I'm in the middle of reassembling my 22RE rebuild. The long block is pretty much buttoned up. I went to set a baseline valve clearance and find I've got zero clearance on 7 of the valves. I'm using an Engnbldr 261 cam and had a local machine shop do a valve job. Could the valves be too long?

Also, I took the head, block, and crankshaft into the machine shop already apart. I did leave some studs and the hooks for removing the engine attached to the head. The machine shop removed all that and returned it in a bag. Included in the bag were 6 brass washers. I have no idea what they came off of. If there were 10, I would think they were to go under the lifter assembly, thus curing my no clearance issue.

 

So what exactly is the problem? You can't seem to get any clearance by adjusting them? Or you don't know how to adjust them for added clearance? You're not supposed to set/check the valve clearances while cold anyway, just so you know.

Those "brass washers" sound like valve spring shims. Used to correct valve spring tension. Maybe they were in there before, and are no longer needed since the valvetrain's been rebuilt.

Do they look like these?


BTW, they're not brass, they're hardened steel.

 

I know to adjust the clearance hot, but it should be somewhat close before I fire it up.

The problem is the adjusters are backed all the way out, the cam is on the base circle, and there is zero clearance between the rocker and valve tip.

The brass colored "washers" look similar to the photo, but are smooth.

 

I see. Well, that's not good. I'd take the head back to the shop and show them. Because they obviously didn't do something right. It could be that the valves are too long, or the valve seats were cut too deep(more likely). Either way, it doesn't sound like something you're going to be able to fix on your own. You can have them shorten the valves by grinding off a little bit from the top of the stems. That'd be the easiest fix.

Valve spring shims can be totally smooth too, but some(like the ones shown)only are on one side(the up facing side). If they're smooth on both sides, there is no "up" facing side.