I just did my first valve inspection on my GS at 8000 miles. I'm glad I did it. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought. :thumb: My intake valves were fine, but the exhaust valves were borderline tight. I could get the 0.03mm feeler in the exhauts valves just enough so that there was tension when I pulled back on it. I took the tension on pulling out as evidence that the clearance was okay. Is that acceptable, or should the feeler go in and out easier? I don't have a 0.02mm feeler.
Are there any general trends in valve clearances? Do they typically tighten or loosen? Are the trends different between intake and exhaust?
I put 80k miles on the 97 GS and never changed an intake valve shim, but the exhaust valves tend to recede into the seats and required many changes. One was down to the minimum 215 shim thicknes at 80k miles.
The 02 GS seems to be following the same pattern. One cold snowy day last winter I sorted out my scribbled notes and made a record of my valve check experiences to make the trends more clear:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/valveclearances.jpg