Hi,

I'm putting my 3vze back together after I had a head gasket blow, and I'm at the point where I'm checking the valve clearance. I had to buy some new shims to get a few of them in spec, and now all but one are in spec. To be completely honest, I mixed up the buckets (lifters?) from the heads, which is where my problems started, but moving on...One exhaust valve is still out of spec with the thinnest shim installed, 2.500. The clearance is at .005, and the spec is .009 to .013.

My question is, can I just take that shim to a machine shop and have them grind it down to get it to be within spec, which would make it 2.494 thick? The only reason I'm asking is because that would make it smaller than the smallest one sold, and I have to assume they don't sell them thinner than 2.500 for a reason? But this seems like the simplest solution. Thanks.

 

Taking 6 or 8 thousands off it shouldn't hurt. I'd have them grind the back, not the wear face.

When I adjusted the valves on my '95, a friend with a precision surface grinder took down my few shims that were too thick.

 

I just found out that the shims actually go down to 2.2, so it shouldn't be an issue taking it down to what I need.