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Hello
I want to do a valve Adjustment on my car. But when I rotated the Engine to TDC with the plugs out. I noticed that the rear camshaft sprocket was off about half a tooth. And the crankshaft pulley timing mark was not lining up. I had the dealership do my Timing Belt. Because at the time I didn’t have my Factory Helmic Honda manuals or tools. I wanted to go back to the Honda dealer and explain to them that I found out my Timing Crankshaft pulley timing mark was not lining up. But I cant now because the timing belt was done 2 years ago. And only now I’m finding out that the crankshaft pulley along with the rear camshaft timing sprocket don’t line up. the rear cam timing mark is off about half a tooth.I’m guessing the crankshaft pulley is only installed wrong and not the Crankshaft Timing sprocket that’s what I’m hoping the Honda Technician did. So basically decided not to do my valve adjustment. Until I figure out what to do But my car really needs it. Because my car has 135k miles and has never had the valve adjustment done on it. I just really want to do my valve adjustment to have piece of mind. Knowing they will be good for another 100,000 miles or before they get noisy again.
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I don’t recommend valve adjustments for the novice, especially on Honda V6’s unless there is an issue of some kind like a noisy valve train. That said, timing marks don’t always line up perfectly. Timing belts are designed to be ‘hunting’ meaning they don’t allow the belt to contact the same place on the same sprocket every revolution. For this reason timing marks never line up directly. Your timing may be fine. Without seeing it for myself I really couldn’t say but if you aren’t experiencing any performance problems, it’s probably OK.
actually im having a bit of a performance issue when at idle. I feel the car has a little bit of what feels like a misfire. Not enough for the PCM to pick it up. I don’t know its there and is not supposed to do that. maybe a a valve is hanging up just bit. so that’s why I worry. just don’t want to worry about burning a valve. Because I checked the clearance on the valves when I replaced the valve cover since I had the valve covers off. exhaust was tighter then intake was. and was going to do the adjustment for the valves but decided not to because of the Timing marks. on the crankshaft pulley and rear cam shaft sprocket. I don’t know I do things by the book
Grab a vacuum gauge and see if you have anything like in scenario’s 5-12 on this site
http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm
That might give you incite to any valve related worries.I know Honda’s Owner’s Manuals advise us to adjust valves if they’re noisy.
And this makes perfect sense to me if the valve train’s clearance becomes excessive, and there’s a tapping when this clearance is rapidly taken up.
However, the odds are pretty good that valves will go out of adjustment with decreasing clearance. What is the source of the noisiness when valve clearances are smaller than specification?
I’m probably going to do the valve Adjustment on my car before It hit’s 140,000 miles. Because I don’t want it to go that long with out one. Even though I have seen some Honda J series V6 engines go with out a valve Adjustment for along time. so I’m going to remove the Crankshaft pulley and check to see if the Crankshaft pulley Timing marks line up with the Marks on the oil pump. When I put the engine At TDC. like I said before I rotated the engine following firing order and it was lining up with each mark on the front camshaft sprocket. so I know That’s where it supposed to be. It’ just the crankshaft pulley timing marks that where off completely. so Ill remove it to verify if at least the crankshaft sprocket is lined up. so I can have more peace of mind when I do the adjustment. Thought I would give a update to this thread.
If you feel better adjusting the valves then get yourself a Honda manual and follow the procedure to the “T”.
If you get the timing mark on the crankshaft pulley lined up perfectly at TDC I think you will find that the camshaft timing marks off at least half a tooth. Any more than one tooth needs to be corrected but if one or both cams are off less than a tooth then your hair and teeth will fall out before you will align them perfectly.Just my opinion and experience.
I have had the Honda Factory service Manuals for quite some time now and that I follow them exactly how there are written. the only reason is that I’m just doing the Valve Adjustment to help smooth out my cars idle. Also I have been knowing that one of the camshafts Timing marks specially on the rear bank is off half a tooth. But it was like that way before the dealership did my Timing belt. So I don’t worry about that. its just the crankshaft pulley is off but I look in to it and see what I find. Thanks for the reply
Tight exhaust valves and loose intake valves is the norm with that engine. I can’t stress enough how you may be in over your head on this one. Get it wrong, and your idle will be really bad, your engine may be noisy, or worse yet, you might burn out a valve. What you describe is normal for that engine. I would leave well enough alone. If not, be prepared to do the job more than once because that’s the way it goes for most novices. I think you’re better off practicing on a few 4 cylinders first to get a feel for it. Valve adjustments are more of an art than anything. It’s an acquired skill that takes time to develop. If your valves aren’t noisy, I would leave them be.
That said, your idle issue could be caused by the cam being off as you suspect. I’ve actually done a video on the process of replacing that belt. It can be found here.
The video does show how to line up the marks as well as were they should be when the engine is in time. As I said earlier, timing belts don’t usually line up perfectly, so be sure that it is indeed off before you dive in. Good luck.
I don’t consider my self a novice actually more a intermediate person when it comes to Automotive Technology I learned a lot from my dad before he passed away. so He explained a lot about the Honda J series engine. specially this one so I know what to expect from adjusting the valves if I mess up which will not happen. And I have done valve adjustments on 4Cylinder engines before the K series engine. I do have to say it was a lot easier to do because I don’t have to remove so much to get to the valves and adjusting them. only 16 vs 24 so yea. But that L4 engine had over 195K miles on it.
Its just the concern about my engine being 135K on it. And has never had a valve Adjustment done on it so I’m looking in to it. But Thank You for the information you truly are the Greatest Automotive Technician there is Eric. I’ll report back on what I find but first I’m still working on fixing the Roof lining leak I Have starting to think it isn’t the Drain tube.
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