asneddon
Jul 27th, 2009, 10:39
A while ago I bought what looked like a nice tappet adjusting toy from here (http://www.frost.co.uk/item_detail.asp?productID=8086).
I finally got around to trying it out a week ago.
First I have to state why I wanted that tool.
When I bought the car it was very tappety, so I took it into the specialist to get everything looked at. This included new oils, general check out etc. One of the things I specified was to have the tappets looked at. They came back saying the cam was worn and I should fit a new one. I had them replace the C cam (this is an early P1800) with a D cam on their advice. The car then spent 6 months getting a full bare metal rebuild, so I didnt get a chance to try the engine for a while.
When I did pick the car up, it was just as tappety as before, even with the new cam. To start with I wasnt sure they had done the work I asked for, but I could tell the head had been off, as the head gasket was nice and clean compared to the rest of it (Also, its leaking oil now which it didnt use to).
I then had another specialist set the tappets, and he told me some of the rockers were worn, but not to worry too much as that happens on them. Fair enough, at least I didnt have to worry about it. I just had a car that sounds like a sewing machine.
Well, I decided to set them myself, so I bought that tool as linked. The blurb was:
Clikadjust tappet adjustment with micrometer accuracy. Adjusting tappets requires three hands – one for a spanner, one for a screwdriver, and one for feeler gauges. On top of this clumsiness, a feeler gauge blade cannot account for wear on the valve stem or tappet face, leading to inaccurate adjustment on older engines. CLIKADJUST sets all this right. This one tool makes the job easier and quicker than ever before, using audible clicks to correspond to thousandths of an inch clearance. You simply close the gap right up and then count the clicks as you open it again. Quicker and more accurate than the conventional method, and so saves time, petrol and power. Suitable for conventional tappets and pre 1968 Fords.
Well, it turns out this bit:
using audible clicks to correspond to thousandths of an inch clearance.
isnt quite true.
You first have to work out how many clicks it is from 26thou down to 16 thou (7 in my case). This is made hard by the fact that not all the clicks are audible. About 3 or the 7 clicks are nice crisp 'click', the other ones range from 'du' to a faint vibration through the handle.
Apart from that, and the general cheapness feel of the tool (which cost £33), it actually works very very well.
The first setup where you work out the clicks makes sense. You add 10thou to the setting you want (16 thou in my case). Then you adjust it down to the setting you want. ie, go from 26thou to 10thou. This ensures that the concave bit in the rocker face is taken into account as you are using the known flat on your feeler guages.
Then I went around the tappets twice to set them. After setting each one I tested with my feeler guages set to 16thou to make sure they all felt right. With two tappets I couldnt get the feeler guages in at all after setting the 7 clicks with the new tool. Rocking the rockers back and forth proved to me that they were still giving the same clearance as the rest though.
I put everything back together, and the next day I had a run to London for the day. The car is MUCH quieter, most noticably when at traffic lights or stuck in traffic on the M25
The car is still working nicely after about 200 miles of fast driving (she CAN do the ton (although the satnav said I was only doing 154Km/h, not the 160Km/h/100MPH the speedo indicated).
I only have a 'chuff' to get rid of, and a whistle from the Simons exhaust under light acceleration and I will be happy with the sound of this thing at last. I no longer feel like Im driving a sports car with a tractors engine. ;)
I would recommend this tool to anyone at about £10. At the £33 I paid I feel a bit ripped off, but then its less than the cost of an hours labour for a garage to do the work for you.
One other thing, you need to find a 1/2inch drive socket to suit (1/2 inch / 13mm). I bought a whole set of 1/2inch drive sockets from Argos for £12. Very impressed with them so far. They seem as well built as most brand name socket sets.
I hope someone finds this usefull.
I finally got around to trying it out a week ago.
First I have to state why I wanted that tool.
When I bought the car it was very tappety, so I took it into the specialist to get everything looked at. This included new oils, general check out etc. One of the things I specified was to have the tappets looked at. They came back saying the cam was worn and I should fit a new one. I had them replace the C cam (this is an early P1800) with a D cam on their advice. The car then spent 6 months getting a full bare metal rebuild, so I didnt get a chance to try the engine for a while.
When I did pick the car up, it was just as tappety as before, even with the new cam. To start with I wasnt sure they had done the work I asked for, but I could tell the head had been off, as the head gasket was nice and clean compared to the rest of it (Also, its leaking oil now which it didnt use to).
I then had another specialist set the tappets, and he told me some of the rockers were worn, but not to worry too much as that happens on them. Fair enough, at least I didnt have to worry about it. I just had a car that sounds like a sewing machine.
Well, I decided to set them myself, so I bought that tool as linked. The blurb was:
Clikadjust tappet adjustment with micrometer accuracy. Adjusting tappets requires three hands – one for a spanner, one for a screwdriver, and one for feeler gauges. On top of this clumsiness, a feeler gauge blade cannot account for wear on the valve stem or tappet face, leading to inaccurate adjustment on older engines. CLIKADJUST sets all this right. This one tool makes the job easier and quicker than ever before, using audible clicks to correspond to thousandths of an inch clearance. You simply close the gap right up and then count the clicks as you open it again. Quicker and more accurate than the conventional method, and so saves time, petrol and power. Suitable for conventional tappets and pre 1968 Fords.
Well, it turns out this bit:
using audible clicks to correspond to thousandths of an inch clearance.
isnt quite true.
You first have to work out how many clicks it is from 26thou down to 16 thou (7 in my case). This is made hard by the fact that not all the clicks are audible. About 3 or the 7 clicks are nice crisp 'click', the other ones range from 'du' to a faint vibration through the handle.
Apart from that, and the general cheapness feel of the tool (which cost £33), it actually works very very well.
The first setup where you work out the clicks makes sense. You add 10thou to the setting you want (16 thou in my case). Then you adjust it down to the setting you want. ie, go from 26thou to 10thou. This ensures that the concave bit in the rocker face is taken into account as you are using the known flat on your feeler guages.
Then I went around the tappets twice to set them. After setting each one I tested with my feeler guages set to 16thou to make sure they all felt right. With two tappets I couldnt get the feeler guages in at all after setting the 7 clicks with the new tool. Rocking the rockers back and forth proved to me that they were still giving the same clearance as the rest though.
I put everything back together, and the next day I had a run to London for the day. The car is MUCH quieter, most noticably when at traffic lights or stuck in traffic on the M25
The car is still working nicely after about 200 miles of fast driving (she CAN do the ton (although the satnav said I was only doing 154Km/h, not the 160Km/h/100MPH the speedo indicated).
I only have a 'chuff' to get rid of, and a whistle from the Simons exhaust under light acceleration and I will be happy with the sound of this thing at last. I no longer feel like Im driving a sports car with a tractors engine. ;)
I would recommend this tool to anyone at about £10. At the £33 I paid I feel a bit ripped off, but then its less than the cost of an hours labour for a garage to do the work for you.
One other thing, you need to find a 1/2inch drive socket to suit (1/2 inch / 13mm). I bought a whole set of 1/2inch drive sockets from Argos for £12. Very impressed with them so far. They seem as well built as most brand name socket sets.
I hope someone finds this usefull.