Valve clearance query.

[user11235813]

I just checked the valves today at 27,000 kms, I don't think they've ever been checked apart from maybe the initial 1000kms service if the first own ever did it. I bought the bike off the second owner who got it fairly new, and I'll bet my house he never checked them.

They are reading .05mm for both exhausts and .06mm for both intakes.

I have a few questions.
1. Does clearance tend to tighten up or loosen up over time? I'm guessing they tighten up.
2. If they tighten up how long should I leave it before checking them again bearing in mind that I've only got 0.02mm left before I hit the min recommended setting of 0.03
3. when I check them next time what should I set them at, the maximum 0.08? or a bit more or a bit less?

[twocool]

Leave 'em alone...they are fine....

Check again in a year....

Or sooner if you are anal...



Cookie

I just checked the valves today at 27,000 kms, I don't think they've ever been checked apart from maybe the initial 1000kms service if the first own ever did it. I bought the bike off the second owner who got it fairly new, and I'll bet my house he never checked them.

They are reading .05mm for both exhausts and .06mm for both intakes.

I have a few questions.
1. Does clearance tend to tighten up or loosen up over time? I'm guessing they tighten up.
2. If they tighten up how long should I leave it before checking them again bearing in mind that I've only got 0.02mm left before I hit the min recommended setting of 0.03
3. when I check them next time what should I set them at, the maximum 0.08? or a bit more or a bit less?

[gsJack]

The Suzuki spec of .03-.08 mm is a bit too tight for long exhaust valve life.  One of my exhaust valves was at the minimum spec on my 97 GS and required constant shim changes and was down to a minimum 215 shim before it had 80k miles on it.

When the tighter exhaust valve on my 02 started the same pattern at about 30k miles I bumped the exhaust valve clearances up to .003-.005" (.08-.13mm) and it went over 40k more miles without a shim change.

It's not an urgent matter, more for long exhaust valve life so if you want to brag about your 100k mile GS500 like I do you might want to loosen up a bit on the exhaust valve spec like I did. 

The whole pic in specs:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GSvalvelogs_zpscvcef42y.jpg

[user11235813]

OK, thanks gsjack to twocool,

So what I take from this is that I can pretty well forget about the intake for a while and maybe widen the exhaust in maybe 6 months or so depending on how many k's I put on them.

What would running .13mm do apart from saving the exhaust valves, would it make a bit more valve clatter?