If it's a fresh rebuild, or even just a head gasket job, I set them cold as a base reference, but always set them when hot before I call the job 'finished'. I have found that they can be off by quite a bit sometimes when resetting them hot after a cold set adjustment.

What's really fun is setting them up while it's running... did it once on an E16... Hey the guy's a mechanic and said that's how to do it... thinking back on it, maybe it wasn't a good idea...

It is 0.35 mm (0.014 inch, 14 thousands inch) HOT or 0.34mm (0.013 inch) COLD



Valve Adjustment

It's 0.03 and 0.035

so u mean 0.30mm and 0.35mm not 0.030 and 0.035?

Another interesting thing i have noticed is that whenever the clearence is very small, the engine will be sluggish from 1000 rpm till abt 3500 rpm. Beyond that is fine.

But when the gap is set to 0.035 intake & 0.035 exhaust, the engine revs smoother and reaches up to 5000rpm easily. The downside is the torque throughout the rpm range slightly reduces.

Im running 0.030 in & 0.035 exh, and i feel this the the best setting i have got so far.

p.s. - Measurements mentioned above are in mm & hot clearence.

Thanks a lot, ddgonzal.

Quote:Possibly but it is not advised.

Setting them tighter, you run the risk of burning a valve.

Setting them looser -- even .02 mm -- will make them noisy and cause extra wear.

A couple of links that might be handy.

http://wiki.datsun1200.com/index.php/Valve_adjustment

http://mildman.datsunprojects.org/a14_installation_5.htm

can i reduce or increase valve clearance to improve performance? if possible, what is the best valve clearance?