[Vwdiesel] Engine rebuild, valve clearances

[Martin K]

It is a new head with no buckets, shims or camshaft.
Some years ago even with a complete rebuilt engine ( excluding an interm
shaft ) I found that the valves gaps were not set.
Are the diesel head shims and buckets the same as used in pre ´85 petrol
1.8 engines? they look exactly the same to me.
I have accumulated a selection of shims from 3.65 to 3.95 .
I found that the buckets are not an exact science and have differences
in their length, by swapping buckets I could gain a gap of .35 mm in
places but it is time consuming process.
I could manage to set proper clearances with 7 of the valves  I have
only .10 mm gap for one of the intake valves.
I could go with that and see how it settles in.
I would have to specially order a 3.55 shim and that takes a week.
Maybe it is possible to get a shim skimmed down to size at a machinist workshop?

Martin

> Not normal off or on.  The cold clearances should be .008 and .016 inch
> for intake and exhaust respectively.  Things sometimes change quite a
> bit after a few hours of running.  A new head should've been setup with
> proper clearances.  :(
>   It can be a simple process of putting in thinnner shims, but that usually
> leaves you with odd, thin shims to find when adjusting the valves.  In
> your case, if you have a 3.70 in the ex. bucket and are only .002 tight,
> or net even, then you need to drop about 8 or 9 shim thicknesses, which
> leaves you with a 3.25 or 3.30.  Not unheard of but not too common
> either.  The method I use is to grind down the valve stem length so that
> a "normal" range shim gives proper clearance.