I removed my aav today. I boiled it and it does move. a few questions. should the valve close all the way? and at what temp should it start to close at? I held a cigg. lighter to it and it seemed to take a longer time to respond than I had thought it should. thanks

 

YES, it MUST close 100%, no near enough on this sucker.

They do get gummed up, it is very common. Some have an aluminium piston, some have a stainless steel piston. The stainless units seem to be less troublesome in my experience.

The "wax pellet" does get lazy.

I have never taken readings as to when it "starts to close", I only make sure they close fully, and if not, a slight driving of the "top hat" section down a a few millimetres inside the outer casing will ensure 2 things. First is that the cold idle will be slightly slower, and the piston will close off sooner.

I have rebuilt many over the years, and never had a "wax pellet" failure (some have), but as I said some are lazy, and slow to move. I have one here at the moment that I have had off 3 times to get it to actually close off. It is REAL LAZY, and being his "part time car", he wont spend the $$ on a new unit which this one really needs. The top hat section is now 3mm below the rim of the outer casing, and it is fine cold, and closes off fully, and the engine is SWEET now.

If you need instructions let me know and will PM you my write up on that task.