Valve adjust at 32000 mile service. Had some.

I am new to VFR World, just joined today. I thought I would go to the experts at this forum for answers to my questions. I have had good results with the Gurus on the KLR.net and the Airhead forum for those bikes. I will add my valve check results to the growing list in just a minute, but first I would like to know if somebody makes a reliable kit or has developed a proven modification to convert the V-tech valves into shim type? As in all 16 valves the same type. This would allow you to measure all clearances and only pull a cam as necessary for adjusting the wayward valves.
I was a motorcycle mechanic at 4 shops and a Kawasaki and Suzuki service manager for 11 years in So. Cal. I am no stranger to valve adjustment and have done thousands on every thing from singles to 6 cylinders so that doesn't scare me off. I bought the bike a 2002 with 27000 miles. The PO had no service history available.:chaingun: I keep a aircraft style log book of all work for all of my bikes.
I rode it for 4000 miles and decided it would be prudent to do the 32k service. Following the Honda Service Manual, installing stopper pins, and pulling all of the camshafts at least 3 times was a royal PITA. Also installed a new thermostat while I was in the neighborhood. I have never performed this service on any motorcycle that required this amount of wrench spinning. I have never done the valves on a modern Ducati desmo. I guess they might be worse. This took me 3 nights of work in my spare time. All of you home mechanics that have successfully accomplished this without an expert babysitting your work are now ready for brain surgery IMHO.

The results of the valve adjust are as follows:
Cylinder 4 V-Tech exhaust was at .006. The lower limit is .010. This is well out and trending toward an happy ending. It required buying a new v-bucket. $40.
Cylinder 1 and 3 V-Tech exhaust were both at .010 the lower limit. I will not leave an exhaust at the lower limit. They tend to get tighter and if not changed may be below limit for a very long time until the next inspection. No cost here as the sizes allowed swapping with the previously replaced bucket.
Cylinder 1 intake standard valve was on the lower limit. A $7 shim bumped it up to the upper limit.
So 1 was a must do and 3 more for piece of mind.

Now that I know they are all in range I may feel comfortable to go 20k or 24k until the next inspection. That is an event I look forward to, not.

 

Hmm, based on what I have seen in the time I've been here and at VFRD, I have not seen any such kit for the VTEC valves. In fact, based on a lot of the feedback and reports, most riders either forgo the inspection/adjustment all together or when looked into, found that the valves were all within spec, even well after the second or 3rd interval. That's not to say don't have them done, but if the consensus is to skip an interval or two, or not even check them at all, I doubt there would be a big call for any such kit, but who knows?

Out of curiosity, when you said it took you 3 nights in your spare time to do this, was that because you were doing this after you got off work? Or did you find a hurdle that you had to stop at and leave to the next evening or two? i.e. Needed a special tool, didn't have the correct valves/shims on hand?. I'm eager to attempt this, for curiosity sake and for the experience, but kind of need to be able to wrap it up in one day. I'm not a mechanic by trade but I am familiar with motorcycle engines and have done valve checks on my Desmo 2v motor, but that is a much more simple engine than the Honda VTEC. I'm feeling that the first try at this would take me about a full day so curious about your situation being that you are/were a mechanic.

Thanks

P.S. Now that you've done one post, head over to the "introductions" section of the forum and do a proper introduction post, which of course requires pics of your ride!

Cheers

 

OOTV, having done a valve adjustment twice I can help with your questions. Most of the time really is just taking apart the bike and putting it back together. The actual inspection doesn't take that long, approximately 20 minutes and the most time consuming portion of the valve inspection is just manually rotating the camshaft so that you can inspect each cylinder.

And assuming you have a valve out of spec unless you have some shim kit handy you'll have to factor in time to purchase a new shim from either your local shop or online.

FWIW last time I did a valve inspection and had to adjust 4 valves it took me, I would say a solid 2 days of work with about a week waiting for the new shims from an online parts dealer. But I had already done a valve inspection three times so I had experience to help me do the job faster. I estimate that since this will be your first time it will take 3-4 days of solid work because this is a pretty complex operation.

 

Thanks for the response. The Duc didn't take long at all, much easier to get to the cylinders though and there's only 2 valves per cylinder. I would think the tricky part would be having the shims on hand and ready to replace, so the first time opening the motor would be more of an exploratory/get to know the procedure adventure. Then the second time, if valves indeed needed to be replaced would be a little easier/quicker. For my Duc, I bought a shim kit that comes with a decent assortment of shims, although not cheap, it was still a lot cheaper than the cost of doing the VTEC valve check alone, at least according to the post I've seen with labor cost.

Cheers

 

This adjustment took me about 3 nights after work and maybe a Saturday. I did not need and special tools or out side advice and research. There was just so much parts off-parts on withe potential to drop foreign objects down into a chasm. Glad to here that the Ducati was easy. I will see if I can get over to the introduction page and post a picture.