kOHLER VALVE ADJUSTMENT

[Artpb]

Some of you may remember my posting about assembly lube for the Kohler K 181 I'm rebuilding. It's been taking a while because every time i start to put it back together I run into a problem, first the rings weren't gapped. back to the machine shop, charged me $10.00 to gap rings. Then I lost a shim for the camshaft, had to order, of cours on backorder, took 2 1/2 weeks to get!

Last night I sit down to reassemble. The machine shop reseated the valves and now I can't even get the feeler gauge to slip into the gap of .06 gap i'm suppossed to have! Ugh!!! So the valves have to come out and then back tp machine shop. What would happen if I ran it with the gap to small. looks to be close to .06 maybe .04

Oh well just needed to vent a little.

[modre]

>What would happen if I ran it with the gap to small<

when the engine comes up to operating temperature the metal expands a tad and decreases the gap...what would happen is the gap may diminish to 0 or beyond and the valves wouldn't seat fully causing low compression, backfires, and eventually wire draw the seats til they're ruined...that's why the gap spec is stated.

contrary-wise, if the gap's too wide it loses some performance and hammers causing premature wear on the valvetrain.

also, valves wear 2 ways...they wear the seats decreasing the gap, and wear the stem (cam or tappet) increasing the gap...due to the wear from both directions, they stay pretty much in spec.

also since the intake valve is cooled by fresh air/gas mixture, they run cooler than exhaust valves which is pure hot gases...that's the reason the spec will be something like:
intake .006"
exhaust .012"

[modre]

just reread your post...
if you're within a thousandth or so just lap the shim on a flat surface with some 300-600 grit wet or dry sandpaper...you can easily do that tiny amout by hand... and in reality a smidge this way or that doesn't mean that much...it will run...but while you're in there it doesn't hurt to take the extra step and get it as close as possible for best results and longevity.

[Ingersoll444]

There not adjustable?? My K321 has adjustable tappats, I figured they all were. If not, I would do what Modre says. Just give them a quick hone on a flat serfece. You realy could have gapped the rings also. A pretty easy prosess that normaly needs to be done on any rebuild.