Ok, I've adjust plenty of valves on American iron, mostly of the MoPar variety, but never on a flat 4. How the he** do I get the valve covers off from under the car? Then how do I apply tools? I searched the forum and found some pictures of a head sans valve cover that were obviously taken from above. Is removing the engine tin really the way to go?

Thanks!

Joshua Skinner

Welcome!!! You have a GREAT car. Assuming that any rust repair has been taken care of... Now here's the deal - if you want to play you gotta pay. Your not gonna like this - but - buy the maintenance manual. Doesn't matter which one. Unless you can affort 300 for the "deal deal". Just do it. Get one and you will have the confidence to maintain your 914 and spend all of your $$$ It never ends... Ohhh, and as for the valve covers, go get one of your wifes best hand towels, hide it carefully. Take it to the garage. Thread it thru the valve cover "bail arm". Pull down like you were gonna do a pull up. Apply bandaids as required. You need a 13"mm end wrench & a really short blade style screwdriver & of course feeler guages. Here's a hint to adjust your valve lash... No $hit. After you have adjusted & tightened - with the feeler guage still in place - give the feeler guage a little rotation/twist. If it won't, it's too tight. For REAL tech stuff go to www.pelicanparts.com and click on tech articles. You can ever get there cd with ALL of the tech stuff FREE!!
Have Fun!!!

absolutely NOT ...

it's done from underneath. jack the car up. even better if you have a lift.
take the wheels off, that'll give you a bit more room.

the covers are hold down by a tension rod thing, just pry it UP with a screwdriver, it'll pop off.
i actually completely remove that spring thing, it snaps into a hole on each side, it'll be easier to get back on later.

then, use a wrench to loosen the nuts and a very short but wide flat-blade screwdriver to adjust the valves.

i set them all to 0.004 (not the factory specs).

there is a sequence for which valves to do in which order, i forgot, it's in the haynes manual.

if you don't already have one, trust me, you want one right about now.
Andy

Don't pry up on the "bale" that holds the cover on. About half the time, it will get stuck before it gets high enough to let you pull the cover off. Either slide it down with the hand-towel as stated, or pry the end of the bale out of the little divot in the head so you can remove it completely.

Access to some of the valves is a right pain. I use a stubby screwdriver and also an offset screwdriver (i.e., one with a 90-degree bend near the end). Most of the 73+ cars have "jam nuts" on the adjusters that take a 14mm wrench, not a 13mm one. I got tired of stripping the nuts, so I bought myself a Snap-On deep-offset box-end wrench. It may not have been necessary to buy Snap-On, but after having to replace my second set of jam nuts I was in no mood to half-ass things. I strongly recommend getting the deep offset kind. The "business end" is offset from the hande by about 3/4", I think, and it gets nicely out of the way of the rest of the rocker arms that way. Box-end is a Very Good Thing because it grips the nuts by all six flats, not just two like an open-end wrench does.

You're ahead on the game by already knowing what the feeler gauges feel like when the clearance is correct.

--DD

I just removed a newly painted valve cover by prying down on the bail. It did come off quite easily.
Now I will repaint the cover and remove it from the end from now on.

Ok, I got the valve adjustment done. Went with the factory .006 and .008" on intake and exhaust respectively. Still sounds like an air cooled VW, but that's really what we've got here. I imagine that a VW type IV is easier to adjust as the engine is behind the suspension instead of in between it. Those trailing arm mounts sure make #4 intake a pain to adjust! Someone gave me a hand in rounding off the jamb nuts. I could use 2 or 3 new ones for next time.

I may have to get the EJ20T Subie motor in before I have to do this again! Hydraulic lash adjusters and a 7500 RPM red line! Even the normally aspirated 150 hp version would be fun! Those engines are only $450 plus shipping.

Joshua Skinner