22R Valve Adjustment  Written By Eric Stegall March 2000

If they are too tight, you run the risk of burning the exhaust valve seats and the valves might not close all the way.  Whether they are too loose or too tight, your motor's performance will suffer.

I drove the truck up and down the expressway a few times to bring the engine up to normal operating temperatures.  I pulled it into the garage, applied the parking brake, shifted the transmission into neutral and turned the engine off.  To gain access to the rocker arms, I removed the air cleaner assembly, set aside any hoses and wires attached to the valve cover, and removed the valve cover.

When the number 1 piston is at TDC and on the compression stroke, both of the intake and exhaust rocker arms should be loose (in the picture I am actually able to slide rocker arms off the cam lobe - this is loose).

If they are not both loose, you must rotate the crankshaft bolt 360 degrees since you are not on the compression stroke.

Adjust number 1 and 2 intake valves and number 1 and 3 exhaust valves to the indicated specs.  To do this, I loosen the lock nut, insert the proper feeler gauge between the rocker arm pad and the valve stem.

Turn the adjusting screw with a screwdriver until there is a slight amount of resistance or drag on the feeler gauge.  Hold that setting with the screwdriver and tighten the lock nut.  Slide the feeler gauge out and make sure there is still a slight drag to it.  If not, repeat the above step.

The number 1 piston is NOT on the compression stroke.  Now I adjust the number 3 and 4 intake valves and number 2 and 4 exhaust valves to the indicated specs.  I reinstall the the valve cover, the hoses, and the air cleaner assembly and I am all done.