Date:         Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:34:42 -0500
Reply-To:     Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Subject:      Different Kind Of Valve Adjustment Question?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

In my archival searches for information on adjusting the Vanagon 2.1
engine's valves, I see a plethora of information about setting them
at .006, setting them at 1/4 turn preload, 2 turns pre-load etc., but
those topics are covering fresh rebuilds that have never been started before.

I pulled my valve covers off last night to check valve clearances and
to my surprise, checking #3 first(cuz that's where the engine was
positioned, the exhaust must've had 1/16th of an inch of clearance
and the intake about half that.  A rainstorm pretty much has
precluded any further checking, but before I do any further
adjusting, I'd be curious as to  what the list thinks about the
following items that I've not seen discussed before:

1. With an engine that has 70-80k on it(Boston Bob rebuild if that
matters) what should the valve clearances or preload be?
2.  Should the valve clearances/preload be the same regardless of
whether the engine is hot or cold?
3.  Outside of sporadic driving of the van and high mileage, anything
else jump out at you that might be causing a preload/clearance shift
oft his magnitude?

Compression was like 115/108/105/120 from 1-4 and maybe a leak down
test is in order, but first, I'd like to get the clearance issue
solved before I go any further.

thank you very much in advance!!

DM&FS