A good indicator of loose bolts inside underneith the valve cover is oil on the sparkplug wire ends....things come loose and tap alittle There's a couple bolts that come loose inside and for some reason oil tends to get to the top of the sparkplugs. For me I know right away something is loose inside or my valve cover gasket is going

 

Car has been on the back burner for a bit, $$$ issue. We're under a stage 3 drought and my main source of income is from working on boats, and if no water in the lake, no boats on the water, no money in the pocket...

I do have my gates timing belt and water pump kit in, and my valve cover gaskets, side cover gaskets. I do not have my hex crankshaft tool (looking for one, or looking to make one via hex bushing)

I plan on going with a STP filter and (Anyone got suggestions about another brand of oil vs QS?)

 

I think I may of had a little oil on a spark plug wire when I changed them recently. (just bought the car and still doing all the "first" tune up work)
There is a gasket leaking oil, that is why I opted to buy both gaskets and just give everything a good once over and change the gaskets

 

That is almost a debate starter question. Almost any name brand oil or if you trust some of the "house brands" they are fine as well.

Just my opinion and not ttrying to start or further any debate.

Might call around, some of the parts stores rent the pulley holder. A member already posted a link to "how to make your own", not sure if it like the ones I've seen before but you bascially get a nut that has the correct outside diameter to lock into the pulley and weld on some sort of handle.

 

Still on hold guys --- Head gasket on my suv has blown out

 

run of bad luck.
maybe just drain / fill / change the motor oil, same filter.
low cost, 4 or so quarts.

 

Seems odd, but after awhile and adding just a slight bit of thicker oil seems to have made the ticking go away... It will do it every no and again when I first start it up, but it goes away after a minute or so. Same thing happened to my Explorer.. Changed oil, then ticked until I let it run for awhile.

 

I thought all Honda V6's had solid lifters. Does the 97 V6 have hydraulic lifters? Hydraulic lifters can also make noise when the lifter loses pressure.

good luck

 

Not on the intake' valves. The best thing I can recommend is to manually turn the engine over and watch the rockers, if the intake arms come to full compression at slightly different times then then best way to adjust the valves is to throw out the book and do them as a performance valve adjustment, mean watch the exhaust valve go down on any given cylinder, when it bottoms out stop or turn back a bit to get it on full compression. With the exhaust at full compression the intake valves can then be adjusted for that cylinder. Roll through all the cylinders adjusting only the intakes, THEN use the TDC marks on the cam to adjust the exhaust valves. I have seen many issues with the valves on the V6 engines and determined the best way to adjust them is to use the mechanical principle, when one lobe of the cam is at the low point then the other is on the high point and adjust the corresponding valve. It sounds to me like even if the valves were adjusted they may still be off you use the cam lobes as your force.

Almost never will a heavier wait oil quite the valves if they are out of spec, but I will say if you have a low end bearing noise and add 10w oil to an engine that runs 5w and the bearing/low end noise goes any then that will almost always tell you there is play in the crank bearings.