Valve Adjustment with pictures!

[Afopto]

I understand "not the head" for valve adjustment. But how can I know if I have toasted a valve?

[Rick92040]

After your valve adjustment if it still isn't right run a compression test.

[Alaskan_Toaster]

Just an update, now that it's cold again, on the valve job I did a few months ago. Had the dreaded stalling issue when cold. Even with the E left outside while at work, ABSOLUTELY no stalling issues whatsoever!! FWIW, I HIGHLY recommend this at/above recommended mileage, or if you're having any of the issues listed in this thread. It's a little of your time (or wallet) in trade for many years of savings.

[Afopto]

Vale adjustment!!! What a magic procedure! Problem solved and runs like it was new! (well, like it did when I purchased at about 90000). :)

If you have not done this and you are over 110,000 and having any misfire, no power, running poor issues...then do it or get it done.

Every single exhaust valve was somewhere below the low normal of .011. Most of them I could not even get a .06 or .05 in. Adjusted to a tightish .013 and they are happy. Only one intake needed attention.

Other than that, the drawings/pictures on this thread were incredibly helpful, especially the schematics from Hondatech illustrating the TDC for all cylinders and firing order. Took just under 3 hours and was very straight forward

[Duckbill]

So how do you know if you did a good valve adjustment? Simple answer is: if you hear tap, tap, tap, you likely misadjusted your valves like I did. I have been adjusting valves on Honda, Toyota, and Nissan cars for "gasp", almost 40 years (motorcycles even longer) so I expected my Element to be a piece of cake! Ha, that did not happen. After I misadjusted my valves using straight feeler guages on my 2010 E with 33k, it sounded like a farm tractor. I thought I adjusted intakes to .009 and exh to .012. I was shocked, and for reference listened to the valves on my 95 civic with 256k and they were quiet. My neighbor has a 2010 CRV (same engine)with 20k and again very quiet. Wow!! So, I bought the bent feeler guages and and re-adjusted intakes to .008 and exh to .012 and it was 95% better. I could hear only one valve still tapping; I rechecked it for a third time. One intake valve was loose, maybe I missed it, and 2 other intakes were slightly loose. All is quiet now. I did adjust the valves when they were stone cold and recorded my findings on paper. My logic is that I adjused the exh valves on the wide end of the range because they get tighter with mileage. Intakes seem to be much more stable and my set of bent guages did not come with a .009. It is amazing how quiet the engine is when the valves are adjusted properly. No more tap, tap, tap (I could even hear them inside the E). This was quite a learning experience for me! Just for reference: I think half of my exh valves were in the .007 to .008 range when I started my inital adjusment.

[HondaFan81]

FYI, my wife's 2003 Element 5MT had valves inspected/adjusted at 108K miles and then I just checked them at 202K miles. I figured they needed to be adjusted because she was getting the inconsistent, 500 RPM idle issue on occassion and I learned through this forum that it was due to needed valve adjustment.

At 202K miles, all intakes were within spec .009-.010 inches. However, all the exhaust valves were .007 inches! Needless to say, I adjusted them all to .012 inches. I just performed this couple days ago and will let you know if we have the 500 RPM idle issue occur again, so far no.

[Kinger]

How tight are the adjuster lock nuts supposed to be?

[Rick92040]

I would be very difficult to use a torque wrench when adjusting the valves. Never even thought about it.
It will give you a clue how much to tighten them when you see how tight they are to loosen.

[jsitar]

According to the 2008 Shop Manual. Intake nuts are torqued to 15 ft. lbs, exhaust nuts are torqued to 10 ft. lbs. Apply clean engine oil to nut threads before torquing.

[Kinger]

Yeah I don't know how you would TQ them easily either. BTW I did the adjustment a few weeks ago, just wanted to make sure it wasn't something crazy. I don't do it often but I just winged it that time and went by feel.