Guide: Valve Clearances, Shims and Seals. (Pic Heavy)

[Macflurry]

Originally Posted by Nasher

Great thread well done, I just wish you'd put it together before I did my first set of valves last year.

It's a slightly tricky operation, and you do need to be able to use a set of feeler gauges well, but it's a satisfying process if you like that sort of thing.

It's a little annoying however when you work out the exact shims you need and they are not available, so you have to resort to the nearest slightly out of tolerance one, or touch the top of the valve etc on a grinding wheel.

I must admit I had the benefit of the engine being on a stand and in bits, so I did the valves with the heads on the bench.

It did occur to me that on a Monster where the heads come off with the frame and the engine assembled it's possibly worth taking the heads off and doing them on the bench where access isn't a problem.
The engine I was doing at the time is from my SS project, and the vertical head doesn't come off with the frame fitted to the engine.

Again - Well Done.

Nasher

Thanks Nasher.

Now I've gone in to swap the o-rings out for my cylinder heads they definitely came out easier than I expected. The hard part is clearing out the parts around them to remove. Had a few incidents requiring a dremel with seized stud nuts but nothing crazy.

If the engines had a lack of TLC all the nuts bolts and flanges soon add up for replacements.

But on the plus side it is so much easier to work on and you can clean it up and get your valves lapped in again before doing your adjustments and getting your new shims.

My issues are on the vertical head. I thought I may as well take the horizontal one off too while I'm at it to get them both cleaned up nicely inside. Lucky I did as I found one of my valves was very slightly bent which I wouldn't have found if I hadn't!!

Still sealed OK before swapping it but it's a warm fuzzy feeling knowing you've put something else right!!