Valve clearances

[Gemini]

what are the tell tale signs to know when to check these?

gem

[Jamz]

Your engine seizes solid downa country lane when you're on your way to have lots of sex with a girl.

I think God might have something to do with them.

[rene]

i like how you had to add "with a girl"

When the manual says, simple as that. Its all about only having 8 to check even if i do have to take the rad off to get to them..

[Jamz]

i like how you had to add "with a girl"

When the manual says, simple as that. Its all about only having 8 to check even if i do have to take the rad off to get to them..

Better safe than Ghey!

Seriously, though - I think it is just a routine thing that you have to do, and even then there's always the chance of them failing between checks. I don't think you get any warning sounds or anything?

And aren't they 16v? Or do you mean your TL?

[zimm]

if it spins over faster than it should and isnt "ticky" check them, they close up due to valve stem stretch and valve seat recession, in the end the valves dont close completely when the engine's hot, so you lose compression and could burn out an exhaust valve.

if they are correctly adjusted it will be a little "ticky" from cold, and sweet when hot.

the race kit manual recommends far larger clearances.. mine is set somewhere between the two, and its tappy as hell for the first couple of minutes.

[Scott221]

Normaly hear tapping noises but its hard to tell seeing as most kwak engines sound like a bag of spanners anyway.

[zimm]

yeh .. true, but if it starts to sound like a CBR get it serviced ! lol

i omitted to do the clearances on the ZX4 for oooh, 3 years and about 30,000 miles.. it went all smooth and lovely, got hard to start when hot.. would just spin and spin and spin and not fire, then ate 2 cam followers.. its rattles and is happy again now.

always set them to the loose end of the acceptable range, 0.18 - 0.20 exhaust, and 0.15 - 0.17 inlet, s'what i do anyway.. or a tad looser still if you cane it everywhere or do lots of trackdays. The shims are in 0.05 increments, so its fairly easy to make it better, even if its almost impossible to get it perfect.

[Scott221]

I checked mine about 4000 miles ago, some were spot on, some were a little tight. Think when the big 20 thou rolls on i'll check them again.