Yamaha R6 Forum: YZF-R6 Forums banner

valve adjustment, when to do it?

75K views 16 replies 14 participants last post by  Christopher Yeager 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
How do I know if my bike needs a valve adjustment? Does the cycle start to run poorly? I bought my 2001 R6 last year with 20k on it (now 30k). It's my first road bike, so I don't know if it gives me all the power it's supposed to.

Do I make vavle adjustments on a milage basis or by how the bike runs?

Thanks
 
#3 ·
Yea get it checked out. There are some how to threads out there for it if you want to tackle it yourself. It's really not that bad if you are comfortable with engine work. I did mine at 32,000 miles and I only had to shim 2. I know others on here have done it and everything was fine with 30,000+ miles. Still something you want to get checked out. I'm pretty sure the R6 doesn't have a non-interfering head like the hondas(well F4i's/929/954 anyways). Buddy bought a F4i lot bike and it threw a rod. Piston on cylinder #2 let loose and the head was still perfect.
 
#6 ·
Better to do it sooner than later...take it from me who waited till 26k to find out I had an air leak and mushroomed all of my exhaust valves from running lean/hot.

thats why she sits the way she does in my sig...:(

If I wouldve done an inspection earlier, I may have avoided having to replace all valves...oh well, never again will this happen...Im doing inspection/adjustment every 10k miles now...:fact
 
#10 ·
ya need to understand that tight valves will tick LESS. If the clearance between the camshaft lobe and the valve bucket is zero, the valve face is not smacking against the head's valve seat. So tight valves would actually make less noise than if the valves were in spec. you have something else going on, perhaps a worn cam chain and the cam chain tensioner is not applying sufficient force as it is extended all the way out.. ?
 
#12 ·
Thread from the dead!

Hey my 2007 r6 sounds ticky from the exhaust side. I hear this is normal. Runs great and no starting issues. Bike has 14700 on it and is tracked a good bit.

I have my lower off right now so maybe im hearing it more then normal. In my experience with dirtbikes the bike would start to start hard when valves were out. Pipes would glow too.
 
#14 ·
agreed. Checking valve clearance is pretty easy.. adjusting will take more expertise .
i would be hard pressed to believe that a bike with 15000 miles will be out of spec unless it was a lot of hard/race miles.
With even 1 long season of racing, we see the valve stems making impressions into the valve shims. However, that is on less expensive "hot cams" valve shims, not OEM shims. one season of racing i would suspect is under 1,500 miles (sprint racing, not endurance) .. let alone 15,000 street miles but the Rpm would be much higher during that 1500 miles.
 
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