Rocker Arm/Lifter Play

[Notanexit92]

Should there be any side to side motion on the rocker arms/lifters? I notice most of them are snug and have a small amount of side to side motion, but one of the exhaust rockers has a noticeable amount of side to side play in it, enough to cause a click sound as it hits the tab that bolts the assembly to the cylinder head. Is this a cause for concern? Thanks, Brandon...

[Danteneon]

From one of the many posts about the ticking noise came this post about the spacer positions...

This is for "click" or "tick tick tick tick"-prone 2.0-liter 2nd-gen SOHC engines only... I recommend doing this right before an oil change to make it easier. Always remember to remove the negative battery terminal and never reconnect power until you are done.

... And just remember, nothing is more embarassing than starting up your car at work on a cool morning or evening and all of your co-workers making jokes about how you have a sewing machine stuck under your hood!

The purpose of this is to reduce wear and noise in the valvetrain due to **** engineering and assembly at the factory, by modifying two things: the way oil flows between the rockers, and eliminating EXCESSIVE spacing/gaps between the rockers and their corresponding spacers.

1. Remove your valve cover with a 10mm socket.
2. Inspect all of your rockers, head, and cam lobes for buildup, excessive wear, etc.
3. Find the 10 different bolts that hold the flat rectangular spacers on top of the rocker-arm pivot shafts... there should be 5 on the exhaust shaft and 5 on the intake. They are located on the ends and inbetween each rocker arm.
4. Clean the head of each bolt and mark it's position with a paint marker... with a slight mark on the corresponding spacer as well. This is for later referrence when everything is re-assembled so you know where you are going to re-torque your bolts to without stripping them out.
5. Grab a hold of each rocker arm and try sliding it side-to-side on the arm (driver's side to passenger's side and back again)... you will probably find that some of them "slap" back and forth against the spacers, and now you can see where your excessive cold-start "slapping," or "ticking" comes from.

SOLUTION:

6. Using a 10mm socket, remove ONE of the bolts and the spacer that it was holding down. DO NOT remove more than one spacer at a time, and only remove another spacer after the previous spacer has been previously bolted back down and torque'd correctly. This will prevent misalignment of the rocker shafts. I recommend removing the CENTER bolt and spacer first so you will be able to slightly realign them when you bolt them back on to your motor.
7. With one spacer out, notice the edges of the spacer that the rocker arms slide and rotate against. On these edges, you will want to find the edge on each side that corners itself against the rocker and the shaft. Take a file and slightly rub the metal away at a 45-degree angle to remove about 0.5mm of metal from these two edges. Basically, you are creating a slight gap for extra oil to travel through while the rocker-arms are actuating later.
8. Once you've cleaned all the shavings off of the spacer, saturate it in oil and re-install it back onto the shaft in the same position it was in before you removed it (this positioning will apply ONLY to the center spacer on the intake side and the center spacer on the exhaust side).
9. Now, working your way outward, remove the spacers one at a time and file them the same way on both sides removing 0.5mm or less from the same corners on either side, and reinstall them before removing the next spacer... You want to contantly work your way outward, taking one spacer from the left, then one from the right, etc etc. As you re-install the four outer spacers on each arm, you want to inspect the gap that the rocker arms will be "riding" in, between the corresponding spacers. If the gaps are too wide, the rocker arm will move back and forth and "slap" up against the spacers while the engine is running. A little bit of space is okay and in fact necessary... if the spacers are reinstalled and the spacers are too tight against and "pinching" the rocker to restrict it's movement, you will create excessive heat and have engine damage and failure! The point is that you may have to slide or turn some of these spacers in towards the center of the engine as you reinstall them, slightly closer than their original position before you started. You want to leave a small gap for each rocker to "ride" in. I found more "play" in my rockers on the passenger-side before I started, and had to work the outer spacers on that side to the center slightly more, to reduce the amount of "walking" that the rockers were doing on the shaft.

After you are done, you should be able to grab a hold of each rocker and wiggle it slightly, hearing a small click as it slaps back and forth against each spacer. You should NOT hear a loud "SNAP, BAM," or anything like that, or see a lot of excessive movement back and forth... if you do, something is wrong with your engine. Remember, the point of doing all of this was for two reasons: First, to allow slightly more oil to creep over the rocker shaft into the side-seems of the rockers while the motor is running. Second, to slightly close the gaps between the one or two rockers that you find that simply have just too much space to slide back and forth in. The extra passage of oil from the corner-edges that you removed will also act as a hydraulic cushion as your rockers move side-to-side and prevent them for premature failure or excessive metal/metal wear, and "clicking."

I did this to my car 500 miles ago and it runs great, and I have not had a single "tick tick tick" on a cold start ever since. Basically, the guys at the factory just don't pay close enough attention when installing these or properly gapping anything. I personally think that the spacers could have been a few thousandths of an inch wider, but luckily there is enough room in the bolt holes to walk them in to slightly re-align them as described above. Anyway, for those of you who try this, you'll find it much easier than it sounds and if you pay attention and do everything right, I'm sure you'll be as pleased as I am with it.

[occasional demons]

I really didn't have that kind of slack to play with on mine. Plus mine are relatively quiet, so I didn't get too worried about it.

The only way I could have moved them closer to the center to take up slack would be to slot the bolt hole. The clearance on mine is too close to make any difference in moving them side to side.


If they aren't noisy in operation, then don't get too anal about them. A lot of noise can be caused by worn guides. after having my exhaust guides replaced with a valve regrind, it was night and day for valve train noise.

But the sad fact is, in most cases, it is cheaper to get a reman head than take it to a shop and have it re done.

If you have over 100,000 miles/161,000 km then your guides may be getting out of spec. Of course each engine is different, depending on how well it was maintained, either by you, or a PO.

My exhaust guides were shot at 112,000 miles, and likely sooner. It probably didn't help there was so much carbon on the valves, and ports, that the valves were not fully seating anymore.