Raceacar you want to aim for the high side of the spec, the intake will tighten up from wear on the valve seat, and a turbo motor the exhaust parts will grow more from the heat. Check it with feeler gauges. Measure the size of the current shim with 0-1" mics.

 

For the 3rd time I don't have any shims.

But thanks for the spec advice.

 

You need at least some shims... or you cant even check.

 

Yeah, shims have a minimum thickness, I think it's like 3mm for the Mazda ones. So if you don't have any shims at all you have a gap that's much too large to measure with a feeler gauge.

--Ian

 

I have SUBs. Guess I should be bugging Josh for a few shims then.

 

Oh you have SUBs, I forgot, you probably dont need shims then. I would buy a piece of shim stock the same thickness as the minimum SUB though. I know my feeler gauge set is only really accurate at the smaller sizes, stacking them from the kit isnt easy.

 

Well this has been an interesting evening. I emailed Travis over the weekend about some damage that occurred to my pump in shipping. He was very responsive, even after normal business hours. He is out of stage 2 pumps but offered to fit my gears into a new housing and return it to me as soon as he can, hopefully by Friday. Pump is in the mail now. Nothing but praise for Travis and Boundary Engineering. Very helpful, would purchase again.

@curly suggested the use of a stock shim over bucket shim on top of the SUB, and then feeler gauges. So I'm going to give that a shot. Hopefully it works.

 

Heard from the machine shop. Head will be done today. Motor will be ready for pickup tomorrow. Hope to have everything in and buttoned up minus shims by Sunday. Lets do this.

 

Good luck mang.

 

Built a new work bench. Surface is polypropylene, awesome work surface, easy to clean, white, smooth, awesome. Also have a chunk for head assembly on my other work bench. Lets get this done.

 

From James? Looks good, white is nice for that sort of thing, harder to lose things

 

I got the base from james. And about 500 lbs of the polypropylene. I have a massive stack on the side of my house.

 

Valve clearance measuring question. Where should the cams be in their rotation when measuring clearance. The FSM says to put the engine at TDC before measuring, but I need to measure with the head on the bench.

 

Just make sure it's away from the lobe when measuring.

 

Correct. The lowest point

 

So basically point the lobe 180* away from the lifter?

 

Yes

 

I also opted for the larger clearance. Advised that with heavy springs and as things wear, tolerance will tighten.

 

AIUI, the cam profile is such that anywhere on the base circle is the same height.

--ian

 

Thanks guys. Need to pick everything up, lap valves, measure clearances and get shims ordered. Hopefully get the order in today.