2006 Forester Valve Adjustment

[The Dude]

What parts are required to perform a valve adjustment on a 2006 Forester? Valve cover gaskets? Spark plug gaskets while I'm in there? Any "tips" on doing the adjustment? Thanks.

[ccrinc]

Courtesy of Trey from Cobb Tuning: T

 

Great write-up Stimpy. Here is how we find the position of each cylinder
to set lash, which is just slightly different than what Stimpy has
written. Setting valve lash on 2.5L SOHC.

1) Remove the radiator overflow bottle.

2) Remove the driver's side section of the timing belt cover (just 3 bolts) to expose the driver's side camshaft sprocket.

3) Remove valve covers and necessary components (we typically pull air filters/boxes and the windshield washer bottle to get better access.)

4) With a 22mm socket and long breaker bar, rotate engine until the ARROW on the driver's side camshaft sprocket is at 12 o'clock (UP). Set the valve lash on the #1 cylinder when camshaft sprocket is in this position.

5) Rotate engine through two revolutions and set ARROW on the camshaft sprocket at 6 o'clock (DOWN). Set the valve lash on the #2 cylinder.

6) Rotate engine again 2 revolutions and set the arrow on the camshaft sprocket at 3 o'clock (RIGHT) (standing in front of engine bay). Set the valve lash on the #3 cylinder.

7) Rotate engine again 2 revolutions and set the arrow on the camshaft sprocket at 9 o'clock (LEFT). Set the valve lash on the #4 cylinder.

8) Put everything back together and test drive. This might be more exact
if for some reason you can't tell the exact position of each cylinder.
Plus, it makes it easier than pulling all the timing covers off. We
rotate the engine 2 rotations to give the cam a full turn (it turns 1/2
speed of the crank) and recheck the lash on the cylinder we just set
before going to the next. It's not a requirement, but it's a good QA
step. Other than that, the lash adjustments Jon (Stimpy) wrote were dead
on. Make sure you keep the feeler gauge on the same "plane" as the top
of the valve. If you have it in at an angle, you might set the valve
lash too high and it'll be noisy. Take your time, and you'll get it
right. It is definitely something you begin to get a feel for after
you've done it a few (hundred ) times. Enjoy!

 

My first reaction was "if you have to ask parts are required, you need to pay someone to do it for you".  I stand by this reaction. 

 

Emily

 

 

Here's another writeup:

 

There are two ways to set the valve lash, one of which takes 2 hours and
the other takes about 3 hours. When I first did my cams, I figured that
you had to have the timing belt cover off in order to see everything going on with the timing belt (read: timing marks). It helps, but its not necessary. To get the timing belt cover off, you have to remove both radiator
fans (two screws at the top and one fan plug on the bottom of each).
With those out, you can remove the crank pully by removing the accessory
belts, putting your car in 5th gear, standing on the brakes, and having
somebody run a long breaker bar. Once the pully is out, you can proceed to remove the 10-15 screws holding the timing belt covers on. From here you can remove your spark plugs and then rotate your motor clockwise with the crankshaft pully bolt. You need line up all the lines on the timing belt gears/pullies to the 12 o'clock position. There should be a timing mark on the gear in the middle and one on each camshaft pully. Now you can remove your valve covers
(5 bolts). If the motor has been sitting for a little while, there won't
be much oil coming out. With all the lines in 12 o'clock position, your
motor should be in top dead center (TDC). This is where all of your
cylinders are at rest, but most importantly, cylinder 1 (front passenger
side I think, though it says on your coil pack on the intake manifold)
is at the top of the compression stroke. This is where you need each
cylinder to be when you set the valve lash.



You will need a feeler gauge with .007" and .009". If you don't have
one, you can easily pick one up at any autoparts store for a couple
bucks. You need to set the valve lash to .007" on the intake side and to
.009" on the exhaust side. To do this, you push the feeler gauge in between the valve tappet and the top of the valve. If it is too loose, then you loosen up the 10mm nut
on the end of your rocker arm, and with the use of a screwdriver, you
can screw the valve tappet down until it is pushing on the feeler gauge.
Make sure you still has enough room to move the gauge back and forth,
but tight enough that there is not slop if you wiggle the rocker up and
down. Now while holding the screwdriver in the slot on the valve tappet
(to hold the tappet in place), keeping the feeler gauge under the valve tappet stil, you then screw the 10mm nut back down, securing the valve tappet in place. Recheck the lash with your feeler gauge.
If it is still tight, but moderately movable, then you can move on to
the next valve; if not, try again. The intake side will be done from the
top of the car, and the exhaust side was done with one person below and
one person above the car.



Once you have done both the intake and the exhaust side of cylinder #1,
you need to rotate the motor slowly clockwise until cylinder #2 (front
drivers side) is at the top of the compression stroke. To check this,
you just put your hand over the spark plug tube and as the cylinder is
coming up, you will feel air pushing on your hand; it will also be
giving a hissing sound as air is being pushed around. If you take a
flashlight and a mirror and use those to look down into the sparkplug hole, you should be able to see the piston. Once it has stopped moving (top) then you are there. If you wiggle the crankshaft
bolt back and forth, you can see where the piston is sitting. Now you
repeat the vavle lash procedure for both intake and exhaust side for
cylinder #2. Then you cycle the motor over to cyclinder #3 (back
passenger side), set the lash, then cycle to cylinder #4 (back drivers
side), and set lash.



You are now done with setting the valve lash and you can begin reassembly of the car by putting the valve covers back on, the timing belt cover, the crankshaft pully (torqued back down to 130ft/lbs if its the stock pully), radiator fans, and plugs and wires. Reset your ECU.



The shorter procedure simply bypasses the removal of the timing belt cover. You still have to remove plugs, valve covers, and radiator fans however. Since the crankshaft pully is keyed, it will only go on one way. While rotating the motor around with the spark plugs removed, you should be able to see a little knick or line on the backside of the crankshaft pully. If you watch for the compression on cyl. #1 while rotating the knick up to the top, you should be able to find TDC with the timing belt cover
still installed. It should take 720 degrees to rotate the motor through
one entire revolution. Once TDC is found, you can follow the steps
listed above to set the valve lash then rotate to the next cylinder and
repeat.

[nelstomlinson]

@ccrinc, thanks, I roughly followed your instructions, and took care of a ticking noise on the passenger side of the engine. The #3 intake vales were a little loose, and the exhaust valves were probably double the lash they should have had. I must have messed up setting them when it was on the stand, but it's not too hard to do in the car. Anyway, it's running great now, no ticking, and the CEL hasn't come on again.