Buddha, one more q, should I be worried about my pistons, like maybe I washed a ring?

I dunno, if you're splitting it than you can see for yourself.
BTW I have a nice head with new 3 angle job etc etc I'd do 100 with trade of yours. I can show you pics.
Or I can do yours for 100, however if a valve is dead I'll have to hit you for the cost of the valve. In a way I prefer to do that.
Yes removal of head is easy, but there is serious wiggling to get it out of the frame with the motor in there.
You can unbolt the motor and lower it a wee bit and get the thing off easier.
Cool.
Buddha.

I'd be interested in the head swap.
Where are you in the USA?
I'm up west of Toronto in Ontario Canada.
I'm just thinking about shipping, and timeframe.

So basically at this point you think I should just pop the head off and see whats going on, rather than pissing into the wind with these shims?

(wow... he really has a hardon for pulling that head off, doesn't he...?)

If he's got the right (or too big) valve clearance now, and the compression is still below spec then the only way to fix it is pull the head and get the valves and seats cut. To keep running it with a leaky valve will only cause more damage to valve and seat. If it has been running a while with a tight valve then for sure the valve and seat are damaged (burnt) by the exhast gas leaking past the valve. That's like roasting the valve with an oxy torch.

Yeah, I think that buddha and the mole get it, MY VALVES ARE STILL NOT CLOSING

Not sure how I can fix that without removing the head.

are you going to pull the head to find out whats up with the valve or what?  im curious as to why your valve isnt closing.

Likely tonight, and I can tell you why its not closing, there is either burnt valve, or burnt seat, and its not closing.  And its pissing me off, cuz its nice out today.  however, I am still waiting on my lunchbox filter to arrive in the mail, so I guess I can't ride it anyways.

I await the conclusion with bated breath...

Seat cant burn ... or F*(k if it did, it'll cost ya a lot more than the 100 bucks for the damn head job.
See valves dissipate heat by sitting against the seat. The longer they contact the seat, the better heat dispersion you get.
Valves burn when they are tight because 1. They are closer to the mixture even if it is only by a few 1000's. 2. The burning gasses are flying through that gap and heating up the back side as well and 3. They never hit the seat and hence never lose the heat.
It can happen, and its literally a matter of course for the kawasaki ninja 600/900/1000 series motors. And all derivatives there of. Concourses, EX500's, vulcan 500's, 454's, eliminator 6/9/1000's and so many more.
In general they put shitty material in the intakes and that made those wear faster and ironically suzuki did too but suzuki valve material is not as bad as kawi's.
I'd definetly look at it especially if you got a valve definetly closing and you're still not making pressure - hey what is the leak down look like (do that before going to yank the head).
Cool.
Buddha.

I realise this is a semi-pointless post, being as how I lent my friend my compression tester, and hes away till tomorrow night.  However, I slapped my measured shims in, fired the pig up, seafoamed her, and shes running fairly well.  Theres an occasional pop at idle, but they are getting fewer and farther between, and I find the more I ride it, the more I have to lower the idle when I come to a stop, like its raising itself as the cylinder comes back online. 

I am VERY curious to see what my compression is now, half tempted to go and buy another tester!!

Quote from: Topher on March 19, 2009, 03:28:11 PM
I realise this is a semi-pointless post, being as how I lent my friend my compression tester, and hes away till tomorrow night.  However, I slapped my measured shims in, fired the pig up, seafoamed her, and shes running fairly well.  Theres an occasional pop at idle, but they are getting fewer and farther between, and I find the more I ride it, the more I have to lower the idle when I come to a stop, like its raising itself as the cylinder comes back online. 

This is me not saying "I told you so."

Could you describe the "pop" at idle and the idle climb?  Idle climb is pretty common with a vacuum issue, but if yours is progressive that may be something really neat...  Do you turn the idle back up when you start it, or is this always a one way thing?  How much have you ridden it with the sized shims?

The pop is backfiring through the carb, but it happens less and less the more I ride it.  The idle climbing is not a air leak issue, but seems to be occuring as the compression comes back up (as the valve seeats itself more and more).

Compression test last night shows 145 on the good side, 110 on the bad side, up from 90 on the bad side before.  I have not had a chance to ride it much yet, but as I ride it, I will keep watching the compression, if I'm not about 120 by the end of a tank of gas, the head is comming off to have a new valve put in.