Valve Adjustment

[Anonymous]

Some background: I have an engine from a GS1100GLZ. I bought it in a "parts" bike with the hope that I could put it in my 1100 that has a rod knocking. The bike hadn't been licensed since 1994. The story is that it was running when it was parked. The engine seems to be in good condition. The oil and filter looked normal. The compression is 120, 110, 110, 120. The person I bought it from took the clutch cover and the stator cover for a restoration project. I have it on a bench with the cam cover off.

I've been looking at the valve adjustments. The smallest feeler guage I have is .038 MM (.0015 inch). All the adjustments are tighter than that guage. I noticed that when I put a work light on one side, I could see a gap on all of the intakes but not on any of the exhaust. I also tried to see if I could turn the shims, and could do so easily on all but 1 and 4 exhaust valves (which did turn, but with considerably more effort).

So, what should I do? Should I just put the engine in the bike and see how it runs? Or, should I change the shims? If I do change the shims, should I worry about the intakes, or just focus on the exhaust?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[Don Lobacz]

Those 5 valves do indeed sound borderline tight. That is my final test to make sure that there is clearance: the shim and bucket should easily spin (oil the bucket and retry, in case the bucket has friction in it's tunnel). I would change each of those shims to the next size smaller.

[AOD]

tighter is generally worse than loose because it will result in lower compression. i would suggest getting the minimum allowable size feeler gauge and check the valves that way. if you're tight, up it fits the min. spec.

~Adam

[Anonymous]

Suzuki sells a set of feeler gauges (my Clymer manual has the part number) with which to adjust the valves. The adjustments are in .05 millimeter increments. Usually the minnimum is about .0012 inches (.03 mm) and the max is about .003 inches (.08 mm). Cycle Recycle sells the valve depressor tool for about $30 USD (as opposed to $130 USD for the genuine Suzuki article) and I've gotten the shims from K&L and from the dealer. If your used shims are in good shape, sometimes they will trade for different sizes. Just be careful to torque the valve cover bolts to the spec in the manual, because they are easy to strip and that leads to oil leaks.

Harrison

[Anonymous]

It seems that a valve adjustment is the call. I sort of knew that anyway.

The exhaust headers were very blue and the amount of blue was about the same on each pipe. I have heard that if exhaust valves are adjusted too tightly, the engine can run hot. This may be a case in point. The compression I measured indicates that the valves are still OK, so I may be in luck.

I'll order one of those valve tools and a feeler guage, so it will be a while before I can go to work on the valves.

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this.