Valve shim thickness? whats the Smallest size

[pw80]

my '04 was running funny at idle so i checked the valve clearance and found my exhaust valve clearance what too small. I was able to replace one of the shims fine but i cant seem to find a shim small enough for the other.

The shim I removed was a 235.  I replaced with a 215 and still no clearance.  I removed the shim and stuck some feeler gauges in between the bucket and cam to see the clearance and it was about 190. so im guessing a 180 or 185 will work but I cant seem to find a shim this size.

My question for you is do they make shims that small or do I need to remove the cylinder head and bring it into a machine shop? Or Could I file down the valve stem? i've heard that's probably not recommended though.

Hoping i could get some advice to point me in the right direction. Thanks!

[gsJack]

The 215 is the smallest size shim Suzuki makes.  Don't think I'd go much smaller than that, you might be spitting them out at high rpm.  How many miles on that engine?  Maybe valves and/or seats were ground?

I was down to a 215 on one exhaust valve on my 97 at 80k miles, bike was totaled before I had to decide what to do next.     Set exhaust valves wider than Suzuki specs on my 02 and have a minimum 245 shim at 100k miles with good compression.

http://www.gs500.net/gallery/data/500/GSvalvelogs.jpg

[pw80]

It has about 24k miles, which to me seems pretty low for this problem to happen.  Previous owner must have neglected the clearances

Any suggestions on What would be the easiest and/or best way to increase the clearance since I can't get smaller shims?

[gsJack]

I guess the best way would be to pull the head and replace the valve or grind the valve stem for more clearance.  I only had the problem with one valve and to be honest was considering grinding the stem without pulling the head but bike was wrecked and replaced with the 02 instead.  There is probably enough stem to grind to get by a while longer, pics from my 02 taken when I was replacing an exhaust valve broken when a tight bucket stuck one very cold morning:



Very surprised you have the problem at only 24k miles, even running at a min clearance my tight exhaust valve on the 97 didn't need a first shim change until 40k miles and I made the first shim change on my 02 at 31k miles.  Never really sure of true history when we buy used I guess.