what shim size should i used?

[Guest]

Last year i purchased a 82 gs850g for 100 bucks, and slowly been taking it apart and, painting it and cleaning and putting it together, I'm currently working on the engine. I check all the valve clearances, and only 2 on the intake side where withing spec, the rest of the shims where either 2.55 or 2.50 shims
I could not even get my feeler gauges in,
So im curious on what shim size should be safe to buy.

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. mansters,

You might have to go down one or two sizes in order to get the valve clearances in spec. You won't know until you replace the shim and re-measure. See the valve adjustment guide on my little website. It's a virtual GS850G par-tay!

Let me dump a TON of information on you and share some GS lovin'.

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[Loki]

Last year i purchased a 82 gs850g for 100 bucks, and slowly been taking it apart and, painting it and cleaning and putting it together, I'm currently working on the engine. I check all the valve clearances, and only 2 on the intake side where withing spec, the rest of the shims where either 2.55 or 2.50 shims
I could not even get my feeler gauges in,
So im curious on what shim size should be safe to buy.

2.40's will probably get you there, may be a bit loose but that's ok. Impossible to tell exactly with zero clearance until you try thinner. Get a few of each but from what I have seen, 2 sizes thinner should be close if they were neglected the normal amount of miles.

[Steve]

There is no way to GUESS what size you need, you have to MEASURE.

Since it's hard to measure negative distances, you need to get a very thin shim, say a 2.30 or 2.40, move it around to the various locations to measure your clearances (they will be large), then order the size shim necessary to take up the excess.

Contact the shim club on the forum (look for user ghostgs1), they can set you up with some shims rather inexpensively.

And then, please feel free to take advantage of my offer in my sig.

.

[Nessism]

One trick tkent02 promotes is to try to spin the bucket under the cam lobe with the cam in the proper adjustment position. If the bucket will spin then you have some (small amount) of clearance, so going down one shim size will mostly likey get it done. Just to be safe, I recommend taking an inventory of all your various current shim sizes and clearances, then order up enough spares to take each valve down 2 sizes. Z1 Enterprises carries shims for $5 each. Keep in mind that sometimes you can move shims from one position to another since the shims don't wear out.

Good luck

[Steve]

One trick tkent02 promotes is to try to spin the bucket under the cam lobe with the cam in the proper adjustment position. If the bucket will spin then you have some (small amount) of clearance, so going down one shim size will mostly likey get it done.

Ed, I used to think that, too, but I have found otherwise.

An engine I worked on just a few weeks ago would spin the bucket rather easily, but I had to go down THREE sizes before I had measureable clearance.

.

[1_v8_merc]

I like to run a gap of around 0.010...at least.
I used to run my valves near the 0.03 Minimum, because I didn't wanna go Too Wide....but let me tell ya, bigger gap is MUCH better and safer. You'll feel a big difference on the highway.

[7981GS]

I used to keep them adjusted tight to get more of the valve lift.
That just leads to more frequent adjustments.
Now, I just get camshafts with much more lift and leave them loose.
.005-.008

Eric