Aircraft Engine valve clearance quick check

Lycoming, Continental with Hydraulic lifters. Aircraft Engine valve clearance quick check

[@Nord3202]

Excellent tip when the lifter is full of oil.

[@michaelsamson3276]

You can also jamb a common screwdriver between the valve and the rocker.

[@gawebm]

Awesome. Thanks for posting. I'm a homebuilder with an O-235 in my Zenith CH601XL. I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge on Lyco engines. No, I don't have hyd. lifters in my engine but I still enjoyed the video.

[@maheralazzawi7814]

very good

[@sigitagusprasetyo6962]

What is maintenance doing ,when valve clearench over limit gap???

[@KerryWho]

On lycoming engines the clearance is corrected by changing the push rod. They are available in different lengths. Check out the lycoming service letter on valve clearance. Continental engines have much larger acceptable clearances and are rarely out of limits.

[@T0mmyTune]

I've been an engine guy my entire life. Yet, I've never truly understood why on earth Airplane engines are so prone to failures. Short life spans, etc. Insight from you Kerry?

[@KerryWho]

Quite the contrary i must say. Most small planes built in the sixties and seventies have thousands of hours on them with the original engines still running. Things have changed from hard times when engines had to be overhauled to where we are today in Canada. I call it fly FTF. Fly till failure, and these things are so bullet proof they are still not falling out of the air. Most of the problems are lack of use, causing stuck valves and corrosion on cams and cylinders were never a problem before the cost of skyrocketed.

[@firstielasty1162]

It is tempting to compare them to car engines, but not a great comparison. This engine is an o-320 or 360, somewhere between 150-180 hp. Not very impressive. But what is impressive is that it will make 80% of that for 2000 or more hours..a 400-500 hp corvette engine, for example, rarely does that, even if driven hard. 10 seconds of 400 hp in a car =100+ mph. It can happen here and there, then you lift. It takes something like 25 hp to make most cars go 60 mph steadily. Aircraft engines spend most of their lives making almost max power. It's kind of impressive. But other than that, not real exciting. Big, low rpm engines, which is mandated by the propeller, which becomes inefficient if the tip speed gets near mach 1. And noisy. Other ways to spin the prop are tried often, with moderate success. Io-360 is a pretty good way to cruise for thousands of hours at about 150hp.