Re:Valve Adjustment

[TMurray845@domain.elided]

Once I was very annoyed by the noisy valves on my 91 Spider and talked it 
over with
other Alfa advisors.  I ran the engine up to normal running temp with many of 
the removable in the way parts already loose and I quickly pulled the valve 
cover and checked the clearances on the cam-follower.  When the engine was 
hot the clearances were more open..by quite a bit.. As the engine cooled the 
clearances decreased.  I was very surprised.  When the engine was dead cold, 
the adjustment was perfect.  
I am sure that others notice that when you first start your cold engine, it 
is fairly quiet with almost no valve noise, but as it warms, and after a hard 
track run, there is considerable valve noise.  This reinforced the idea that 
an engine is more vulnerable when cold, and that valves should only be 
adjusted when stone cold.  I can't really understand which parts actually 
expand to increase the clearances, but it is a substantial difference in 
measure.
I replaced the valve springs when doing the head rebuild, and the noise got 
much quieter .

Food for thought
Stan
91
86
67 Spider
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided