When I changed the o-rings I backed off all the valve, then reset them afterwards. You can do it without loosening the valve adjustment, but be careful to keep everything lined up, as you lower and tighten the assembly down. Yes, leave the bolts hanging in the rocker arm assembly, and pull the entire assembly off in one piece. Pull the bolts out, and everything falls apart (big time consuming puzzle). Good luck.

PS: When you take the rocker arm assembly off, the timing belt will be pulling down on the cam sprocket, so the opposite end will be light. Be careful not to pull the cam up, so the timing belt does not slip off the sprocket. Make sure the cam stays down in place. The timing belt didn't really pull the cam up, when I did mine, but you never know how tight the belt could be.

 

One thing that I don't understand...

The write up in the "how to" section says to just torque the rockers after you reassemble everything??

I thought these cars require valve adjustments?? Will I be okay to just torque them down or should I use a feeler gauge?

Thank you,

Donnie

 

The bolts you have to remove, to remove the rocker arm assembly, are on the bearing caps (things that hold the cam). The screws and locknuts to adjust the valves are on the ends of each individual rocker. If you don't have a shop manual, I suggest you get one.

 

No, you do not remove the rocker arms themselves. Loosen all the bearing cap bolts, then lift the entire rocker arm assembly off the top of the engine, with the bolts still hanging in the bearing caps/rocker arm assembly.

 

I think the statement about torquing the rocker assembly - that's about the larger bolts that hold the "assembly" down.

The engine DOES require valve adjustment. The adjustment screws (for adjusting valve-lash) are done with feeler gauges and adjusted for clearance. They have little locking nuts that are tightened by torque. After removing the whole rocker assembly, I'd want to (at least) measure all the valve clearances because I wouldn't trust that they stayed perfect.

 

Thank you so much guys for all of the responses. I DO have the service manual so I will make sure to get it out for this job.

I'll also make sure to re-lash the valves after reinstalling and just torque the bearing cap bolts.

 

Well after wiping them out real good...it appears that I must have just put the upper tube seals in wrong cause the oil seems to be leaking from higher up.

I'll try and get another set of gaskets this next week and get it all put back together.

Should I put some grey rtv on the tube seals or anything to help or should they just seal up all dry??


Also, if I do end up changing the lower o-rings...do I even have to loosen the actual rocker arms to get them replaced? or do you just remove the bearing cap bolts and take the whole thing off?

Sorry for the dumb questions but I've only had the valve cover off on this thing once( to do the gaskets) and the OHC motors are quite different from the push rod V8's that I've been used to working on.

 

Nevermind,

I just went and re-read the "how-to" again...

It says "put honda bond where plug seal would meet the head"

and "there is no need to adjust the valves"

Thank you again to all, now if I can get this dang fuel filter swapped we'll be all good to go.

Donnie