VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Valve timing update

Back in August, the answer below was provided by Bill Barker regarding how to check valve timing without removing front cover and harmonic balancer: We tried to follow the procedure but it did not seem that the valve starts to open at 1 1/2 flywheel teeth after UC, but rather after quite a lot many more teeth. Checked both my 31 Sedan and the phaeton, using several complete turns of the engine (we think). I believe we did not use the correct procedure, therefore here are two questions. First question, are we talking about intake valve for the # 1 cylinder? and 2, shall #1 intake start to open at the 1 1/2 teeth after UC at the point when the # 6 cylinder exhaust closes and intake just start to open? 3: shall we set the intake clearance to .100 with hot or cold engine to get an accurate picture? I believe we may not have turned the engine over a sufficient number of revolutions to get to the correct measurement situation. We rotate the engine using a large screw driver on the flywheel teeth to 'fine tune' the rotation. Thank you for providing additional clarification. VCCA #18184
OK....on my uncle's 31 phaeton which we had for 2 or 3 years before I found the problem with the timing gear being off one tooth....it ran great but would pop out the carb now and then.

Vale Timing:
1931 Models AE Independence (ONLY)
Set the intake valve tappet clearance for timing to 0.010". The intake valve should just start to open 1 1/2 flywheel teeth after top dead center.

EDIT: I just talked to Bruce and he asked me to post this within his original posting. The position where the intake valve opens isn't at TDC on the POWER stroke, but rather at TDC on the INTAKE stroke. That is 180 degrees from Top Dead Center as you usually think of it. Remember that a four-stroke engine goes around TWICE for each time that it fires. So you want to check the intake valve opening on the "third" stroke. -- Bill B

This works and you don't need to take the car apart to check it....and that was the problem with our phaeton. When I took it apart the timing gear was not marked at all and was one tooth off.....fixed the problem! Call me if you would like to talk about how to do it. I didn't think it would work, but it did.


Edited by Bill Barker (08/29/13 10:12 PM)

Hi 31Phaeton!

I'm the guy that originally posted that information. What you need to do is take out the plugs and use the crank to turn over the engine. It sounds to me your not in the right place. When you have it setup correctly you will notice the problem very easy.

Answers to Questions:
1. Yes we are talking cylinder #1, that is what everything is set to.
2. Yes cylinder #1 should open 1 1/2 teeth after dead center which equals UC on the flywheel.
3. I did everything cold with my uncles car and the clearance should be 0.010", not 0.100" as you said.

Using a screw driver will not work, use the crank and it is very evident once you see it. If you can't see it on both cars, then your not setup correct.

Can always call me if you would like to talk about this more.

Bruce

Thank you for the update. I am sure we will get it on our next try, thanks to your explanation. Of course we removed the sparkplugs to facilitate rotating the engine using the crank. (When starting the engine after winter storage, we always remove the plugs and use the starter motor, for approx 15 seconds to allow the gas to reach the carb without grinding down the battery.) However, using just the hand crank makes it difficult to stop the flywheel at the exact location. Using a large screwdriver or similar on the flywheel allowed us to carefully align the UC mark with the pointer. Most likely we did not rotate the engine to the correct position, e.g., where the intake valve starts to open on the intake stroke. Again, thank you for the clarification. Jo Storaker, VCCA #18184

Update on valve timing. Tried checking the valve timing again, and thankfully, my valves are timed correctly. We set the gap as described,turned the engine over to the right location this time, and valve started to open at 1 1/2 teeth after UC. Thank you again for your support. VCCA member 18184