4-cyl valve adjustment

[hursst]

Does anyone know of any good references regarding valve adjustment on the early 4-cyl? I'm a beginner with engines, but the info in the original owner's manual appears to be a little vague. Is it just a matter of putting cyl 1 at Top Dead Center, making the factory adjustments according to the manual and repeating the same procedure with cyl's 2, 3, and 4, or is there more to it? How do I rotate the engine to get the piston exactly at T.D.C. ? Thanks for any help!

[hchris]

Does anyone know of any good references regarding valve adjustment on the early 4-cyl? I'm a beginner with engines, but the info in the original owner's manual appears to be a little vague. Is it just a matter of putting cyl 1 at Top Dead Center, making the factory adjustments according to the manual and repeating the same procedure with cyl's 2, 3, and 4, or is there more to it? How do I rotate the engine to get the piston exactly at T.D.C. ? Thanks for any help!

First up we know the firing order goes 1 3 4 2, this then is the easiest sequence to adjust the valves in.

In order to get each piston at TDC to carry out the valve adjustment, it is probably easiest to refer to the distributor rotor position as a guide, rather than timing marks.

If you understand that the distributor rotor will be pointing to the appropriate spark plug lead, as each cylinder fires in sequence, then its a "close enough" method of locating each piston at TDC.

So at the distributor cap, first determine which plug leads connect to 1 3 4 and 2 spark plugs, now remove the spark plugs so as to easily turn the engine over with crank handle, or you should be able to turn by hand using the fan and belt; you now need to establish that the engine has to be turned clockwise, as viewed from the front, to carry out the next steps.

To begin, hand turn the engine to a position where the distributor rotor points to the #1 plug lead on the distributor cap and the contact points are open, obviously with the cap fitted you cant see this, so beforehand put an external mark (pencil, chalk, whatever) on the body of the distributor adjacent #1 plug lead position and then mark the other 3 as well.

Now with the engine positioned at #1 TDC, as determined by the rotor, you can adjust the valves to specs; next turn the engine in clockwise direction until #3 is in position, adjust valves and progressively move on to #4 and #2.

Job done :)

[hursst]

hchris,

Thank you very much for the tips. I will try this within the next 2 weeks when I get some time. I really appreciate it!

-Chris

[Steve Braverman]

There is a small plug in the head over #1 piston. If you remove the plug, you can insert a tool to see when the piston is at TDC.

[hchris]

There is a small plug in the head over #1 piston. If you remove the plug, you can insert a tool to see when the piston is at TDC.

Yes right on the money Paul and some have timing marks on the flywheel, unfortunately it only indicates for one cylinder, good for setting the timing but doesnt help finding TDC for the other cylinders

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[Guest Monaco]

There is a small plug in the head over #1 piston. If you remove the plug, you can insert a tool to see when the piston is at TDC.

Steve,

I'm not 100% sure, but as far as I know, this plug is over #4 Piston (Model PA 1931). This engine also got timing marks on the Flywheel to LH side engine mount (near the Generator), quite hard to see.

[Guest DodgeKCL]

Yes the plug is over #4 or #6 depending on your engine. And the flywheel marks are devilish hard to see. The best method is hchris's. My only problem has always been how do you adjust them "hot". The instructions always say that. But how do you do it? I always adjust them at "room temperature" and keep the feeler gauge "tight" so that as they expand with heat, the gap closes a bit. This keeps them from being noisy. I don't think,and I have never found in my experience, that they will burn from being too tight. We just don't drive the engine hard enough or fast enough.