Toyota Sequoia Valve Inspection

[BryanTDI12]

Just did a valve clearance inspection on a 2003 Toyota Sequoia with the 4.7L V8 (2UZ-FE) with 120k miles. The car was bought used with 30k miles dealer serviced in 2007 and switched over to synthetic 5w30, usually Castrol FST. The maintenance book calls for valve clearance inspection every 60k but this was the first as I have been hearing 1-3 ticking noises under acceleration (merging onto freeway). I thought it might be bad gas and ran 91 Shell but the 'ping' was still there. Also, when driving in the mountains, it sounds like a steam train in my opinion, but there's no power loss, and it climbs mountains at 70mph effortlessly in 3rd gear (out of 4).

Anyways, here are the valve covers and cam. I find it weird that the driver's side valve cover has some varnish while the passenger side is spotless. All valve clearances were in spec but the driver's side was at the limit of 0.35mm for exhaust and 0.25mm for intake valves. What say you?

Driver's Side Valve Cover

Passenger Side Valve Cover

Passenger Side Cam

Rear Half of Driver Side Cam

Front Half of Driver Side Cam

 

[mehullica]

The drivers side has vanish due to the pcv valve pulling vapors through that side. The passenger side has clean air flowing through it. The cams have to be removed to measure & replace the shim that sits under the valve lifter or "bucket". Exhaust manifolds sometimes leak after 100,000 miles on the 4.7, is the tick only when cold or all the time?