sad 6th gen

So I was at the local stealership yesterday and saw a 6th gen in the shop, naked, looking sad and lonely. I asked what she was in for. She was brought in with 40k for her first valve adjustment and they found two bent intake valves. I'm nearing 15k on my 5th gen and plan on skipping the 16k valve check. However after seeing and hearing that yesterday I'll definetly be checking around 30k.

 

Sweet then we can have a thread sad 5th gen......:thumbsup:I wonder why honda reccommends valve adjustment at 16k?? not sure, but I'll skip mine and turn her in at 39k that way no bent valves....plus I use slick 50 mines better...:biggrin:

 

Love ya elf.....you make laugh :biggrin:

 

What causes intake valves to bend?

 

when the valves get too loose it throws the open/close cycle off and they hit the top of the pistons.

 

Valve bent from not checking shims is most likely not what happened if the valve is bent, sounds like to me valve float from over-revving or a busted timing chain. If valve shim clearance was a issue, the valves would stay partially open due to preload from a improper shim adjustment (not enough to hit pistons though) it would just simply burn the valves, not bend it.

Not sure of what to listen for on the VFR but my gixxer has a noisy valvetrain tappets, generally a rule for me on that bike is as long as i have that tapping noise its good, its when it gets quiet i need to look into adjustments (means valvetrain clearance is getting tighter), it was the same way with my old ZX6 i used to have. The valve clearance doesn't get looser with miles, it wears down and gets tighter until it gets to the point where its preloading the valve while its in the close cycle. Think of it like this, as the miles go on, the valve seat and valves starts to wear, as it wears the valve stem is getting taller little by little as when it wears at the bottom the stem rises up, this closes in on the shim clearance above which in worst case scenario when there is no more room to go up, the valve has a slight preload on it and allows some compression to leak causing it to burn.

 

This sounds more like it to me also. Probably a combination of several factors. Maintiance being the main one. Closley followed by over-reving.

 

What is considered over-reving? I bring mine right up to redline fairly often but I am not trying to damage the thing.

 

Speedpoker, It seems like more times than not we don't get the full story or details of a unit that is in the shop for repair. I have acutally seen people try to kill units by holding the throttle wide open and just banging off the rev limiter. It takes alot to kill a Honda though!!!
I'm not saying that the unit in question was abused, but most people in the "know" know what an engine failure is caused from.
Most assembly issues and or manufacturing problems will show up in a very short time.
A newer VFR with 40k on it had no spec problems off the assembly line I assure you!
If what Y2Kviffer was told is indeed the truth I'm sure there is alot more info that a dealer would not and should not make public. Just for privicy reasons.

Some of these units that are ridden VERY HARD and are not VERY WELL maintained can have mechanical issues. I'm talking like track time, living in the red for an extended period of time, extreme heat, etc.

Actually what tends to happen is that the valves will get tighter before they loosen. Contrary to popular belief!
Valves will stick to the guide is some instances when oil starvation is apparant and there you have interferance problems with the pistons :frown:

I feel sorry for the little fella in the shop and I wish him the best care possible if that is what the owner really wants :smile: