Head problem! Please Help

[TUN3R]

Alright so me and my brother just rebuilt the head on his 2001 Mazda protege DX 1.6l engine. After we finally get it all back together and crank it. there seems to be a tick noise. iv looked this up and all i see are lifter problems. the 1.6l doesnt have lifters. it has shims. could it be the timing is off by one tooth? or maybe lack of oil? we disconnected the spark plugs and let the engine turn to get oil to the heads before starting also. im kind lost at this point and a little annoyed. any help would be amazing and much appreciated.

Thanks,
Brandon

[SgtRauksauff]

what did you do to rebuild the head? did you do anything with the valves or the valve seats?

the valve stem tip rides inside a shim bucket, and the shim sits on the bucket, and the cam rides on the shim. If you did any valve/seat grinding, you will need to go through and make sure that the clearance between the shim and the 'bottom' of each cam lobe is within spec.

If you have too tight of a gap, you will have valves that don't quite close all the way when things get warm, and if you have too BIG of a gap, your valve won't open all the way, plus when the ramp of the cam lobe comes around, it can "slap" the shim a little bit, causing noise as well as premature wear. If the gap is TOO big, the cam can wipe the shim off the top of the bucket, and then ruin your cam/valve/head.



--sarge

[TUN3R]

No. we clean it best we could with the valves in because the parts store didnt have a tool that would remove them. all they had was overhead valve tool. it wouldnt work for his valves. but we did remove the buckets and shims to clean them. his car had alot of grudge build up. but we did replace the cam seals head gasket timing belt and intake and exhaust gaskets. you wouldnt happen to know the gap spec between the lobe and shims? do you think we could have over tightened the cams causing them to slap cause thats what it sounds like is the lobes smacking the shims? we didnt do and grinding or anything. just cleaned everything really well.

[SgtRauksauff]

over time, shims will wear, as will the cam lobes, and when valve clearance is checked, it's common to need thicker shims because of this. But at the same time, the valve and seat will wear also, which would allow the valve stem to be closer to the camshaft, which would need a thinner shim.

I'm not intimately familiar with this engine, so I don't know the specs, but on my 1.6L 4AGE in my '85 Corolla, I believe that the intake range was .006" to .010", and the exhaust was .008 to .012". When I got my TODA camshafts, I'd collected enough shims so that I had exactly the same minimum clearance, .008 on the intake, and .010 on the exhaust.

I'd do some googling to find out what the clearance you actually need is, though. It could be that only one or two valves have worn-down areas, so after taking measurements on all of the valves, you might be able to shuffle the shims around to get a good adjustment.

also, a ticking noise could be an injector making a loud racket, I'd get a cheap stethescope, like from Harbor Freight (five bucks when I got mine) so you can pinpoint the noise better. also, a really long screwdriver, with the handle against your ear, can help also. just be careful to not get the end stuck in a moving part while it's near your face.

--sarge

[TUN3R]

Well we took it back apart to inspect with a gauge. we found that some were gapped more than others. so we moved them around till we got all the valves within spec. got it back together and theres still a ticking noise... it seems to sound a little rough at idle like its cammin. but when you rev the noise stops around 2500rpm. it also kinda spudders when you get on the gas which i assume could be a cloged fuel filter. we just recently replaced the injectors. but the motor didnt tick before we took it apart. it did however spudder a bit until u got on it hard.