[Mgs] tappet question

[PaulHunt73]

Depends on the figure you used.  Workshop Manual quotes 15 thou, cold.  I don't like hot as the engine is continually cooling while I'm doing it.  I use 14 thou which is loose and 16 thou which is lightly pinched so I can get a better feel for it as I only check them very rarely.  As far as I know it really only makes a difference if the engine gets so hot that the gaps close up and you get combustion seepage past not quite closed valves, which burns them.  Any loss of performance is only secondary.

In the early years not only did I find I was adjusting them every year, sometimes opening them and sometimes closing them, but also getting repeatable gaps from one turn of the engine to the next was a problem.  Then I discovered that at the strict rule of nine (RON) points, several of the valves were still changing gap.  Some of them had the biggest gap before RON and some after.  Since discovering that perhaps 15 years or go or more I've never had to alter them until I changed the head gasket last year, so hadn't been checking tem every year anyway.

PaulH
  ----- Original Message ----- 

  When I went to reset the tappet clearance, I found the old settings rather sloppy. I reset them so that the gauge was snug - it slid in but it definitely tight. Which is correct? I know that it makes a difference on performance and full combustion. Yes, I did the checking while hot.
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