I'm soon to do a valve clearance check on my 08 1.2L Fit/Jazz. Can anyone who has already done this tell me if I will need to buy all the gaskets/seals to complete the job, or are some re-useable?


Thank you.

 

The valve cover gasket, throttle body gasket, and upper intake manifold gaskets are all "reusable" but I always replace mine during every valve adjustment to be safe (plus they're already off and accessible to replace). Inspect each seal to make sure its not brittle or hardened due to heat cycling over time.

Also make sure to have some Hondabond, Ultra Gray, or some other variant of a liquid gasket to seal the points where two metal surfaces met up. Like the timing chain cover and block for example, the two points where they contact need a dab of liquid gasket.

 

Thank you.

 

I don't have experience with the 1.2, but with our 1.5 I have not used a gasket yet. Done 3 valve adjustments so far.

I remove the the entire intake tract as one piece so I don't separate the throttle body from intake. Also don't separate the intake from the head. Just separate the upper and lower intakes and leave the lower attached. That way you have much less chance of gasket failure.

Two dabs of Ultra Gray where the timing chain cover mates to the cylinder head is all I've ever needed.

That being said, it wouldn't hurt to have a valve cover gasket handy just in case. The others...no need. Just don't break their seals to begin with.

 

Thank you. I hadn't thought of leaving the throttle body attached to the manifold. What about the throttle body coolant pipes? do you just move the entire assembly over to the battery side and let it sit there?

 

You could possibly do it that way, but I remove the whole thing from the car. That requires unplugging a ton of sensors and disconnecting the coolant and vacuum lines.

If you could just move it out of the way, there would be even less likelihood of creating a leak. I've had to replace one coolant line that connects to the throttle body because I mangled it when removing.

 

Right, the deed is done. It's a hell of a job, with lots of ancillary stuff to remove before getting access to the rockers. I found that almost all of the tappet clearances were 3 -4 thou bigger than the recommended clearance, but nothing drastic. It is difficult getting a feeler gauge in there at the correct angle, so takes a bit of wiggling.


BTW, 3 out of 4 spark plugs were loose, which is a worry; what is it with these engines and spark plugs?


Thanks all for the advice.

 

Good job! Glad to hear you had success!

Agree on the spark plugs. I don't get it since I've owned a WHOLE lot of cars through the past 30 years and our Fit is the first with a spark plug issue.

Out of curiosity, did you use bent feeler gauges? On the 1.5, the lip of the valve cover mating surface makes it almost impossible to use straight feelers. Bent ones make the job fairly easy.

 

I bought a set of bent feeler gauges especially for the job, but as you say it is not easy getting down into the well of the rocker box and there is not much room between the rockers either. I found that the feeler had to be kept really parallel to the valve tip to get a true reading, but practice makes perfect!