I just looked it up in the manual, and they call for: Intake .20-.25, or .008" to .010" Exhaust .30 -.35 and .012 to .014" HTTH Kermit
Looks right to me - also bear in mind the shims come in .05 thickness as a minimum. FWIW I had the clearances on my 328 checked a couple of months ago at 31K. Only 3 out of 32 were out of spec & then by not more than 0.03 at the most. I.
Thanks for the response. I'm having a major service done on my 3.2 Mondial, and interestingly, every one of my exhaust valves presently check out at .016 to .017. The clearances are so uniformly off that I almost questioned if the mechanic had read the acceptable clearances correctly (his figures match yours). The only thing I can figure is that they were incorrectly set during the PO's last service........any other explanation on how all 16 could have been off by nearly the same amount?
Nice even engine wear ?? : FWIW the three of mine that were out were also a tad wide. When it was being done they told me that they hardly ever find any major issues with valve clearances & that even if there are valves out of spec its never more than a 2 or 3 & never by more than 1-2 shims at most. Its possible yours were all set quite wide at the factory. How many miles are on the car - have the clearances ever actually been set before? You are uniformly 1-2 shims out so I wouldn't worry too much about it - what do the intake's look like?
My 328 has about 40K miles and when I checked the clearances a few were at max limit or just over. I left them as is, a few thousandths over is not a big concern. Tight clearances is more of a concern so I wouldn't want to go under the min manual limits.
Remember to check the condidtion of the shim, not just the clearances. It's quite common for shims to have wear. Also consider changing the camshaft oil seals and seal housing O rings.
Thanks for the suggestions. One explanation someone locally offered was carbon buildup.....ever heard of buildup on either the valve or the seat being significant enough to cause a uniform clearance condition? I suppose it's plausible, but I would think unlikely (unless someone consistently ran it on 70 octane fuel for years LOL!)
Am in the middle of a major on a 328. Decided to double check the WSM to make sure that the 328 valve clearance (aka valve lash) specs were the same as the 4v & 2V engines (ie: intake 0.20-0.25 mm, Exhaust 0.30-0.35mm.) Discovered a miss-match on the WSM exhaust valve clearance specs for the 328: The 308 QV/328 manual's text says 0.30-0.35mm, but the figure shows 0.40-0.45! The 3.2 Mondial manual text & spec table both say 0.40-0.45mm. All the other 3x8 manuals say 0.30-0.35mm for exhaust. What are the professionals out there using?
Good catch. They did change the spec but the books were a little slow in changing. I have used both as an experiment on the later cars and found no difference and have settled on using factory spec .4-.45 for 3.2. TR also uses the larger ex #. I think if you look at the emission label under the hood all (at least US) 3.2 say .4-.45.
CORRECTION: The new spec is: 0.35-0.4. Sorry about Possible future confusion, was in a rush & my fingers were faster than my aging brain. Rifledriver, Tnx . btw, the 86 328 w/36k mi had 2 intake & 2 exh out on rear bank, & only 1 exh out on front bank.
YES!!!! When I did the valves on my 348 I mic'd every shim. Even though the values are printed on the back of the shim, each shim is different. For example, if the shim is stamped 4.15 and then you measure it with a micrometer it could actually be 4.1487 or 4.1522. It seems that they will round to the nearest hundreth. So just that little different in the shim thickness can make your valve adjustment too tight or too loose.
You are correct I was parroting your #'s and we both got it wrong. The only thing I know that is over .4mm is Daytona exhaust. Teach me not to proof read.
I don't think you were experiencing wear as Phil was warning about. The production tolerences for shims have varied quite a bit over the years. The old shims with the white numbers had an almost infinite variety, with no size gaps from one size to the other. So if you wanted to take the time you could, by selecting the correct shim make your valve clearence exactly any size you wanted. The newer shims with the black writing are far more consistant and are usually quite close to the number printed on it. The wear Phil was speaking of will cause the shim to be dish shaped with the outer 3mm or so around the circumference to be untouched.
The shims I used did have the black writing on the back. Yes they were close, but maybe 1 out of 8 measured to what was printed. Wouldn't you know it, those would be the shims I didn't need. I had to go to three different places before I got the correct thinkness needed. I mic'd every single one, and not one was the same. As a matter of fact, I did use a couple of shims that were "pretty close" and then when I rechecked my cam clearances, those were the ones that were either too tight, or too loose. So I had to redo them. After that I took the extra time to find the shim that was exactly what I needed. I know that you can have the gaps anywere inbetween the values, but I wanted mine as dead on as I could get them, and as even as possible. I tried to get them as close to the highest value of the spec without going over it. Maybe I'm just picky that way. What ever the case I still think it's better to mic each shim, because they won't be the same. But you don't have too.
