No intake valve clearance and very big exhaust valve clearance?

Joined
Sep 19, 2022
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
I acquired a 99 Legacy 2.5 GT with a bad timing belt. Up until that, it was driven for awhile on a blown head gasket.

I've been rebuilding it and am now reassembling the heads after having reinstalled them onto the block. The passenger side valve clearances are mostly all out of spec, but not by more than .003". The driver side ones are very off though. I can't even get my .001" feeler gauge into the intake side, and the exhaust side all have an actual visible gap of about ⅛".

I checked these all with the caps installed and torqued. The valves and cams are straight, and the valve seats and cam journals look unscathed. I thought maybe I'd mixed up the valve springs, but I think that would cause the opposite scenario to happen.

I'm wondering if anyone has seen this before or has any other ideas. Thanks
 
Last edited:
Were the valves or heads lapped or machined while they were off the engine? Even a few thousands of valve lapping will "move" the valve seat location slightly and change the gap. Pushrods all EXACTLY the same length? Even the new head gaskets, could be a few thousands thicker or thinner and change change the gap you are seeing.
As long as everything else measures out ok, which you say it does; I would set the valves to spec and drive it.
AMLOR
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
14,823
Messages
70,083
Members
8,391
Latest member
Eugène

Latest Threads

Back
Top