My dealer told me that I should check the valve clearance at 25 hours but looking through the Briggs factory service manual, I can't find anything on this. The manual says to check them at 100 hours instead so which one is it? Should I just check them at 25 to be safe and is the valve cover gasket reusable or do I need to get a new one? Thanks.

i check mine everytime i change my oil. only takes a couple minutes and then u dont have to guess

Do you reuse the gaskets?

so far i have, but i carefully take the cover off and if the gasket tears any at all i will replace em. so far so good

at 67 hrs mine were off bad and had to be set

167 hours and to be honest I have no clue if Gator-Tail has checked them I preform typical maintenance but have never checked myself hmmm might need to pop mine off and check.

i bought a stock 35 in 09 and prolly put 30 to 40 hours on it when i had it, a friend of mine bought the whole rig and he has prolly put the same amount on it that i had. the valves had not been checked any since either of us had it, since then i checked the valves for him and they were off by more than 20 thousandths so i would advise to check them atleast every 25 hours or so

Its good to check each time you change the oil. 10 hours on new motor after it breaks in and then at oil change every year. I have seen new motors from the factory that are off .020 from valve to valve. Do it every year before the season when you change oil and grease your drive. I have re-used the gaskets and have had my valve covers off at least 10 times.

Is it a pretty easy job to adjust them on your own or do you have to take it in?

Adjusting valves is easy. All you need is a feeler gauge and some basic tools.

right on man im gonna have to check this one out when i get it and see what they look like

Just make sure you check dem while @ 1/4" pass TDC.

There is a YouTube video that shows you how to check your valves for anyone with not a lot of engine or mechanic experience if you can turn a wrench you can get it done...

Here's the video, well one I just found doing a simple search...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2iDgU2RF3o[/youtube]

There's no video

TDC?

thats what i was thinking but wasn't sure thanks for the info, i'll need to pull mine and check them

I check mine every 25 hours and they usually need adjustin.

Right now I'm at 22 hours on a new engine so I am way overdue. So I will check my specs tomorrow and will post on the results but I'm sure I must be off by now.

Thanks DB8 I corrected my post.

Just check my valve clearance and it was off on all valves by over .012. So for future reference for anyone reading this CHECK YOUR VALVE CLEARANCE ON A NEW MOTOR. I only have 22 hours on mine so I should've done this a lot sooner. Thanks for all of your help guys!

Sure seems like a lot of valves are getting out of adjustment. So what happens to the local lawn service guy who puts on a bunch of hours a week on his commercial mower and doesn't even know about this and runs his mower for a couple of years and it runs just as good as it did when new.
Of course he isn't turning a surface drive but he is turning at least three blades under that deck that will bring the rpms down just as bad as a surface drive if not more. And he is turning max rpms most of the time that mower is running. I know valve adjustment is critical but maybe aren't some of you doing a lil over kill or some of you might be reading the gauge wrong?

I just finished adjusting them and everything went fine. I did have to bump the motor over until the other valve was fully down. Is there any way to manually turn the Briggs 35HP over manually to set it at TDC? I had to bump the engine over quite a few times to get the rockers is the right position.

Engage da clutch and turn da prop by hand.

Just measured and set mine at .005. Had to bump starter to position rockers properly. Prop will not turn engine with clutch engaged. All were considerably off at 80 hours. GTR23.

Result: much smoother start; engine purring now.

I don't know how you guys are even getting close to the right position by bumping the starter... With the clutch engaged, you can most certainly turn the prop to spin the crankshaft. And if you can't figure out how to do it, remove the plastic cover and turn the flywheel.

To set them right the motor needs to be in the right position. They can be set without the motor at tdc, but you need to know exactly what your doing, and from the looks of things, those doing this are learning and don't know. Just saying...Be careful and do it right.

Agreed and good post- if you are having trouble moving the crank with the prop while in gear, then take out your spark plugs so you are not fighting the compression on the motor. Set the valves on the compression stroke (you can feel/hear the air coming out of the spark plug holes).

Waiting for sunrise in my blind.

Foward switch engaged, spin prop no engine does not. As I understand TDC is only necessary if you want to set boath rockers at once. If you want to do each individually all that is required is bumping motor till rocker has play in it. ???? Seems to be running just fine this morning... Maybe I just got lucky

Woodies just landed in my spread

Engine idling and running just fine after my valve adjustment. However, I think I'm noticing that upon throttling up there is latency in rpm response as though starved for fuel. If I apply throttle more gradually no response latency. First, I think I need to make sure I did these valve adjustments properly, and if so, do I need to adjust carb too?