Not been on for a while moving house and so on, anyway i don't seem to be getting the same top end out of the auld girl, i recently gave her a service all the usual stuff.But no joy still staying under 100 i've read that i need to do the tappets every 20 thou or so :rofl:mines have never been done to my knowledge and its on 77 thousand.question is Is this that important and will it give me my top end back:thumbup:

Yes it is an important aspect of servicing on these types of engines, and loose clearances can lead to poor performance.

is this an easy thing for the diy'er to do or is it a dodgy garage job

It's easy enough when you know what you're doing. You need an 10mm socket or spanner, an 11mm ring spanner and a flat blade screwdriver.

The usual method is to use feeler gauges and to adjust the clearances so the gauges can just get in and out of the gap left without being too tight. But an alternative is to use this method described in this post by Richard Black. http://briskoda.net/forums/favorit-felicia-fun-forman/proud-owner-tractor/99064/#post1143814

Put car in 5th gear.

Jack front driver side wheel up.

Remove rocker cover (two 10mm nuts on top and two hose clips/hoses, if these are the nasty Skoda clipping ones, replace them for standard hose clips).

Once you have the cover removed you will see the rocker gear which controls the 8 valves. Move the wheel clockwise and this will rotate the engine with relative ease, although the amount of pressure needed to turn the engine will change as it compresses and decompresses (this effect can be eliminated if desired by removing the spark plugs).

Turn the engine until one of the valves has just fully opened (it is fully opened when the spring is at it's most compressed - keep turning the engine and watch what happens and you'll get used to it).

Now you have one valve that has fully opened and the spring is at it's most compressed. Using the rule of 9, adjust the opposite valve. (i.e. numbered left to right 1-8, if valve 1 has just opened, check and adjust valve 8, valve 2 check and adjust valve 7 and so on.) Continue until you have adjusted all 8.

Adjust by following the method described by Richard Black.

Then clean the drips of oil that have gone down the front edge of the engine and replace the cover etc and all should be good.

I made a mess of it the first time but hopefully I've explained well enough for you to get the job done

thanks for that sounds as if i could have a bash without killig her. :)although i'm from scotland i'm working down your way at the moment .ferrybridge power station so if you see a red fellie with BRISKODA lettering on the back give us a honk.thanks again:thumbup:

Also just so you're aware, if the clearances are too tight, the valves will become damaged. So long as they're adjusted correctly you'll be fine though.

Oh and they should be adjusted with the engine stone cold (that's a bit I missed out). Think that's everything.

cheers

You will probably notice a big difference in the car!

Poorly adjusted valves can, as said above, lead to poor performance and also make the engine noisier than it already is!

When i did mine for the first time i used the wrong feeler blades and made the gaps too big... worked ok but sounded VERY tappy on the top!

It's really easy once you've got the cover off and start turning the engine!

if you adjust the tappets too tight this can cause a major misfire, happened to me on my Ka and they are similar engines i think :S pushrod engines

if you get a misfire after setting them find the tight one(s) and back them off (Y)