XE Valve clearance question

[House]

As a few of you know I'm building/having built a big power XE.

We've come to set inlet and exhaust valve clearances, using solid buckets, Newman PH5 cams, +1mm wasted stem valves and a 150' shim we have an inlet valve clearance of 80' which is a little large.

Does anyone know if we can run with a 230' valve shim? The largest QED stock is 180' we can manufacture some 230's if it'll work it just sounds quite big.

The valves measure 105mm as they should and the buckets measure the same as the ones QED have in stock. We just can't get our heads round it.

On the flip side the exhaust shims are down at 70' to get the correct clearance. Anyone any ideas?!?

[BRoadGhost]

The shims I just used were 11mm base to top with 6mm of solid; was pretty shocked to hear some builders just grind them by hand!

[House]

So to clarify if I can Mr Ghost sir,





Your top hat shims as pictured were 11mm total height and the recess that goes onto the bucket "finger" inside the bucket (for want of a better word) was 5mm and it added 6mm to the height of the "finger" in the bucket??

So we can make up some 230 thou shims with no real drama?!

We've got a proper valve grinder to machine them as we need.

[BRoadGhost]

I'm not overly enthusiastic about the collar shown in your top picture; why's it so shallow? That said once it's all together I doubt they'd fly out!

I measured mine in mm and gave 16 individual bags to my machinist stating the various total heights; greased them to hold in place during assembly & not had issue.

[House]

The ones in the pic sit with the recess on top of the valve hence why it's small any bigger recess and it would touch the collet not the top of the valve

I'll give Darren the go ahead to machine some up at 230 thou!! easy peasy!!!

[BRoadGhost]

I fitted mine into the convex bit of the lifter up the other way, went on nice & snug with grease.

Don't rush the build & certainly dont' rush running it in! Triple check every bolt!

[House]

Engine is being assembled by a very reputable engine company locally mate, I wouldn't risk building it myself, the level of detail they are going to is beyond my skill set!!

Darren said he wants to fit them recess into the bucket as you describe

[BRoadGhost]

A lifter will have less deviance on it's path compared with a sprung valve (top); some say to remove the spring location cups, but given how much these parts actually rotate at high rpm I'd prefer to keep them!

It's easy for someone else to tell you to go for it yourself, but everyone's different; all I can say is really take your time & if anything isn't perfect then go back & do it again purely for peace of mind.

[House]

I'm more than capable of doing it, despite my skillset comment, but my wife and I are trying to get approved as adopters at present and I'm so busy with work it's just a time factor really, plus tooling to do the job, the boys at Modus have everything!! Darren and Jay have also just built another 20XE for someone else with a Nova, along with many other big power engines, their reputation locally speaks for itself. Trust them 1000%

I agree with the idea that the lifter will have less deviation it in path compared to the valve, that makes total sense!! I also specifically asked QED about spring cups and they said it's a no also to remove them.

[steveboyslim]

?