How Necessary are Valve Adjustments?

[motoholic]

I'm getting a carb tuner and I read in the service manual that before carbs can be synched, you should check/adjust the valve clearance and the engine idle. I've been reading that valves probably don't need to be touched until 26,600mi. Has anyone done their own carb tuning or valves that has some advice to offer?

Is it a difficult process for the valves?

Thanks!

[Gosling1]

Mine were on at 26,000 miles. I check the synch about every third oil change and haven't had any problesm.

I haven't made the time to check them after 55,000 miles. The weather has been too good to do anything but ride.

[reiobard]

I was told by the dealer when i was going to pay them for a valve adjustment that you will be able to tell when they are out because it will be more difficult to start...

[Hellgate]

How many miles on your FZ? If you are not at the service interval for adjustment don't bother. Otherwise adjust what you need to do.

In general value adjustment is very important. If the lash is out of spec, eg: too big, it will accerate the wear of your valve stem seat.

I've not done a VA on the FZ but I'm pretty sure it has buckets and not a tappet screw. So it is pretty straight forward if it is buckets.

Can anyone confirm this?

[jsp]

On FZ, the valve adjustment requires the remove of the cams and isn't a work to bee done on-the-fly.

The adjustment is done by buckets replacement.

[Hellgate]

Originally Posted by jsp

On FZ, the valve adjustment requires the remove of the cams and isn't a work to bee done on-the-fly.

The adjustment is done by buckets replacement.

Ouch! Are you sure? Usually you go to bottom dead center, compress the valve spring, remove the old bucket and replace it the the correct sized one.

I hate to think what the labor must be, may as well drop some performace cams in there if you've got it that far apart.

That job then is waaaaay beyond my skill level.

[motoholic]

Performance valves, eh? Anyone have any recommendations on what to get and where to get them?

Originally Posted by motoholic

Performance valves, eh? Anyone have any recommendations on what to get and where to get them?

He's referring to alternate cams which would change the run profile and require a change in BCU as the original won't know what to do with the modified cam profile.

[reiobard]

Originally Posted by HavBlue

He's referring to alternate cams which would change the run profile and require a change in BCU as the original won't know what to do with the modified cam profile.

Isn't this one of the main differences between our engine and the R6's internals?

[Yamahahauler]

This is called a shim under bucket valve system. You check all your clearances, record and buy the approiate shim to bring the valve in question back to specification. Valves will generally close the gap over time as the seat and valve face wear, this also depends on engine speed, load, maintance operating enviroment etc. If your valves are in spec put the cam cover back on and ride. If you do it enough you can get a feel for a certain engine and pretty much know when they will require attention. The V twins will almost always have to be adjusted, they have bigger cylinders and bigger valves. That is the only reason i can come up with as to why they require more adjustment.