease slightly over time as the valve wears where it contacts the seat. So "picking" 0.32mm as your target is okay, but it only has to be in the 0.22-0.32mm range.)

Note the important lesson here; you have the choice of 6 different shims that you can use. If you can't get, say, 2.64, you can use 2.70. Or 2.74. Even more interesting: if you have 3 or 4 valves out of clearance, you can measure ALL of them, and by careful shuffling you might be able to get by with buying fewer shims, and possibly all the same size.

 

I must have got the wrong shim site, the list I found only shows .05mm increments?

 

Formula is NewShim = OldShim + MeasuredValue - TargetValue.

Best to do it all in metric as scope says. I'd convert the english feeler gauge measurements to metric first thing and then you can stay metric from there on out.

Here's a spreadsheet that will make this easy. Just fill in the cells in yellow with your information, and read the acceptable shim ranges in the green cells at the right. I've filled in the first two rows with sample information - change it to your values. Do NOT edit the cells in green!

 

Doh! You are correct; the increment is 0.05mm . So where I said "6" different shims, it's only 3. In your case, you probably need a 2.70 or 2.65. Over that smaller number of choices, you can still shuffle among the other valve shims.

 

Very sorry did not realize that you guys would have an issue switching back and forth from metric, none of the guys at the MENSA club have any issues with it.

Thanks for the spread sheet, will be put to good use, I like to double check everything when I do anything.

I found another online source for the shims at $7.50 each but lost the link, will have to find it again.

Thanks for the input, always greatly appreciated. Now if someone could drop by and show me how to use the tool that holds the bucket down it would really make my day.

 

for my 7m, it uses the same shims as what is used in a Yamaha 4 stroke motorcycle. I just went to my local Yamaha dealer and I measursed out what I needed from their containers and gave them the shims I didn't need in return.

Once again, that's for a 7m but they likely use the same shims as your engine.

Get everything measured at home, make a list of all the shims you need and take it with you to the Yamaha dealer.

 

I know it is a lot to ask, but if someone has the time to double check my numbers I would appreciate it. I believe I will need 5, 2.65mm shims and 1, 2.70.

 

After looking this over and deciding because of the difficulty of the job I wanted OE Toy parts I decided to purchase from the local dealer. Their list price was higher than what I found on the net and after a little whining they gave me the web list price. I paid about $21 more than I would have paid online plus shipping. But I asked and can return shims if I ordered the wrong size, which is possible. The order is for 6 shims 2 valve cover gaskets, 1 plenum gasket and 1 PVC valve and grommet.

 

$12.44 each from a brick-and-mortar store is an excellent price. If you want, give them a shout out here. You're not the only Toyota owner in Florida.

 

I did not just walk in and they gave me a $12.44 price. I had a list of part #'s along with internet retail price and internet discount prices next to them. So they were aware I knew I could get them cheaper online. Plus I seem to have a bit of luck at this and would not want someone to think they could just walk in and get that price.

It took a bit of negotiating (whining) to get the internet list price which was $12.44. I might have got the internet discount price of $11.22, but sometimes better to quit when you are ahead.

Give it a try at your local dealer. Worst they can say is get lost and ban you from the store.