How much is too much

[Tom Wesenberg]

I wonder if you have excess clearance due to having a reground cam?

Since there is no pressure on the heal, I can't see that wearing. I can see the tappets wearing, or someone grinding the stems to give excess clearance.

[Dick Steinkamp]

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

I wonder if you have excess clearance due to having a reground cam?

That would account for it IF the clearances were not reset after the new cam was installed. Possible, but I would think that if someone went to the trouble of installing a new cam that they would also replace the rest of the valve train. Stranger things have happened, however.

Since there is no pressure on the heal, I can't see that wearing. I can see the tappets wearing, or someone grinding the stems to give excess clearance.

I can't imagine the tappets/valve stems wearing more to increase clearance than the head of the valve receding into the valve seat to reduce clearance.

Someone grinding too much off the stems seems to be the most logical answer. It's not an easy process to set clearance on the original valve train. It's time consuming and easy to take shortcuts that would result in over size clearances (don't ask me how I know )