dw8 valve tappet shim diameter help.

[top drive]

Hello ,

my dw8 in my berlingo sounds like a filing cabinet falling down stairs and doesnt start so well in the AM

ive narrowed it down to my inlet valves all being well under clearance somewhere between 0.04 - my smallest feeler and held open.

I want to reshim these and redo timing belt/pump/tensioner - the belts the easy part but i need to source shims. I dont want to take it apart and measure the ones in there if i can help it as the car will then be off the road for three days ideally. There are plenty of shim kits availible cheap enough IF only i knew the diameter required

Any one have any idea ? ive seen 13mm mentioned on a forum and ive seen 33mm in a catalogue listed as the part for a 1.9d in a doblo which i believe is also a dw8 engine.....

Confused.

Cheers

TD

[GiveMeABreak]

If you post up your VIN that might help.

[CitroJim]

Sadly, the only way is to take the cam out and measure what you have already and them determine what you need in the way of replacements after measuring the clearances and the existing shim thicknesses.

These shims are special and you cannot/must not use any general purpose shim kits... You must use the correct ones as they are under very heavy load...

Do you have the required formulas for calculating the new shims required? If not I may still have a spreadsheet knocking around...

You're right that tightening clearances will cause hard cold-weather starting due to the quirk that these engines see the tightest clearances when stone-cold in contrast to the majority of engines...

Once you know what shims you need, ask on here as many of us have a few knocking around...

[top drive]

under more load than that of a kawasaki motorbike ? thats where i was going to get them if they were 13mm although am i right in thinking they are 13.42mm

I was reluctant to take the car off the road until im in possession of at least some shims i can use even if its to grind down and work out what size i need otherwise im pissing in the wind as my current shims leave me with no gap to measure on the 4 inlets cant even get my thinnest gauge in. - then i was going to stick the non ground ones back in and put it back on the road for the wife as its her motor i cant have it off the road for days on end . She works in an area up here thats similar to liverpool and my landy would last 5 minutes at her work.

How ever its all academic now as after a few phonecalls tonight i have a bag of shims on their way to me from a friend of a friends garage to do my clearances then return - although he did remark that the last time he did one of these was about 15 years ago !

cheers for offer of spreadsheet but its fairly simple maths itll be grand.

[CitroJim]

If the Kawasaki ones are anything like the ones from a Suzuki GS500 twin then I'd not trust them in diesel personally...

Excellent, that bag of shims is just what you want

Maths is not hard as you say, just tedious...

Let us know how it all went in due course...

[top drive]

Shims done

0.25mm off three of the inlets and 0.11 of the last.

No wonder it ran like a bag of spanners.

So much smoother though

Also found that the entire aux system was on its last legs -,belt , tensioner , idler and deflector. My crank pulley fell apart in my hands and the deflector was missing......

Engine starts on the first turn now even in the cold where as before it took 3-4turns and ran lumps as hell.

Not a hard job just need to be methodic and have a decent tool set.

Took an hour to strip it down and lock it up , belt off and cam out. Took 3 hours to get the shims right. And then I had to do the timing belt twice due to the floating crank. Haynes casually tags on the the fact you put the belt on backwards to if it was a fixed crank. To the end of the 2 litre engine section - helpful.

[CitroJim]

Excellent work Always a good idea to ensure the auxiliary stuff is good and crank pulley too. If the auxiliary belt makes a bid for freedom it often tangles with the cambelt and causes mayhem.

[chinkostu]

Excellent work Always a good idea to ensure the auxiliary stuff is good and crank pulley too. If the auxiliary belt makes a bid for freedom it often tangles with the cambelt and causes mayhem.

I know that first hand unfortunately. Tensioner was shagged and didn't check properly when changing the belt, so the new belt shredded itself under the crank pulley.