Shimming the Camshafts

[4129R]

I needed a 56 thou shim for my inlet cam #1 valve, and that thickness isn't listed.

I had a 61 thou thick shim, so I carefully rubbed down the shim on emery paper until the required thickness was obtained.

It worked out about 100 rubs on 80 grade paper, per thou.

Then I cleaned it up a bit on 400 grade emery paper.

Job done on the inlet side. 2 shims now needed on the exhaust side which are thicker than ones I have got. 2 together were the right thickness, but for he sake of £3.00, I will buy the 162 thou thick one required.

You need a lot of patience to shim even an 8 valve head.

[EuropaTC]

56 thou is quite thin, I can't recall ever having any like that.  You can always take a few thou off the end of the valve, assuming you have the head on the bench and not on the engine. It's not so accurate as emery paper & shim but it might just get you into the region of shims you've got around.  Now you know why the collections of shims always go for£50 or more on Ebay - it's worth it just to have a chance of getting one that fits !

Brian

[4129R]

The head I am working on has a mixture of long valves with top hats, and shorter valves with disc shims.

The 56 thou was a top hat shim. I now need a 162 disc and 105 top hat to complete the re-shimming. A chat with QED later today should sort that out.

Putting the chain back on looks to be a challenge. Water pump, then head, then chain tensioner, then spring, then cam sprockets I think is the order.

I am actually building up two engines at the same time, 1 that I took apart which had siezed pistons and needed new cylinder liners and pistons, and the other which came in the container with bits missing, and wasp filled holes in the block and head.

I just hope that I cleared all the mud and wasps from the oilways, or the engine will sieze up quickly.