Valve clearence adjustment

[Robssv]

Im the proud owner of a SV650 curvy K2. The bike is just approaching the point where it need the valve clearence checks, about 15,000 miles.

Any idea what I can expect to pay for this job to be done? Ive looked at the manual and it looks like Suzuki have opted to put the shims inside the buckets, a right pain. So its not a job I want to tackle myself.

Thanks for any info on this.

[Baph]

I just paid £260 for the 7,500 mile service. This is when the valves are checked, but not altered (unless needed). The 15,000 mile service I'm told will be more expensive, if they have to actually do the adjustment, which I'm expecting.

At least this gives you a ball park figure. :)

HTH

[SV650Racer]

I just paid £260 for the 7,500 mile service. This is when the valves are checked, but not altered (unless needed). The 15,000 mile service I'm told will be more expensive, if they have to actually do the adjustment, which I'm expecting.

At least this gives you a ball park figure. :)

HTH

The clearances arent due to be checked until the 15k service unless you wish to be extra prudent and have them checked.

[Baph]

I just paid £260 for the 7,500 mile service. This is when the valves are checked, but not altered (unless needed). The 15,000 mile service I'm told will be more expensive, if they have to actually do the adjustment, which I'm expecting.

At least this gives you a ball park figure. :)

HTH

The clearances arent due to be checked until the 15k service unless you wish to be extra prudent and have them checked.
Call me prudent :D And a pessimist at expecting the valve clearence to be done.

[northwind]

Checking is very, very easy... Changing them is a bit less so, simply because of the logistical difficulties of having the right shims at the right time. If your bike's your transportation, it's very awkward, so getting it done professionally makes some sense. Don't assume it'll need done... But also don't assume it won't :)

[Sid Squid]

Suzuki have opted to put the shims inside the buckets, a right pain. So its not a job I want to tackle myself.
There's a good reason for this, not just an option.
As Northy says, checking easy, changing not so easy. At 15,000 an adjustment is actually not that likely, so if you're at all able check the clearances, if you find a change is necessary and you don't feel able, then you could spend your money.

[Robssv]

Thanks for the advice. Just checking as a local dealer quoted me £190 for a service with valves. Better check they understood what I meant. My bike has almost 13k on it now.

Cheers again.

[Biker Biggles]

That price would be for a service with valve CHECK.
If they actually found them to need shimming they will want lots more money. :cry:

[bobit69]

How would you know if they are on there way out and need adjusting???

[Biker Biggles]

You need to take off the cam covers and check the clearances with a feeler guage as described in the manual.This is fairly easy,and as long as all the results are within the specified tolerances that is all you need to do.If they are not within spec you probably need help with sorting it.

[Sid Squid]

How would you know if they are on there way out and need adjusting???

You wouldn't know, that's why you have to check them.

[hovis]

That price would be for a service with valve CHECK.
If they actually found them to need shimming they will want lots more money. :cry:

how much££?? :(

[hitmanip]

I was told that the bottum of your revs can get very weak, and you will get gaps in your powerband if your valves are out of adjustment (too tight I think), I was thinking about tackling a valve job on mine because Its getting weaker, and it lags in the midrange if I really crank it. should I consider a differential diagnosis? it has about 13500 miles on it. why is it that the SV has all this shim BS and my 250 you adjust it with a screw driver

[northwind]

Shims are lighter... Also more reliable. Considering how rarely they need adjustment it's not a big deal.

[TSM]

I was told that the bottum of your revs can get very weak, and you will get gaps in your powerband if your valves are out of adjustment (too tight I think), I was thinking about tackling a valve job on mine because Its getting weaker, and it lags in the midrange if I really crank it. should I consider a differential diagnosis? it has about 13500 miles on it. why is it that the SV has all this shim BS and my 250 you adjust it with a screw driver

Just get a set of guages and not the 10 blade ones from halfords, get a 25 blade one as they have much more variation. Get haynes manual and check them yourself. Its not hard, the tricky bit is changing them as you have to remove the cams.

I checked mine at 20-22k and nearly all of them were out, but the bike has had some hard times. I plan to check them again as after i had changed a few, some shims were just in tolerance.

[jambo]

I was told that the bottum of your revs can get very weak, and you will get gaps in your powerband if your valves are out of adjustment (too tight I think), I was thinking about tackling a valve job on mine because Its getting weaker, and it lags in the midrange if I really crank it. should I consider a differential diagnosis? it has about 13500 miles on it. why is it that the SV has all this shim BS and my 250 you adjust it with a screw driver

I have to be honest, on my ZX6R at the 12,000 mile service I had to change 11 out of 16 shims and can honestly say the bike sounded and felt exactly the same. People will tell you all sorts of things about hearing them being out. You may well have been able to hear old engines with very wide tollerances when the clearances got too wide. On a modern bike I'm certainly not able to tell. A lot of tollerances are likley to tighten up as well rather than get wide so the sound won't change.

If the bike feels rough I'd check the air filter, fuel and plugs before the valve clearances.

[minifun]

My SV has 26000 miles on it now. No history so as far as I know they have never been checked! It runs fine, pull very well. It was a bit rough as one point but new spark plugs sorted that out - think it still had the originals in! Suppose I should get them checked but don't like parting with my cash while it runs fine! lol

What happens if they are out and you just keep using it? Does it do any damage?!?

My friend used to be a suzuki mechanic and said they very rarely needed doing!

[northwind]

Could be that one day, you hear the tap tap tapping of your valves gently rapping on your pistons. And if you think valve clearance adjustment is expensive, try replacing bent valves.

[Well Oiled]

Could be that one day, you hear the tap tap tapping of your valves gently rapping on your pistons. And if you think valve clearance adjustment is expensive, try replacing bent valves.

........or if you get a fatigue failure of the valve stem (we test engines at work and I've seen a few of these) the valve head will drop off and rattle around in the cylinder. Very nasty !! I still have the souvenir of a mangled piston with a piece of valve head embedded in the top.

[jambo]

It's one of those jobs that while a little tricky really shouldn't be ignored. As pointed out a lunched engine is not great economy. A good compromise is to check them yourself, then if they need doing you can take your measurements to the garage and say "I just want the clearances done, I'll do the rest" because you've measured them they're very unlikely to fob you off 8)

I'd be inclined to measure them again after "they'd be done" by the garage too, but I'm an un-trusting sort... :roll:


I still have the souvenir of a mangled piston with a piece of valve head embedded in the top.

Mangled engine parts make the best ornaments & ashtrays (and I don't even smoke). Somehow a dead coil or worn set of pads just isn't as cool....

[northwind]

........or if you get a fatigue failure of the valve stem (we test engines at work and I've seen a few of these) the valve head will drop off and rattle around in the cylinder. Very nasty !! I still have the souvenir of a mangled piston with a piece of valve head embedded in the top.

Heh, I saw pics a while back of a Corrado G60 that had the standard supercharger fall to bits and drop a hail of bearings into the heads... Never seen anything like it in my life, every surface was cratered like the face of the moon. The guy replaced the valves and carried on :shock:

[Sid Squid]

why is it that the SV has all this shim BS and my 250 you adjust it with a screw driverSwings and roundabouts, screw and locknut much easier to adjust it's true, but will need doing far more often as the mechanism is simply less resilient, shims are less convenient it's true but require less frequent adjustment. The shims are under the buckets in order to make the system less prone to failure, some older Suzukis had 2p sized shims on top of the buckets, at extreme revs if valve float occurred it was possible for the shim to be dislodged, not pretty.

What happens if they are out and you just keep using it? Does it do any damage?!?Yes, it can do:

Every time the inlet valve opens it receives a nice cooling rush of incoming gas, and when it's closed it dissapates heat through the valve seat, even though that's a small area for conducting away heat - every little helps - in short the valve itself has an easy life, and thus wear in the opening mechanism commonly outweighs the wear to the valve - thus the clearance often opens up a bit. Exhaust valves however don't have such an easy time, they get and stay very very hot, their primary way to dissapate heat is the thin ring of the valve seat, and a little up the stem, everytime the long suffering exhaust valve opens it gets fried with gas at/near combustion temperature - typically 300-700C - thus in the case of the exhaust, the valve tends to wear more than the opening mechanism, hence the clearance reducing.

Also we have a nasty Catch 22 - if the clearance becomes significantly reduced, (or worse still if there's no clearance and the valve never fully closes), the valve spends less of the already small amount of time that it should do closed, thus it never disspates the heat it should do and can literally melt, this is called burning a valve, no surprise there, and you really don't want to get into that.

A round of applause for your exhaust valves please - the hardest working bit of your bike, full stop.
My friend used to be a suzuki mechanic and said they very rarely needed doing!True, but:
the SV is well known for not requiring much adjustment, but as an unscientific example of how random it can be I've adjusted nothing at all on many 15,000 mile bikes but just recently did one, (that I've known from new, so can be certain of the mileage), at the same 15,000 that needed three shims changing. Another SV, just on 95-100,000 miles now, has had only three valves adjusted in all that time - five have never moved at all, but the 45,000 check on another late last year revealed four needing attention.

Go check.

[Spanner Man]

Morning all.
Ditto the Squids findings and advice!..........I've found that around one in three bikes need shimming at 15k. As stated checking the clearances isn't too difficult, but changing shims is a touch fiddly, with expensive consequences if not done correctly.
Better to cough up and have it done, than ignore it, for if the clearances are tight your engine will eventually burn out a valve or two.

Cheers.