GSX600F 1996 valve adjustments...

[Paladin]

Ok, we've been working hard on the valve adjustment. I had my brother-in-law come over to help out and brake more down. So here are a few pics of what we've seen so far.

[Paladin]

Valve clearance settings are as follows here. From what I can tell, I'm almost in total compliance too. Do you have any suggestions on changing these numbers or should I be concerned at this time?

[ThAzKat]

Shim???? On a 96 Kat???? they are screw and locknut not shimed.

[lucky6man]

how many miles on your kitty?

[The CyberPoet]

Re: GSX600F 1996 valve adjustments...



Bad exhaust valve (bent), bad valve tappet, bad exhaust valve clearance(s), missing exhaust header gasket, blocked exhaust header pipe, worn cam (bearings or cam), super-rich carb (stuck float, worn needle or incorrect jetting), severe cam chain slop (unlikely cause unless opposite cylinder looks the same), or torqued-cam shaft. That carbon build-up means the detonation by-products were coming up into the oil galley area, to be scavaged by the vacuum system back into the airbox, rather than going out the exhaust headers the way it should.

I've never seen a cam shaft on a Kat torque (twist over it's length, so one end is out of sync with the other), but I have seen it on numerous Saturn SC1/SC2 engines. So I'll rule that out as preliminary possibility.

Cam shaft bearings bad on that end -- very possible, especially if poor oils were used.
Misadjusted valves -- most likely possibility. Hope the misadjustment wasn't so severe as to cause damage to the valves themselves or to the cam lobe.

Either way, this isn't going to be pretty, and needs to be tracked down all the way before reassembly.

Good Luck!
=-= The CyberPoet

[Yellow]

Shim???? On a 96 Kat???? they are screw and locknut not shimed.

The 600's were shimmed 92-97.

[Paladin]

We did notice on the same side, I guess its a return feed for the oil was missing an O ring on that side. We did not see any oil leaks or anything like that. We were both careful in looking and I think we would have seen an O ring pop off. We think it was not there at all and when we went to the other side the O ring was still held in place.

[Paladin]

how many miles on your kitty?

Just a little over 11,000 now. I bought her just under the 9,000 mark and I've been fixing her up. Not really sure what all the previous owners had done to the bike. I've pretty much done a couple oil changes. I know she's been flooded twice and that could cause fouled plugs. They looked pretty black, but from what I've seen, the books said they could be cleaned. I'm going the route of replacing them and I've bought a new K&N air filter.

I spent the weekend cleaning up the carbs and they don't really look bad at all. They seem to be cleaning up really good. Going to be checking the floats and needles next on that. Since I've gone this far, I wanted to check the valves while I had the chance and the bike was broke down as far as it was.

How about the tollerance settings? One number on the top is out of range and one on the bottom. Will these numbers go higher or do they go lower?

[The CyberPoet]

How about the tollerance settings? One number on the top is out of range and one on the bottom. Will these numbers go higher or do they go lower?

I don't know the adjustment values for the pre-98's, but I'm sure that .012 is out of line... and would almost assuredly be the cause of the blow-by of the carbon in the valve covers (remember my first post was at like 3 or 4am; I was tired so didn't see the current settings graphic).

If you have a manual, reference it. If you don't have a manual, you should have gotten one by now -- go buy one. Set the valves correctly and recheck them again after rotating the engine by hand a couple times. Check the valve(s) that are far out of spec (esp too tight) closely -- eyeball them and see if they look different in any respect to the others (such as bent, chipped, etc).

KNOW THIS:
The valve clearance specs are designed so that as the valves come up to full temp, the growth in length of the valves due to expansion corresponds to perfect sealing of the cylinder and zero slop. Slightly too loose is better than slightly too tight...

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Paladin]

So the numbers should go down in general right? I mean too tight would be having a .ooo correct? The .012 is bigger and needs to come down to .010, but at the same time needs to stay above a certain number.

What tool is used to remove the shim. The lame book says, a special tool and a magnetic tool. I need to some how compress the spring I guess to free that shim and have a magnet slide it free and up. I should have my O rings later today.

[TemtnF8]

I'm not sure if it's the same for the 96, but 98-present models tolerances are as follows:

Intake: .004-.006
Exhaust: .007-.009

[The CyberPoet]

So the numbers should go down in general right? I mean too tight would be having a .ooo correct? The .012 is bigger and needs to come down to .010, but at the same time needs to stay above a certain number.

What tool is used to remove the shim. The lame book says, a special tool and a magnetic tool. I need to some how compress the spring I guess to free that shim and have a magnet slide it free and up. I should have my O rings later today.

Find out the right clearances. PM SpecialK if nothing else -- I'm sure he knows.

Meanwhile, if the engine is a '96 model year engine, I believe it should have nut adjusters instead of shims. Post a pic and it'll be definitive. If I recall correctly the shim vs. nut set-up is like this (I might be wrong on this):
88 - 89 Nut adjuster
90 - 95 Shims
96 - 97 Nut adjuster (as well as the new style CR9EK spark plugs)
98 - 05 Definitely Nut adjusters.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Yellow]

It should be like this for the 600's:

88-91 - screw and locknuts
92-97 - shims
98+ - screw and locknuts

750's all screw and locknuts

That's what the fiches and empirical forum science have shown so far

[Paladin]

I'll post more pics tonight, my bike is a 1996 and it was all built in the last few months of 1995. It looks like really tiny little shims are in place. I'm just wondering if anyone has removed them to measure and how they did it, if they bought some tool or what. I'll get the pic posted when I get back to the garage.

[icekillah]

yup you in the same boat as me, don't be afraid of shims they are real easy to work with, provided you don't drop one in the crankcase hence the magnet (the shims that are in there now should be magnitized from all the abuse theve been getting but new/replacement shims may have no magnatize and fall easily) according to the haynes manual you want

intake 0.10-0.20

Exhaut 0.15-0.25

if you don't have one already a micrometer is a savior in this situation(the shims should be labeled but may have been faded with all the hitting they've been taking.

to get the rocker arms off is real easy all you gotta do is take a flat head screwdriver and pry/move the arm toward the other valve in the pair you will be fighting a spring but he is a weakling compared to the muscle fibers in the human arm.

the best price i found for shims was about $5 a pop at ronayers but you can reuse them as long as they are the right size

as far as manuals go my haynes has a chart to help find out which size shims you'll need (whadya know math is power) i've heard of the factory manuals giving wrong info tho....

PS when i did mine 17,000 my valve cover did not have any burn marks like that might as well do something about it since you've come this far