B230F Valve Shim and Husher Replacement --timing is everything!

I am whooped! My 740 ALMOST kicked my butt. Almost.

Yesterday my parts came in so I went to work. My distributor and rotor were already off so I pulled the valve cover off, took off the timing belt from the cam sprocket, pulled the sprocket (thank goodness for impact wrenches), pulled the camshaft off, removed the valve keepers and shims.

I was able to see that I had 4.025mm original shims on all cylinders - barely able to read the numbers. I remeasured all shims and they all checked. I replaced the shims - lubing them all well, and then dug out the old hushers (3 were gone, the rest were hard and brittle). I replaced all hushers and then replaced the valve keepers and new shims.

I reinstalled the camshaft, not replacing the front seal because it was practically new. I torqued everything to spec and replaced the valve cover with a new gasket.

I realigned the cam sprocket to TDC and replaced the timing belt. When I went to start the car it was clunking, started and ran rough. HMMMMMM.

After a good bit of thinking I realized that I had turned the fan and moved the crankshaft out of TDC - so the cam and crank were not in synch. The cam was 180 degrees off. I removed the belt, got the cam and crank both to TDC and then she started and ran so quietly and smoothly.

But the oil was leaking from the front oil seal - I didn't seat it. So, I pulled the timing belt off again, and the sprocket again, and seated the oil seal. I replaced everything again.

Now the car won't start. HMMMM. I pulled the plugs, they were wet with gas. No spark. Again I pulled the timing belt and saw that again the cam and crank were out of synch. I didn't align everything TDC when I pulled off the cam sprocket. So I aligned everything again - started the car and VROOOM -- ran nicely, VERY quiet, no oil leaks.

But the timing belt was loose and wobbly. I loosened the tensioner, only to find that when I had used Channel Lock pliers to compress the spring, the tensioner stuck a bit and wasn't tensioning. When I adjusted this -- all was well and the engine ran beautifully.

So am I done? Nope. because the belt was loose, I have to check again this evening if the timing belt is still aligning everything. And I need to open the valve cover and check all my clearances.

Then, to make matters fun, the JB Weld I used on the distributor to hold the Hall Sensor insulator broke when I plugged in the Hall Sensor wire. So I need to pull the distributor off again and replace the insulator with one I luckily ordered.

Lessons:

1) Timing is everything!!!! Always align top and bottom and never just pull a sprocket thinking nothing will move.

2) Have an impact wrench handy to pull the cam sprocket - but mind your torque.

3) Don't work tired. After 4 hours I knew to quit and come back in the morning. Fatigue causes mistakes.

4) Work methodically.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have good news to post as a follow up.

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Jamie
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