Hi All. My car has a developed a slight oil leak coming from what I believe to be the lower valve cover gasket. I'm thinking that as long as I'm replacing the gaskets, I might as well do a valve adjustment. Does this require a motor drop? I know the clearance is awful tight to the firewall. What am I in for? Thanks in advance.

No motor drop required (assuming you have stock or modded lturbo lower valve covers that you can get off).

Drain oil

Remove the covers and plugs and ensure you know how to proceed through the firing order. F

Figure about 2-3 hours

Be sure to use the silicone head cover gaskets. Do not over tighten the nuts - just tight enough to firm down on the gaskets

Don't really need to drain the oil if the car hasn't sat for more than a day or 2. It should still be all in the tank.

Go buy a stubby 1/8 or 3/16" blade screwdriver and a 13mm flex head ratcheting wrench, especially for the exhaust valves.

Bent tip feeler gauges really help.

Oh by the way, did we mention you will have to remove the heat exchangers (unless you have no-heat headers). Some people may say you don't need to, but you better have small hands and be a practicing contortionist...

Plan for at least half a day.

It is difficult to feel the gap with the factory tool so I tried the Pelican backside method. It was a lot easier and supposedly more accurate. Buy their feeler gauges.Pelican backside method

There is also this cool tool for adjusting valves, but I don't know how easy it would be to use in the tight areas.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/911-engine-...tment-tool.html

http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/SuperC..._pg8.htm#item28

For engine in the car, I think using the Pelican small curvy feeler gauge holder is
practically a necessity. It's cheap anyway.

With heat exchangers in place, it is more difficult. For doing it at least the first time,
I would recommend buying new exhaust and muffler gaskets, and just remove the
heat exchangers, which is pretty easy. Then you can decide how you like to do it
in the future.

In my experience the tank slowly (very) drains back to sump. You will need to drain
most of the oil from the sump or you will be involuntarily draining it via the valve
covers (have an old baking sheet ready anyway). Also if possible it is great to jack
the car a bit higher on the side you are working on.

Good to know that the silicone gaskets are the ones to use. I've always used the kit with hardware sold at Pelican. I think it's from the OEM manufacturer. I have done a few valve adjustments before. Always the standard procedure. The car doesn't have heat exchangers so that should give me some additional clearance. The car is fairly new to me and I haven't been underneath it yet. I was concerned about getting a wrench in there to turn the motor. Didn't know if there was clearance and be able to get a visual on the timing marks. From the top it looks tight.

if you use the Pelican tool make sure you have a pack of spare feeler blades ,they tend to bend and can give you false clearance (too wide
),it really helps if the flywheel has a TDC mark also,I think this was only on the genuine -6 motor as the 911 flywheel isn't marked.
This would never be called a "fun'' job.

I have white paint marks on the flywheel at each 120 degrees. You can advance the motor by putting it in gear and pushing the car forward. You can also put a 19 mm on the fan pulley and turning the motor in neutral. Each method works.

It can be done with the engine in the car, however I can think a billion things that are more fun. I just adjusted mine with the engine in the car a couple weeks ago. Having done it both ways I can say that out is significantly easier, especially if you don't have marks for TDC. It's also a good opportunity to clean the engine with it out of the car.

Make it easy on yourself. pull the exchangers, takes an hour extra but saves on the frustration level immensely . . hardest part is climbing back and forth under the car for the exhaust side valves.
+1 for using the alternator pulley nut to turn the motor. . I pulled all the plugs first as I wanted to check them also. Drain the oil, change the filter and you're good to go.

Nice way to spend a Saturday/

My preference is to drain the oil before adjusting the valves.
If I don't drain it the whole job is a drippy mess.
Remove all the spark plugs.
As for space and difficulty I find it helpful to use a few different tools.
First is a feeler gauge holder that has been shaped to fit the tight confines.
Three feelers are shown. The left one is as delivered. The middle one has the tip bent to 90 degrees and the one on the right is the narrowed for clearance. It is the ideal shape. For me.
The shape is good for 911s and 914s
Second are three screwdrivers, one is a tiny stubby, one is a offset 90 degrees
with four head angles and the third is a long one for when there is enough space.
Last is the tool to lock the emergency brake on one caliper or the other.
This tool allows easy turning of the crankshaft from below the car with the trans in gear.

Rather than the offset screwdriver there, I prefer this style:



For a lot of things, not just for the valves.

--DD

Man, I'm going to have to beef up my specialty tools. I just have the standard factory feeler guage tool. Maybe I'll order another to experiment when I see what's going on in there. The motor is a 2.2 "S" motor. Not sure about how easy it's going to be reading the markings. I guess the first time is the hardest. The car runs great. The previous owner said the valves were adjusted about 5k miles ago but I figured as long as I'm in there, not a bad idea to check things out. Thanks for all the suggestions. Very helpful.

The curved handles are available but I haven't found the blades in our thickness. Any suggestions for a source appreciated.
(.006 and .008)