Valve job

[Johnny B]

i have never had to adjust valves in any of my quads over the years and now that i have a 450 the time has come. the problem is that i ripped the head off my wheeler, and set the timing marks up because i am installing a cam and before i did anything i checked the clearences. the exhaust was fine but when i went to check the intake they are too tight. I tried all the way down to .002 on both intake valves and the tool still will not fit. i have shims but i was just wondering if it is normal to be that much off ( i would not think!) but im not an expert. any advice would be great! My quad ran great by the way.

[TRXDresh]

If they are stock valves, they should not tighten up that much. I would reshim the head and check it again after 5 hrs. If it tightens up again, take it to a Honda shop and see what they say.

[WhiteZee]

my intakes had no clearance at all, i had to get -.010 smaller shims to get my clearence back to .006.

i could turn my motor over by hand using the kick start, after i had the valves adjusted right, it was extremely hard to do by hand. it gave my much more bottom end after adjusting them, it felt like i was riding a 400ex.

[Johnny B]

Really? well i reshimed them yesterday to where i think they should be but i am not sure how easly the feeler gauge should slide through whin they are ajusted right

[Z-135]

I just had my values adjusted and they where tight. The smallest feeler gauge would not even fit. There should be a little pressure on the feeler gauge when you slide it in and out. Mine became very hard to start. So if anyone is having trouble getting there's started, that maybe the problem. I went ahead and had a Hotcam stage 1 installed when it was all apart. Looking forward to riding it to see how it does.

[honda350r]

Originally posted by Johnny B
i have never had to adjust valves in any of my quads over the years and now that i have a 450 the time has come. the problem is that i ripped the head off my wheeler, and set the timing marks up because i am installing a cam and before i did anything i checked the clearences. the exhaust was fine but when i went to check the intake they are too tight. I tried all the way down to .002 on both intake valves and the tool still will not fit. i have shims but i was just wondering if it is normal to be that much off ( i would not think!) but im not an expert. any advice would be great! My quad ran great by the way.

Are you running a K&N filter ?

[WhiteZee]

Originally posted by Z-135
I just had my values adjusted and they where tight. The smallest feeler gauge would not even fit. There should be a little pressure on the feeler gauge when you slide it in and out. Mine became very hard to start. So if anyone is having trouble getting there's started, that maybe the problem. I went ahead and had a Hotcam stage 1 installed when it was all apart. Looking forward to riding it to see how it does. i doubt your going to like that stage 1, its all low end.

[Colby@C&DRacing]

The stg one makes alot of bottom to mid but still has more top end than the stock cam

[WhiteZee]

i was told by one of the guys from hot cams the it would have less topend then stock, this is on the 04/05 machines.

[ATC350X 85]

The feeler gauge should have slight drag on it when you slide it through. Everytime I check my valves they tighten up a little bit, its normal to get the clearance you got if it has a lot of hours on it and you havent checked them ever.

[Z-135]

I think it will be good for the GNCC.

[Johnny B]

I]originally posted by 350r[/I]
Are you running a K&N filter ?[

No i have the sparks filter they gave me with my pipe. hey thanks guys it really helps me a lot to hear these things. i really dident know what was going on with my quad and you guys explaned everything.

[RobRacing]

To make sure the clearances are perfect, you should be able to slide in the correct size feeler gauge but not the next size up. so a .006 should fit and a .007 should not. Honda gives you +- .001 clearence so if a .007 fits but a .008 doesn't you are good.