Step by step instructions on how to adjust the valves in your air cooled VW engine.
Keeping your valves adjusted will help your air cooled engine to run smoother and more efficient. Improper valve clearances are one of the primary core causes of mechanical and efficiency problems in air cooled engines. Due to the nature of the air cooled engine keeping your valves adjusted will have a major impact on your classic Volkswagens life and performance.
If the valve clearances are too small the valves will remain open too long which will cause them to over heat. If clearances are too large the opposite will happen, the valves will stay closed too long and will interfere with the intake of fuel and exhaust of burned fuel. Either way, if your valves aren’t adjusted correctly your air cooled Volkswagen will not run smoothly. Read on to learn how to adjust your own valves.
On many later model Volkswagens the cylinder order is printed on the engine cover. Whether or not your VW has the cylinder order printed on the sticker you can easily determine the ordering. Stand, or imagine standing, behind your VW. The cylinders are numbered from front to back on all air cooled VW engines. The cylinder nearest the passenger side back seat is Number 1. Cylinder Number 2 is directly behind it and nearest the passenger side rear. Cylinder 3 is in the front on the left (drivers side) and 4 is behind it.
IMPORTANT:
The engine must be completely cool when checking and adjusting valves.
1. Disconnect the positive battery cable to help avoid accidents; Engage emergency break or chock the wheels if necessary; Put the transaxle in neutral – Be safe!
2. Take off the distributor cap and set it aside so that you can see the rotor button and the distributor rim.
3. The engine needs to be turned so that the appropriate piston is at top dead center (TDC). Using a wrench or socket turn the crankshaft pulley clockwise until the rotor button is pointing at the mark in the distributor rim. Now look down at the timing mark on the pulley, it should be aligned with the seem of the crank case. With your engine in this position the number 1 cylinder is at TDC and both intake and exhaust valves are closed.
4. Remove the cylinder valve cover by inserting a large screwdriver or similar tool into the wire bail and prying upwards. Be careful not to bend the cover or make any dings in the cylinder head rim. Try wiggling the pair of rocker arms toward the front of the engine, on your right as you are facing the cylinder head. The rocker arms should have some clearance. Believe it or not experienced air cooled engine mechanics can tell right here whether or not the valve clearances are correct.
Adjusting Valves
5. Insert the appropriate feeler gauge in between each valve stem and it’s adjusting screw. If the blade slides in and out smoothly or with just a slight tug your valves are adjusted properly. If a valve needs to be adjusted first loosen the locknut then turn the adjusting screw while rechecking the clearance. The trick is to get the locknut tightened back down without altering the valve clearance. Be sure to verify the clearance once a locknut is tightened and readjust if needed.
Now you are ready to go on to cylinder number 2. Rotate the crankshaft so that the rotor button rotates counterclockwise until the button is pointed 90 degrees from the mark in the distributor rim. Cylinder 2 is now at TDC. For cylinders 3 and 4 just repeat the steps, each time rotating the rotor button counterclockwise an additional 90 degrees.
6. Before replacing the valve covers inspect the rocker arms and the oil as well as the rim of the cylinder head. If there are any pieces of gasket material stuck to the head it will need to be cleaned off. Also inspect the inside of your valve covers. Once everything is clean reinstall the valve covers, preferably with new gaskets.
Proceed to Step 3 of tune up procedure How To Change & Adjust Air Cooled VW Points
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2008 all rights reserved.
Thank you, David
I have always changed my own oil and plugs but until now I never really thought about adjusting my own valves. Now I am actually excited to try it out.
You say turn the crankshaft 90 degrees? Everybody else I’ve seen on the internet says 180 degrees. Are you certain?
what is the appropriate feeler gauge to set the gap
The proper gap setting depends upon which engine you have. This can vary usually from 0.004 to 0.012. What type of air cooled VW do you own?
admin, I would like to point out that the comment by William Shepard has caused you to make a correction that is unneeded and untrue. Your text was correct as written before you changed it. You are correctly describing the procedure using the rotor to orient yourself. Working backward, each cylinder in order would be properly located by moving the rotor 90deg. each time.
William was correctly siting the crank pully method where each 90 deg. turn of the rotor translates into 180 deg. on the crank pully.
So in order to be correct you would need to return the 180 deg. part in step 5 back to 90 deg.
Nice website.
Hello this was really helpful and made the job for me really easy thank you so much for all this information
Luke
can anyone tell me how to properly service a oil bath air breather on a VW as mine doesn’t show how much oil that I should be puttign in it
Thanks Luke
Hey Luke, I will try to get that info on the site for you by next weekend.
Hi thanks there VWNUT looking forward to reading that
Luke
Hi I was told to start at tdc and adjust intake on 1 intake and exhaust on 2 and intake on 3. rotate 360 degrees and adjust the rest. Is this a short cut to doing each cylinder individually?
after adjusting the valves will you have play on the other valves?
I HAVE A 1963 VW BUG 40HP 1200 MOTOR. PLEASE TELL ME THE VALVE CLEARANCE GAP ON INTAKE AND EXHAUST…THANKS
what is the valve clearance on a 1967 1500 beetle engine
If my distributor and my notch for TDC donot come together , does that mean my distributor drive gear is not in correctlly?
very helpful instructions– although I’m confused as to which valves are intake and exhaust. I have a 74 transporter, 1.8 manual 4 cyl.
Is the intake/exhaust order (from passenger front to passenger back and driver front to driver rear): intake-exhaust-intake-eshaust? or exhaust-intake-intake-exhaust?
This matters because the manual tells me that intake should have a .008 gap and the exhaust a .012 gap.
Very informative site iundeed. Will add you to our links page on the cvwoc blog. Wonder if you do have an RSS feed from the site? Could add that to our Squidoo page.
Notice you have a page rank of zero so, like us you need more backlinks to build popularity and visitor numbers to make your hard work worthwhile.
Norman
chairman Cornwall VW Owners Club
The 74 bus engine had one-year-only sodium cooled exhaust valves which needed to be adjusted to .008″ clearance. Most of these have been removed in the ensuing years due to their expense, and the replacement stainless steel valves should be adjusted to .006″ No air-cooled VW has .012″ clearances as posited above.
Colin
Thank you Colin, being the second owner of this van, I guess I should know whether the valves are sodium cooled or stainless steel.
I adjusted them to.008, and it idles at around 1500. I think what I might actually need to do is to adjust the spring attached to the carb,’
oni
if you are moving the rotor 90 degrees each time you should use the firing order instead of saying cylinders 1,2,3,4…
helo i have a vw beetle trike and was wondering if there is anyway i can find out the year of my engine as it is on a q plate thanks
Hello I was wondering if you would know the clearances for points and valves for a 1982 air cooled kombi Cheers Shane
I have a 1972 type 1 what should my clearances be?
I just got this buggy and it was running real bad, at times only on 2 cyl’s.. i changed the plugs, wires, distributor, cap, points, condenser and coil and it still ran the same.. I had someone who owned 5 look at it and he said i needed a new carb so i got a new webber and it still runs the same.. backfireing and spitting.. adjusted the timeing and nothing.. please help…
also i notticed there is no notch on the rim of my new distributor, could it be the wrong one???
hi there just did the timing on my 1972 beetle
running great but just doesn’t want to stop when i turn the ignition off
is this a timing issue
steve goddard