valve lash, oil & lift kits

i've seen some postings for daihatsu valve lash, but none concerning my model of truck... i have a 99 twin cam efi motor and have to adjust the valves they are making more and more noise. has anyone got a step by step of how to do it and what the lash is?

i just changed the oil and went with 10/30 mobile one, the temps here are well above the century mark already, and i'm wondering if i should be running a heavier oil in these temps like maybe 10/40?

i saw a post on lift kits, what is available for 99 daihatsu? i'm not looking for a huge lift, i drive this truck mostly on the street, but i'm looking to put a little larger tire on it for a little more roll out. i'm thinking about just going with a 13 or 14 inch street tire, just a little bit taller for more top end a little more meat on the ground.

 

LGC, I would think your more than covered running the Mobile 1 synthetic oil in a 10W30. Maybe you could arrange to send some of that heat you got up north to BC - we are freezing our butts off up here. It was only 9 Celcius this morning where I live. There's quite a few posts on tires on the forum, I was looking into some 13's for mine somewhere down the road. 165/65/13 is almost the exact same size but hard to find, for what you are looking for [slightly larger] try 165 or 175/70/13 -slightly larger but not crazy big and still narrow enough that they shouldn't rub. Just a matter of finding the right rims for your bolt pattern.

 

i would love to send as much of the heat out in tidy little packets as possible, i personally package it myself

my old daihatsu charade car had 13" rims on it and the tires were only $20 brand new at pep boys. i've done the math it's only a 13% difference, and then 1st gear in 2wd high would be usefull again, and i don't think it's so much overdrive as to kill my freeway speeds. i'm assuming (which is dangerous at times) that daihatsu cars and trucks have the same bolt pattern for the wheels.

 

Any headway on adjusting the valves for the twin cam? Got the book from James Danko. Nothing in there about twin cam although have a 97 with a carb. Just will not start cold. I pull start in the mornings to save the starter. Starts fine when warm.

 

usually when it won't start cold, if it is valve related, it because someone adjusted the valves when the motor was warm. as the engine cools off it's hanging the valves open a little. that's really dangerous. you can burn a valve like that.

does it crank like it has no compression? if you are hanging a valve open it will have almost no compression and will almost freewheel when you are cranking it. does it smoke at all? or does it just crank really slow in the mornings?

i know daihatsu is owned by toyota now, so i'm guessing i can take my truck to a good mechanic that knows toyotas and give him the valve lash specs and let him do it. i just hit 100k so i need to start looking into a mechanic to do my timing belt anyway.

 

I bought it with 29k km and now am at 44k km. The thing also had the wrong wing nut on the air cleaner lid. The wings hit the cover before the center did to seal around the bolt. I thought my problems were from an overly dirty air cleaner at times since I am primarily off road.

The not starting happened all at once it seemed. After I found the dirty air leak, I removed the tube from the cleaner to the carb and cleaned it. I leaned the mini and used penetrating oil to rinse any dirt from the interior of the carb. I used an air blower with a brake line tip to blow the carb from inside to out to get it clean. Now all clean.

It seems like it was a few days later the not starting began. Crank for a while, give a bit of pedal and so on until it starts. I always had to jump it to get to crank long enough. Pull start is much easier on the starter.

So, I have valve problems, dirt through the engine problems, or I messed up the carb with compressed air problems.

I don't get black or blue smoke, the plugs are tan on the tip, it cranks the same speed and the same as always wether cold or warm.

I have taken the valve cover off and the exhaust of #3 was .380 or about for clearance.

 

now this is just a maybe, but i've seen guys lose air filters in the dirt or have a bad seal and it's bye bye rings. not saying that's the case, but maybe, typically you'll see some blue smoke from the oil that's bypassing into the combustion chamber.

have you tried starting it cold with the air cleaner open?

here's another thought... how is your choke set? do you get black smoke when it finally starts cold? try holding the choke open when it's cold and see if it starts up. maybe when you had the carb off it discombobulated the choke setting... or maybe you forgot to hook the choke wire back up? or hooked it to the wrong spot?

mine isn't carbureted but on most of the older cars the choke wire ran to the positive side of the coil so it got juice when the key was turned on.

if you can see in there, or feel in there with your fingers, see if the choke is open or closed before you try to start it... that should get you going in the right direction, and also take a test lite and test that the choke is getting juice. i'm assuming it's an electric choke? i have no idea really.

 

I don't really see any smoke when it finally starts. I also am now assuming that it could be the rings. I am going the check all the valve clearances this afternoon and see what I get.

The choke is water temp operated. It is closed when the motor is cold and open when warm. I held the choke open and in between, it wasn't any better at starting cold.

 

you could do a compression check first and see how the cylinders compare and see which ones really need attention. just remember to crank them all equally and not for too long of a time.

a bleed down check is actually the best way to check your compression if you know anybody that has the equipment for it.

 

Got dug into it this afternoon. The intake had no clearance. The exhaust had around .30mm. Took a little off the top of the intakes, about .20mm. Got it back together and started perfectly. There are NO shims in there. There are the cams, which move lifters, which are just a cup that goes over the valve and spring and also has a small recess on top for a disc about the size of a quarter which the lobe pushes on..

 

Just an update. Got the intake cam back in and wouldn't make any revs. Rechecked timing belt timing, checked spark pickup sensor, finally removed the valve cover and there it is. Each cam has multiple timing marks. With the use of foresight, I took a pic BEFORE I pulled the intake cam out. I realigned to the correct position and she runs good now.

By the way, if anyone wants to rid themselves of a 660 diahatsu twin cam carb engine, I believe I will need one sooner than origanally expected. Gonna run it till it breaks.

 

why did you pull the cam? is the motor on it's last leg? you can't do anything preventative to keep it going?

 

I had to pull the cam to remove the cam followers to expose the top of the valve stem. The valves wouldn't seat cold and it wouldn't start. I covered everything up and took off about .010 off the valve stems and it is working for now.

It still runs and starts well but I know the damage is already done.

 

did you happen to get any pictures of what it looks like inside the valve cover? i have no idea what you are talking about... my experience with OHC is limited... i'd like to see what i will be diving into.

 

I just took one pic of the two cam gears where the timing marks meet. There are multiple marks on each cam gear on the back side towards the lobes so PAY ATTENTION!!

The harmonic balancer has a notch on it and mine has a dab of yellow paint on it. It references TDC which also the keyway of the crank does. The exhaust cam has the other timing belt pulley. The F on the pulley must be in line with the bolt of the cam and the timing mark on the harmonic balancer and the center of the crank.

The valve cover removes with 3 bolts on each side plus one that goes through the plastic timing belt cover. The coils have to be removed to remove the valve cover. The valve cover seal is "T" cross section and sets in a recess of the valve cover.

With the cover off, you see the 3 spark plug tubes, the intake and exhaust cams and the gears that run them. There are 4 caps similar to main caps but each one holds both cams and straddles the spark plug hole. The cam followers are under the lobes. With a cam out, the followers can be removed and you can see the tips of the valves, and the retainers, washer and springs.

To remove the timing belt cover, the water pump pulley has to be removed.

I will post the picture later, I have to move it off my phone and get it loaded.

 

i thought the tips of the valve stems were hardened? it seems that grinding on them would negate the hardening and cause them to mushroom. why would you have to grind the tops down? were they worn, or would the cam not adjust? that's why i was asking for pix to see what's going on in there.

 

The twin cam version I have is not adjustable with tools. There may be a way to get thinner cam followers but I don't know. I had dirt cause the problem and I am just going to see how long things work.

 

I see now. The cams fit in like a crank with half of the bearing being the head and the other half being the bearing cap. There are no bearings just the cam inside the aluminum.

 

the cam followers are the "shims" greg was talking about before. but if your valve is "getting longer" it sounds like you have a valve seat sinking in to the head.

 

Yes, that was the case, as a result of dirt getting past the wing nut of the air filter cover. The wings were too long and hitting the cap but leaving about 1/8" of gap where the bolt goes through the cover. For the life of me, I cannot remember if it came that way or if I lost the wing nut and put on a different one. Really doesn't matter now, damage is done.

 

It does make sense. I did find that if the lobe was away from the follower, it could be pried to open the valve and the quarter sized piece, maybe called the shim, could be removed. I had no other parts, no surface grinder, so I gave the valve shortening project the best chance for success.

 

No bull. It seems to me I should have taken some pictures of this. I have to say that getting the valve cover off is a fairly easy job, and has a seal capable of being reused, at least in farmer standards.

 

I don't think that no bearing cap on camshaft is that uncommon.
My '76 Honda Civic was like that and it was a pretty good engine.
Im sure that there has been lots of engines over the years like that
and don't forget engines like the Porche 928 that don't use sleeves
on the cylinder - just the piston running in the spec'd alloy block.