Club 80-90 Forums

I adjusted my tappets earlier and as advice took up the slack and 1 turn, van wouldn't start then did them again with half turn started but really rough running so backed right off and set at a fraction of a turn from contact and the van started and sounds the quietest it been since I bought it , engine purring but doesn't want to tick over.
just been for a short test drive and it seems a little short on power on the hills and still doesn't want to tick over unless I turn the idle screw right up and then it seems ok. I'm thinking timing anyone have any thoughts ?

Checked timing today and it's fine . all vac tubes are new and distributor, rotor arm are good, so I'm at a loss as to why the van won't idle but idled fine before I did the tappets any ADVICE would be good.

Perhaps you have solid lifters which need a gap setting and not a preload?
Some engine manufacturers in the past have fitted solids, hard to know without looking at them, you may be able to remove rocker shaft, pushrods and look down the tube with a torch, hydraulic have a distinctive look.

preload on a solid lifter will result in valves not closing and poor compression, its quiet now bacuase the is no gap but not running great as valves are not 100% closed.

compression test then set a gap and retest

What size gap would you recommend? it's a df engine.

If hydraulic cam followers (lifters) are fitted they will be full of oil; the non-return valve inside them means that they are effectively solid i.e. adjustment is near impossible. The only way to sort this is, unfortunately, a heads-off exercise to do the following:
Extract cam followers, remove the clips &pistons, drain the oil, reasseble and refit (check operation by pressing down on the piston with a small screwdriver) then put it all back together.
The reason why it runs like a bag of nails is because your adjustments are now holding the valves open, so the engine has no compression.

Ok update just found a sticker under the grime on rocker cover saying manual tappets so I guess that means solid, so adjusted to 6 thou as per wiki says and idle is back and so is my power.
next question is. should tappets being solid as seems to be the case be adjusted hot or cold ? The engine is still a little ticky ( tappety) but no where near what it was.

OK set solid tappets cold. As the valves heat up along with the engine, the clearance will go down to almost nothing.

Thanks to you both itchy feet and silver bullet. i will let it cool and reset tomorrow. Something else I noticed is the block is painted gold where you can still see the paint , would this mean a recon and explain the solid followers ?
so far I have learned I have a pierberg carb instead of a solex and my distributor is off a beetle, it gets more interesting and I'm suprised it runs at all .

Sounds like a Vege Gold recon. Bet the dizzy is an 009... All wrong for a wbx!

A good rule of thumb is to check adjustments of anything before changing.
If you had counted the number of turns you changed it by you could have put it back to where you started.

You have just made a similar mistake by adding a space between itchy and feet, silver and bullet

Silverbullet Is it worth me putting it back to how it should be as it seems a good base engine ?

itchyfeet wrote:
A good rule of thumb is to check adjustments of anything before changing.
If you had counted the number of turns you changed it by you could have put it back to where you started.

You have just made a similar mistake by adding a space between itchy and feet, silver and bullet

I did count the number of turns and they were all between 2 and 3 turns out from contact which is why the engine was so tappety and loud but never expected solid followers after all the reading on here but I am learning all the time itchy and thanks again.

I'd leave the pierburg but should really get the right dizzy back in if you can find one.

Well, if you are doing the job...the Peirburg is superior and serviceable mind you. Re: dizzy.. assuming the wiring is all there, but it can be repaired with a loom cut. Not a big deal, you'll need a TCI too if its been removed. Pic would help!

mickeyflyn wrote:

itchyfeet wrote:
A good rule of thumb is to check adjustments of anything before changing.
If you had counted the number of turns you changed it by you could have put it back to where you started.

You have just made a similar mistake by adding a space between itchy and feet, silver and bullet

I did count the number of turns and they were all between 2 and 3 turns out from contact which is why the engine was so tappety and loud but never expected solid followers after all the reading on here but I am learning all the time itchy and thanks again.

Sounds like somebody had problems before and assumed 2 turns was out rather than in.
Glad you got it sorted, 2 turns out must have sounded like a bag of nails