Cleaning my valves

[tas850g]

i'm trying to clean my values on a kawasaki without dismantling the valves from the head. I have the head off right now. I've tried a little seafoam then B-12 but haven't really scrubed yet. Made very little of a difference on the exposed valve surface. Worked better on/around the combustion chambers. I know the best way to clean is a tear down but i do not plan on doing this, yet. Very cheap bike and trying to keep it that way.

I have 2 heads to work from. On one head the valves are not that bad but on/near the mating surface with the valve cover gasket in one chamber the surface is gouged up. All other chambers look descent.

The exhaust ports/valve shafts look better on one head compared to the original head although they are not great.

The original head that came off the bike the valves are pretty carboned up.

I'm trying to figure out which head to use.

I'm getting a camera either tonight or tomorrow and will post pictures asap of both head valves.
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[tas850g]

Here are the pictures:

The first 3 pics are from the head that came off the bike. I did very little cleaning to these using seafoam and then B-12.







This pic is of the spare head which the valves and exhaust ports are cleaner but this one chamber has these gouges in them. Should i be concerned with these?

the lighting is not good so it looks worse than the others but it really isn't



Again, I'm trying to figure out which head to use. The original one (the 3 pics) which the valves have more carbon build up or the spare but the 1 chamber that has these marks on them?

Sorry about the size of the images. I working on how to post image sizes.

[almarconi]

I would use some berrymans carb dip (stuff we clean are carbs with) and a brass or soft metal brush.

[chef1366]

I would be more concerned about the part of the valve that matters. The other side. It's the seal with the seat and valve that's the kool-aid.

[Suzuki_Don]

Don't be lazy. Pull those valves now. Then you can clamp them in a vice (soft jaws) and use a steel wire brush in your drill.

[tas850g]

i don't want to be lazy but i don't want to open a can of worms as i think i already have because of the broken spark plug you can see in the 3rd picture. I was hoping of taking care of that then putting it back together but i want to make sure the head/valves are ok.

[Suzuki_Don]

i don't want to be lazy but i don't want to open a can of worms as i think i already have because of the broken spark plug you can see in the 3rd picture. I was hoping of taking care of that then putting it back together but i want to make sure the head/valves are ok.

Turn the head over and tip a bit of gas into each port and see if it seeps through the other side where the valve heads are. If nothing in 5 mins then the valves are seating OK and it's OK to put back together after you have fixed No. 3 spark plug issue.

[tas850g]

i got the plug out and cleaned up the threads. I will try the gas in the ports and see what happens. I'm also going to shine a light into the ports in a dark room just to see if any light comes out around the seats. I would think the gas technique would/could be more reliable.

Thanks Don.

[Nessism]

Pulling the head and not removing the valves for a proper cleaning and replacing the valve stem seals is folly. You can make yourself a valve spring compressor out of a large C-clamp and a piece of PVC for cheap so there is no real excuse for not doing the job right.

[Redneck]

Valve Cleaning with steel brush

Okay I am at the same point as TAS850 and was wondering if I can use the drill method to clean out the cylinder heads and the valve stems or would that damage the valve seating surface? Second question is do most engine gasket kits come with the new valve seals or do i need to possibly look into ordering those seperately?

[Johnny K]

I as well have my 850 head and base off my bike and am in the process of taking the valves out due to a couple being bent (long story) but I would like to clean the valve heads, where the valves seat and the piston heads. The berryman's sounds like it will work with some carb spray too maybe.

[tkent02]

NAPA Gasket remover will eat through the carbon fairly well.