[shpielers]

Careful with those 4 oil bolts (sorry, don't know the correct name, the 4 with the holes drilled in them like s banjo bolt) I've heard they break off easily, from people torquing them to spec of all things. I think spec for them is 10 ft/lb, maybe go for 8?

I've never torqued the valve cover bolts, just done hand tight. Never had an issue so far. Only leak I ever had was cause I was a dumbass and pinched the valve cover gasket. 50k miles and 5 adjustments by me so far.

(Part of the reason I've never torqued them is I have 0 idea how to get an Allen bit onto my torque wrench...)

[Purplehaze]

Yeah, I've read over your shim valve adjustment thread and a few others as well as that 4 part video someone did on youtube for a '91. I've seen/read it all before but never intended to do it.

Anyway, I popped it open tonight. Most of my exhaust valves were out of spec. Could only fit .006 in a few. The intake valves were mostly .004.

Spec is (exhaust .007 to .009) (intake .004 to .006).

I've adjusted all of them to the middle of the range .008 exhaust and .005 intake. After locking the nuts I even tested .009 and .006 to make sure there was a more drag. I read something about looser is better?

I still haven't got a torque wrench so I've hand tightened the valve cover bolts in prep for tomorrow. Need to find the torque specs for those bolts. It looks pretty cramped over the farthest left and right bolts on the exhaust side. Wondering if I can get a torque wrench and bit in there.

Use the two-finger rule, on your Allen only use two fingers and draw it back using only your hand muscles. Commonly accepted as being anywhere between Eight to Twenty lb-ft, depending on your grip strength.

Speaking from experience, I would recommend that you be light on it. Start the bike and look for any oil seepage and continue to watch over it -- You don't want to over-tighten them, ask me how I know.

The general theory is:
Tighter on the intake valves --
(More forceful valve drop, valves open for longer) so that more cooling air and fuel is let in.

Looser on the exhaust valve --
Exhaust valve components receive more heat, so in theory they will tighten up more once the engine is up to temp.

That said I think that theory is garbage, especially on the intake side and it should be set in the middle of the spec range. To tight and valves snap or burn, too loose and it won't run proper.

Also, please use Metric in the future, you threw me for a serious loop with your Standard business.

[wing]

Careful with those 4 oil bolts (sorry, don't know the correct name, the 4 with the holes drilled in them like s banjo bolt) I've heard they break off easily, from people torquing them to spec of all things. I think spec for them is 10 ft/lb, maybe go for 8?

Yeah, I read that somewhere else. Might have been your post. Freaked me out taking those 4 off cause they were super tight. Actually all the bolts were super tight. I had to use an extension on my socket wrench to break them loose.

That said I think that theory is garbage, especially on the intake side and it should be set in the middle of the spec range. To tight and valves snap or burn, too loose and it won't run proper.

I guess regular valve clearance checks is the way to go. Now I'm halfway through it I can see myself doing it more regularly in future.

Also, please use Metric in the future, you threw me for a serious loop with your Standard business.

Lol. I started off using metric. But I ended up using imperial cause it was easier to read the markings on the feeler gauges and easy to remember.

I got the numbers from here. http://www.suzukicycles.org/GSX-seri...-numbers.shtml
Intake 0,10 — 0,15 mm (0.004 — 0.006 inch)
Exhaust 0,18 — 0,23 mm (0.007— 0.009 inch)

Just reading the Haynes service manually. It says the valve cover banjo bolts should be 20Nm (14lbft) and the other bolts 14Nm (10lbft).

[TRPUT]

I guess regular valve clearance checks is the way to go. Now I'm halfway through it I can see myself doing it more regularly in future.

Like I've said before ...

1) you'll also be wondering why anyone would pay a mechanic to do a job that could be 95% completed by a monkey for a few bananas

2) you'll have it more accurate than any mechanic would

3) and hence, I recommend your first "regular" check be in about 20000kms. (with your mileage the valves are now well seated, you have them set right and we are generally supplied good quality fuels)

While you're in there, check that cam chain tensioner. You really don't want it too tight. Follow the procedure for removal/inspection/set/refit.

Then ride the sucker!!)) You're a lucky bastard with some of the roads you have down there. I had the pleasure of discovering Murray River Road, Alpine Way and the northern half of Snowy Mountains Highway over Christmas. I''l be back.

[wing]

1) you'll also be wondering why anyone would pay a mechanic to do a job that could be 95% completed by a monkey for a few bananas

I was wondering just that. I'm almost certain they didn't do anything the last time. I paid them $510 for valve clearance, carb sync and fuel filter.

Well I've got almost everything back on now. Idles fine and synced the carbs. And as for the ticking, I went for a small ride and I could still hear it but a lot quieter now. Don't know why I only get it at 4,000rpm. I'll go for another ride tonight when it cools down to see how it goes.

[wing]

Well I went for that ride. Ticking is greatly reduced and much more bearable. I'll live with it if it doesn't get any louder. I guess I can't expect much from an aging srad motor. Thanks for the tips, hints and encouragement guys.

[tone]

Srad motor ? dont be daft!

[Purplehaze]

Oil-Cooled DOHC engines are pretty noisy beasts. Mine ticks intermittently as well around 3,000rpm.
Unless you've swapped the engine, it's not an SRAD by the way.

[Kreylyn]

Well I went for that ride. Ticking is greatly reduced and much more bearable. I'll live with it if it doesn't get any louder. I guess I can't expect much from an aging srad motor. Thanks for the tips, hints and encouragement guys.

Srad motor ? dont be daft!

Oil-Cooled DOHC engines are pretty noisy beasts. Mine ticks intermittently as well around 3,000rpm.
Unless you've swapped the engine, it's not an SRAD by the way.

I'm sure he meant SACS motor, just mixed up the SRAD part is all.


Krey

[wing]

Yeah sorry. Argh acronyms... I meant noisy sacs air/oil cooled engines.

[rschlegel]

A note on some shops. I am in complete agreement with DIY. You pay them to check and adjust but you will never know if the person working on your bike cares or not. Early 90's I was a parts manager at a shop in So Cal and got a surprise. Parts manager went on vacation so I was helping write service orders, went back and found out that someone had just paid us to do the first service on a yamaha xt600 and all the mechanic did was change the oil and adjust the chain. When I confronted the mechanic his excuse was he had never found valves out of spec so why waste his time. I could only respond with " because that's what we were paid to do". I did not last much longer and work in another field.now.

[Purplehaze]

A note on some shops. I am in complete agreement with DIY. You pay them to check and adjust but you will never know if the person working on your bike cares or not.

When I was doing my Valve Adjustment I went up to my local bike shop and hit up the parts department. I told them I'd need some shims, the sizes I'd need, the diameter of the shim, the bike I had, and parts numbers for each individual size and I kid you not the parts guy didn't know what a Shim was.

He got his manager, who also didn't know what a shim was. His manager snagged a service guy, who also didn't know what a shim was. The service guy snagged his service manager, who finally knew what a shim was.

They didn't have all the sizes I needed, so out of curiosity I asked what the SOP was when they needed to get a valve in clearance and they didn't have the proper size shim. He said "Oh, we get it within clearance." I asked him how that's possible when the acceptable range of clearance is .05mm and they only had .05mm increments of shims. He simply responded with the same sentence.

I ended up going to another shop to source the missing shims, but this simply shows that some simply don't care. I can only imagine how this attitude might cross over to almost every shop job.

[wing]

Hey guys. So I've been riding on and off over the last week. I dug into my valve cover again to readjust my intake valves as I had them on the looser end of spec, so now they're on the tighter end. Also checked the exhaust valves again. The rattly noise is starting to get to me. It's fine when the engine is cold and just started, but once I've ridden for a while (especially in stop/start traffic) it gets really rattly. I also reset my chain tensioner. After doing that it was really noisy, so I clicked it in once, still noisy, clicked it in another time, much better. The noise isn't only at certain rpm now, it's at idle and when revving.

I'm beginning to think it's an oil/oil filter issue. Is that possible? I'm thinking cause it's oil cooled, if the oil filter is partially blocked it's stopping colder oil from passing through the engine.

[Purplehaze]

Depends on the oil you're using. I'd doubt a passage is being blocked or you may have overheating issues.

What kind of oil and filter are you running? Synthetic will run cooler but will also allow you to hear a great deal more noise. Natural oils will quiet her down a bit.

[wing]

Using mineral (natural oil). It's Castrol 4T 15-50. I have synthetic oil, but don't want to put it in if I can't get the noise issue sorted.