New motor, head, camshafts shim question

[musthave]

If you have a donor chassis and body.

You order a new Shortblock. New cylinder head, new camshafts, all of the valve pieces, tensioners, timing chain, etc. end up with a new long block essentially.

Obviously there are a lot of options on what size shims to get. I don't think that it makes any sense to get measurements from a previous head as they would serve no purpose. As I recollect, the FSM doesn't really give guidance when everything for the cylinder head is new. I suppose I could have a machine shop build it for me, and determine the correct sizes. Use some pucks, and figure it out.

What size shims do you get? Or best to leave it to a Machine shop have them use the pucks and order the shims?

 

[Fj80oregon]

do you have a old head your stealing parts from? That would be a good starting point, when the machine shop goes to set valve clearance he can measure and then order the ones you need. I don’t believe the buckets are available anymore so you would need an old head to take those parts from.

 

[DaviMH47]

I recently bought a new head, valves, and springs from Toyota. I had my machine shop set it up. Luckily he was experienced with the Toyota buckets. It's way easier (in my opinion) to let the machinist set it up to avoid problems. I have an extra set of buckets if you need them.

 

[musthave]

do you have a old head your stealing parts from? That would be a good starting point, when the machine shop goes to set valve clearance he can measure and then order the ones you need. I don’t believe the buckets are available anymore so you would need an old head to take those parts from.

I don't have the old head, so machine shop likely.

I recently bought a new head, valves, and springs from Toyota. I had my machine shop set it up. Luckily he was experienced with the Toyota buckets. It's way easier (in my opinion) to let the machinist set it up to avoid problems. I have an extra set of buckets if you need them.

Wow, that would be great, thank you. Yes, looks like I'll have a machine shop do it. Easier.

 

[freshspecbluegt]

You have to install the cams and get a baseline. When I rebuilt my head a few years ago I measured all the shims and then installed the cams and measured clearance. It’s a bit of work but I was able to swap the shims around and only had to order a couple to get everything nicely within spec. The cams were in and out 2-3 times so if you don’t want to mess with that have the machine shop do it.

 

[manofthewoods]

You have to install the cams and get a baseline. When I rebuilt my head a few years ago I measured all the shims and then installed the cams and measured clearance. It’s a bit of work but I was able to swap the shims around and only had to order a couple to get everything nicely within spec. The cams were in and out 2-3 times so if you don’t want to mess with that have the machine shop do it.

Basically, my story was the same. With the head on the bench, it's a bit time consuming, but not difficult. I think I needed to buy about 4 new shims. On one i had to cross my fingers 'cause I wasn't sure that the thinnest shim made was going to work. Luckily, it landed in the middle of spec.