Valve adjustment

Discussion in '8th Generation 2014-Present' started by icycle2much, Aug 28, 2017.

  1. icycle2much

    icycle2much New Member

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    Hi all - I am approaching 24k and am curious if any of you have performed the needed valve adjustment yourself?

    If so, do you have any tips, suggestions or recommendations?

    Thanks in advance

    Sean


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  2. Jyno

    Jyno New Member

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    First of all, you will need the service manual for this. Follow those directions carefully.

    with the valve cover off, check the distance between the lobe of the camshaft and the bucket with a feeler gauge. The lobes of the camshafts should be pointing away from the buckets. the specs for this clearance are in your service manual. if any of these are out of spec follow the adjusting procedure.

    looks to me like the 02-09 models have a shim and bucket valve setup. Doing the adjusts on these is easy, but you will have to be careful when reinstalling the camshafts. Essentially you will have to remove the valve cover, do one bank of cylinders at a time. Find Top dead center on your crankshaft for that cylinder bank, as this is where you will remove the camshafts and reinstall them. Be sure to undo the cam chain tension-er. The camshaft gears have bolts on them and they will likely have to be removed from the shaft themselves. When the cylinder bank is at TDC, there will be marks on the cam gears that line up with the horizontal plane of the head. these marks need to be in the exact same position when reinstalling the camshafts. Trick for double checking your marks is to count the number of pins on the cam chain itself between the mark on the intake gear and the exhaust gear. that pin number needs to be exactly the same after re-installation.

    The rest of it is simple. under the camshafts will be a series of 4 intake buckets and 4 exhaust buckets. You can pull these out carefully with a needle nose pliers, just be very careful to not mar up the top surface of the buckets. Underneath these will be your shims, this is where you will replace with bigger or smaller shims to bring the check into specification. If any of the buckets are really stuck in there and require a lot of effort to remove. be sure to replace the bucket. Finally, re-oil the surface of your buckets after installation.

    after the cams are inserted again, turn the motor over by hand. DO NOT use the starter. This will make sure valves are not interfering with the cylinder. The last thing you want to do is bend a valve.

    Most importantly, always count and measure twice!

    Note: The VTEC operated valves have a pin that holds the buckets on, this pin needs to me removed to remvoe the bucket from the valve spring. It looks like there is an outer spring there too, so that might require some finagling. yay VTEC!

    I am sure there is probably a video of this somewhere on youtube, find those and watch the process carefully before doing this project on your own.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2017
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  3. Jyno

    Jyno New Member

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    I do want to say, you can often times get away with checking the distance between lobes and the buckets. with the lobe pointed away from the buckets if you want to save time. but if any of those are wrong you will have to do the full procedure.
     
  4. icycle2much

    icycle2much New Member

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    Thanks Jyno - I have the service manual but haven't attempted this type maintenance requirement before. Like you said yeah VTEC!



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  5. Thumbs

    Thumbs Member

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    Jyno ... sounds like you've done this on previous motors, do the valve clearances tend to go up or down?
     
  6. Jyno

    Jyno New Member

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    The valve clearances tend to get bigger over time, due to normal engine wear. Most of my engine experience is dealing with Ducatis, where it goes both ways lol. But something like a bucket getting stuck or a valve sticking open can cause the opposite. These conditions usually happen when a valve itself gets starved of oil and overheats.

    Biggest recommendation to prevent these things from happening, is to be sure to use good full synthetic motorcycle oil, and do your oil changes when they are due.
     
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  7. fink

    fink Member

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    The valve clearances in bucket and shim tend to close up over time not open up. In the 30 odd years the only ones I've seen goin the opposite way were on tappets / pushrods.


    Found best way to remove buckets was to use a magnet like the ones in a pickup tool.

    If you go onto bikers oracle vfr site there is a writeup with pics on how to do a vtec (6th gen) The procedure is near enough the same on the 8th gen.

    If anything listening to a few of the guys on there it's the vtec shims that are usually out.
     
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  8. SlideRule

    SlideRule New Member

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    I checked my valves in my 8th gen at 43k miles - all four normal exhaust valves were too tight, particularly the rear cylinders. One rear VTEC exhaust valve was just a bit too tight as well. All the intake valves (normal & VTEC) were within specs. That was the first time I checked the valves on my 8th gen.

    With previous VFR's, I've checked just the normal valves and buttoned it back up if they were within spec. I realize its a bit of a gamble, but with VTEC having the wider tolerance window and used less than the normal valves, I feel its an acceptable risk. If you are going to pull the cams to make an adjustment on the normal valves, then might as well do the job right and check the VTEC valves as well.

    My main suggestion is to have the VTEC pin-stoppers on hand before tearing into the bike. I didn't and it resulted in a few extra days of downtime while waiting for them to arrive, since I was expecting to do a "quick & dirty" check on the normal valves only. Don't expect your local dealer to have the pin-stoppers nor VTEC Lifters in stock. You might was well replace spark plugs and air filter while you're in there, and PAIR Block-Off if you're into that sort of thing. I reused my valve cover gaskets for the first check without any issues, but I'll probably have new ones on hand for the next inspection in case one of them gets damaged.

    -SlideRule
     
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  9. Jyno

    Jyno New Member

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    Video! It has been a very productive day at work...
     
  10. Thumbs

    Thumbs Member

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    Keep up the discussion guys, we need more

    Jyno ...you're a star
     
  11. 2027Matt

    2027Matt New Member

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    My experience, valve clearance always closes up - wear on valve seats. Exhaust valves hotter and wear more. Not checking and adjusting the valve clearances can result in engine damage if the valves can no longer close.
     
  12. Jyno

    Jyno New Member

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    See I had the exact opposite happen on my SV650, the exhaust side buckets showed a lot of wear and they were bigger than spec, Now that I look back to it, there was probably a time with a lack of oil or a clogged oil passage leading up to that side of the head.
     
  13. fink

    fink Member

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    Yet my experiences with the SV are the opposite with them reacting the same way every other bike has done.
     
  14. thtanner

    thtanner New Member

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    Ah, actual data. Better than the guys going "yea just go 100k miles before checking valves." Sounds like by the second check (32k) there should be need for some adjustment.
     
  15. Bubba Utah

    Bubba Utah Member

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    24,000 miles is about the time I sell a bike!;-) Every 5-7 yrs on average. I get this "oh look at that shinny new thing or that's a killer deal" mentality and I am putting myself in more debt!;-) I personally have never done a valve check or overhaul. Kinda sucks that I might try my hand at it with such a technical valve system. DAMNIT!;-)
     
  16. Jyno

    Jyno New Member

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    Wait till you find a good deal on a used Ducati ;)
     
  17. fink

    fink Member

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    Can you ever find a good deal on a used Ducati?
     
  18. PetePower

    PetePower New Member

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    Hey Bubba, please don't take this the wrong way but from the posts I read about you and the Tail Tidy and Cntr Stand, I would have 2nd thoughts about tackling the valve clearance :eek:;)
     
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