Excessive valve ticking after engine rebuild

[96rolla]

Recently pulled the head on my 4afe and replaced head gasket, valve stem seals and piston rings. Its running great now except there is excessive ticking coming from the valve cover that gets more aggresive as the revs increase. When rebuilding the engine, some of the shims got mixed up, im thinking this is the likely cause as the valve clearances will be all messed up. Anyone have any thoughts on what my next steps should be? Is it even worth taking the cams out again? Any help is appreciated thanks.

[oldcodger]

Hi, 

Assuming your 4afe is similar to our  3afe in respect of the camshaft, then yes it probably may be that the shims might not have been all the same thickness from the factory ? or more likely that the cams profile and/or shims have worn over the years and now mixed up give you your excessive tapping.

The book way is like any other 'tappets'  you have to measure the free play under the cam lobe, establish what size shim is already fitted and then work out and the obtain the nearest new sized shim.

Its detailed in our Haynes 2002-6 Corolla  manual but not something we have done, though there are some ytubes on doing it.

The other thing that could be the problem if not the tappets,  a worn or slack timing chain ? A screwdriver/ear  or cheap car stethoscope should pinpoint it .

 

Found this pdf for a US 2004  1.8 engine which shows how its done, but the measurements etc will more than likely be completely different for your engine.

14 - Engine Mechanical.zip

[96rolla]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:38 AM, oldcodger said:

Hi, 

Assuming your 4afe is similar to our  3afe in respect of the camshaft, then yes it probably may be that the shims might not have been all the same thickness from the factory ? or more likely that the cams profile and/or shims have worn over the years and now mixed up give you your excessive tapping.

The book way is like any other 'tappets'  you have to measure the free play under the cam lobe, establish what size shim is already fitted and then work out and the obtain the nearest new sized shim.

Its detailed in our Haynes 2002-6 Corolla  manual but not something we have done, though there are some ytubes on doing it.

The other thing that could be the problem if not the tappets,  a worn or slack timing chain ? A screwdriver/ear  or cheap car stethoscope should pinpoint it .

 

Found this pdf for a US 2004  1.8 engine which shows how its done, but the measurements etc will more than likely be completely different for your engine.

14 - Engine Mechanical.zip 4.57 MB · 2 downloads

Thanks, thats what im thinking. Ill see if I can pinpoint the sound to the timing belt aswell. Does seem to a noise coming from there but nothing crazy. Appreciate it.

[oldcodger]

Forgot to check if yours was a belt or chain,  so being a belt more than likely the camshaft/shims but might be worth trying a top end addative to see if it helps with the noise or frees any slighty blocked oilways,  assuming you have the right grade oil  in.

My engine, 130k, should have been checked every 60k  and its a bit tappy but it seems such  a drawn out procedure, 

Before doing such work would check with your local Toyota dealer  as to if any shims are still available, at what price and how long to get them, as there can be long waits for some  genuine manufacturers parts  !

 

[tfc]

 Run a feeler gauge under each rocker and find which has the biggest gap and maybe you will also find one that is to tight, I use to jot down the clearance of the tappets then remove the buckets and use a micrometer to measure the thickness of the shim you might be lucky and find 2 tappets out, just a case of swapping them round

 

[96rolla]

36 minutes ago, tfc said:

 Run a feeler gauge under each rocker and find which has the biggest gap and maybe you will also find one that is to tight, I use to jot down the clearance of the tappets then remove the buckets and use a micrometer to measure the thickness of the shim you might be lucky and find 2 tappets out, just a case of swapping them round

 

Im gonna try this thanks. Hopefully I can swap some to atleast minimise the issue. Supposedly you can swaps shims  without removing cams.

[Konrad C]

A lesson I learnt is when dismantling an engine, be organised and have a system of marker pens and containers to keep everything in the correct order. That way the valves, bucket and shims go back in the correct location they come from. I watched a recent Barum engines on YouTube, and somebody had rebuilt an engine, then asked Barum to check it over. Couple of the parts (big end bearings locations were swapped, even though they were marked. Somebody was not concentrating. Luckily the engine was not run or it would have been wrecked.     

Hopefully in your case it's a couple of shims and/or buckets need to be relocated.

[96rolla]

1 hour ago, Konrad C said:

A lesson I learnt is when dismantling an engine, be organised and have a system of marker pens and containers to keep everything in the correct order. That way the valves, bucket and shims go back in the correct location they come from. I watched a recent Barum engines on YouTube, and somebody had rebuilt an engine, then asked Barum to check it over. Couple of the parts (big end bearings locations were swapped, even though they were marked. Somebody was not concentrating. Luckily the engine was not run or it would have been wrecked.     

Hopefully in your case it's a couple of shims and/or buckets need to be relocated.

i definitely agree, that is what i did. What my dumbass did was turn the head upside down before removing the shims...and they scattered everywhere.