Fixing large (1.7mm) valve clearance gap

2 messages, Last post on Feb 03, 2009 at 11:19 AM

You are in the Toyota Sienna Forum. Your Host is Karens

What is this discussion about? Toyota Sienna, Scheduled Maintenance, Van

#1 of 2 Fixing large (1.7mm) valve clearance gap by wcpreston Jan 20, 2009 (11:22 pm)
I am checking/adjusting valve clearance on a 2000 Toyota Sienna (1MZFE engine, same as Camry). 23 or 24 valves are in spec, or close enough not to bother (the worst was .04mm off). But one has a gap of 1.7 mm! Since the largest shim that Toyota sells is 3.3mm, I can close the gap by only .47mm with stock shims, which is nowhere near the 1.35mm I need. I need a total of 4.28-4.4mm (2.93+1.7-.35), I was wondering about using a 1 mm shim with a 3.3mm shim on top of it. Is such a thing ever done? (The ring that holds the shim in place seems to be about 2.8 mm, so I don't see having two shims causing the shim to pop out as long as the first shim was short, like the 1mm shim I'm looking at using.) I was also wondering if there's anywhere I can get a 4.3mm shim online. You may be wondering about why there's such a big gap. I've examined the cam, and I find no rough spots or anything obvious and replacing the camshaft is even more work and another $200 part -- and I have no guarantee that the camshaft is the problem. It could be a deeper problem in the head that I'm not sure I want to tackle. Thoughts? Replies to this message: ateixeira (Feb 03, 2009 11:19 am)
#2 of 2 Re: Fixing large (1.7mm) valve clearance gap [wcpreston] by ateixeira Feb 03, 2009 (11:19 am)
Replying to: wcpreston (Jan 20, 2009 11:22 pm) You may want to replace the entire valve. Maybe it's worn? Poor oil circulation?