Valve Adjustment- Who has-Who has not?

I'm not at the 16000 mile mark yet for my bike, but I'm reading my service manual. I'm getting very tempted to take this on myself, VTEC and all to save the money.

 

Lots of people who experience burnt out valves on VFR... NOT.. Better to spend the money on tires, oil, breaks..
Doing a valve check at every 16K sounds totally crazy..

 

Howdy All,

I performed a first ever valve clearance check on my 04 with 96,864 miles on the clock. I wasn't having any known issues; fact is to me the bike was running just fine. I did the check mostly out of curiosity.

Six were out of spec. Two were near the limits and were re shimmed. Red = out of spec

Cylinder #1

IN – N IN – Vtec
0.20 / 0.20

EX – N / EX – Vtec
0.35 / 0.35

Cylinder #2

IN – N / IN – Vtec
0.15 / 0.15

EX – N / EX – Vtec
0.28 / 0.28 (Vtec side 0.28 just within spec – decided to re shim)

Cylinder #3

IN – N / IN – Vtec
0.20 / 0.20

EX – N / EX – Vtec
0.33 / 0.23 (normal side 0.33 just within spec, decided to re shim)

Cylinder #4

IN – N / IN – Vtec
0.10 / 0.18

EX – N / EX – Vtec
0.23 / 0.20

 

I just wonder about one thing:

The VFR engine is bulletproof. VFR is one of the most sold bikes since 80s.. How often has anyone heard about a VFR engine going to hell due to a valve out of spec.. If you google it you figure out that more people have been adopted by aliens..Fact is: there are 10s of thousands VFR out there with high mileage and most probably did zero or max one valve check at 24K km (16K miles). Can people please step forward and say: I lost my vfr because I did not do the valve dance? Or did they burn up together with their valves?

My current VFR I bought 1 month ago. The previous owner had just done main service at 24K km at an authorized Honda dealer. Forgot to check if valves were checked but assume so because the service bill was 1300 US (I have seen the receipt but forgot to check details).. I could call and ask..but it doesn't matter since I'm not planning to do anything regardless of the answer.. and if I call, how sure can I be that it was actually done…Am I planning to check at 48K km? Did I pay for valve adjustments on my previous bikes? NO. I only check things when the engine has a problem to start, OR engine don’t idle well OR engine is running rough when cold OR the engine don’t pull well on low or high RPM. I know, people say: that's too late.. but where are all the late regretting people..

Well, of course things can happen..a lot of shit can happen when you drive a moto.. It can be stolen..most people die in a left curve.. Next question: should I spend money on a track course in order to avoid ending up as road kill or spend them on valve timing..

Btw, I love the VFR, not as much as my old track tuned RD500YPVS with 110+ HP on back wheel.. But it's a good bike. Its sporty but also do all the touring stuff.. Perfect. Lack horsepower, but still very very good. Its a good bike. Actually the best bike I had.. My V-max could do magic: always won the "fastest out of the traffic light situations.. ".. but I never drove far with it..

Sorry about long text (had some beer lol).. but Im still wondering about all the VFR's with burnt valves.. I have 3 friends with VFR.. enlighten us

 

Looks quite good considering the mileage.. did you notice any difference.. idle, start pull.. ?

 

I got it out for a short ride just the other day, starts & idles about the same, seems to be a little more responsive and perhaps might have a little more giddy-up-and-go... At this point I need more butt time to really get a feeling though.

 

Your previous valve results are actually quite impressive considering the mileage.

My hypothesis is that Honda has included huge safety margins. E.g. Exhaust valves are accepted to be 0.3 +-03 mm out of specs.. If Honda accepts e.g. 0.27mm at one service interval they are well aware that the value at the next service interval can be down to 0.24 or even way way worse if the bike was driven harder. I guess that’s why we don’t hear about burnt valves. Honda tested everything the hard way, and may also be the reason why they did not pull more horsepower out of it..

And it's easy to see.. It’s lots of VFR in Norway for sale. Most (9 out of 10) with no history of service..just about break, tires... Reason I bought the one I have now is because the main service was just done at exactly 24k km by a Honda dealer. But when I look at all the bikes with 3-4 times more mileages.. I think.. I could have paid less and got the same..

Btw: Im not saying that people should not test valves. Valves are also about horsepower's and fuel economy. But a lot of evidence indicate its ok to skip one valve test unless the purpose is to have a max tuned bike.

 

My 8gen is up to 90,500k's no valve check - Oh dear, naughty me! Then again I don't ride it like I stole it!

 

I rechecked my valves at 143k miles this weekend, previous check was at 43k mentioned above. All four normal exhaust valves tightened 0.0005” or 0.0010” since last time (still within spec) and all four normal intake valves were exactly how I left them 100k miles ago. No reshimming necessary; I didn’t check the VTEC valves since I didn’t want to go thru the trouble of pulling the cams.

At the rate that my valves have moved relative to mileage, this is probably the last time I’m going to check the valves on this engine. Your results may vary.

For future reference to anyone reshimming: The intake valves don’t appear to move much over time and the exhaust valves gradually tighten. I recommend setting the intake clearance right in the middle of the range and leaving the exhaust valves as loose as you are comfortable with. This is just based on my experience putting over 200k miles on VFR's.

-SlideRule

 

SlideRule, this is really helpful info /insight on the valve clearance inspection. My "new" 2014 only has about 3200 miles so far, but having advanced info like this is always a good thing. I have not looked into the manual for valve maintenance yet. I gather that checking the "standard" valves is as normally expected on a shim and bucket system, but just to check the V-tec valves requires camshaft removals. I have no mechanical experience with any type of advanced valve actuation systems, so it will be very interesting/educational to dive into when the time comes : )

 

I was reluctant to do the check myself as well, until I watched a YouTube vid on it, see link below. It's broken down into three parts and the guy does a good job of explaining the process. It gave me the confidence to give it a go. Not so bad once you get in to it, just be slow and methodical.

 

Here's my experience of doing the valve inspection.

https://vfrworld.com/threads/16000-mile-valve-inspection-here-goes-nothing.58617/

 

I read through the service manual chapters on valve inspection and camshaft removal. Looks like a couple of special tools need to be to ordered. Cam chain tensioner holder and V-tech pin removal tool of some kind. I guess the V-tech buckets will make more sense once they are in my hand.

 

They're worth buying considering the money you will save in labor charges.