Help! tappet clearance econovan petrol?

rhys75, Oct 18, 2:33am
2lire engine 1996 ford econovan maxi fe50 what are the tappet clearance?
found two different answers on the net and dont trust them

rhys75, Oct 18, 2:33am
x1
petrol

franc123, Oct 18, 3:10am
Is this the 12 valve motor? Should be hydraulic if so.

rhys75, Oct 18, 4:39am
12 valve not hydraulic or fuel injected sigh.

franc123, Oct 18, 4:44am
How do you know, have you got the cover off?

rhys75, Oct 18, 4:50am
yup cover off just done cambelt, can hear the tappets ticking when i drive apparently nz new

skin1235, Oct 18, 6:03am
weren't they a rebadged mazda bongo, best I can find for non hydraulic is for the earlier E engine 88-94, .30mm, the E engines after that were hydraulic

edit sorry, thats .30mm HOT for both

franc123, Oct 18, 9:56am
Unless you can see adjuster pegs and locknuts on the rockers it will be hydraulic. That engine was used in Telstars, 626, Bongos, Couriers etc and I don't recall any 12v having valve adjusters. They were however prone to lifter noise when they got old and/or were not maintained well enough, use of Magnatec or Proma additive generally sorted it.

rhys75, Oct 18, 9:03pm
thanks. yea bud definitely adjustable they quite noisy and feeler gauge feels firm at .3 cold! i seen some tech on some website say older engines can be adjusted to .25

skin1235, Oct 18, 10:32pm
its an old motor, and with adjustables they will be worn, your .3 feeler blade will be bridging the wear
do you know how to adjust them when worn so you get the correct adjustment?

first put a .5 blade through and adjust to firm pinch, then put a 20 through and adjust again - but note how many degees of turn you have to move the adjuster - that could be say just over a quarter turn - however degrees is what it takes to close/open by .3 ( .5 - .2 = .3)

put the feeler guage back in your pocket and adjust all accordingly

technically if the thread on the adjuster is 1mm pitch then you would turn back .3 of a turn from tight, (120 degrees) if it is 1.25mm pitch you'd turn back .42 of a turn (151 degrees )

back in the day there was tappet adjusting tool made expressly for that, a socket bar with a screwdriver access through the centre of the lug and a protractor etched on a plate sitting against the register the socket clipped against, made it very easy to accurately reset tappets on even the worst worn rocker gear

adjusting to 25 will not harm the engine but may reduce what power it has

franc123, Oct 18, 10:47pm
Interesting, I honestly believed otherwise from experience. Good luck with solving the noise.

rhys75, Jan 24, 6:12pm
update 8valve engine set tappets to .275 sound pretty good