Waste of money doing valves before 24,000km?

油井緋色

油井緋色

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The service manual states, for my 2008 GSX-R750, to do the valves once every 4 years or at 24,000. I'm sure the valves were never done but I would like to change the air filter and spark plugs (which I believe are on the way to the valves).

Is it worth it to do them before 24,000 or am I just throwing money away? What are the chances of adjustments being needed?

I'm @ 19,000 right now and will likely be around 22,000-23,000 when I go in for service.
 
油井緋色;2053628 said:
The service manual states, for my 2008 GSX-R750, to do the valves once every 4 years or at 24,000. I'm sure the valves were never done but I would like to change the air filter and spark plugs (which I believe are on the way to the valves).

Is it worth it to do them before 24,000 or am I just throwing money away? What are the chances of adjustments being needed?

I'm @ 19,000 right now and will likely be around 22,000-23,000 when I go in for service.
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Ive never heard of anyone needing to adjust their valves at 24K. With that said its still done as a preventative measure, just in case.

Air filter and plugs you can easily do it yourself. Valves i wouldn't recommend.
 
Your manual says to check the valves at 24 and if they are out of spec then adjust them. It is not a for sure thing that they will need adjustment at 24 that's why it's called a vavle clearance inspection. It only becomes a valve adjustment if any of them are out of spec

Usually when I check lower km motors they don't need to be adjusted so again it's just a vavle inspection at that point. Checking something that can make the difference in your motors lifespan is never a waste of time/money
 
I've seen a 2008-ish GSXR600 that was most certainly in need of shims being changed at around 30,000 km, and others that did not. There's only one way to find out if it needs shims or not ... and that is to go in and check.
 
I've never needed one on any of my gixxers. My present one is at 61k. I will check at 80k.

Oh yeh, they were checked at 40k
 
04 zx10, all were out at 22,000km, 07 Gsxr 600, all were out at 20,000km. Check them.
 
It doesn't cost any money to do a valve clearance inspection. So no money would be wasted checking them.
 
gmang35 said:
It doesn't cost any money to do a valve clearance inspection. So no money would be wasted checking them.
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That is only true for someone who can do the work themselves and has the time, space, knowledge, and tools available to do it.

On a good many modern sport bikes, checking the valve clearances is an 8 hour job!
 
On my thumper I'm supposed to do the first check at 1,000 just to see. I'm going on 2,000 because I don't have all the tools yet or the money to pay someone to do it. I don't have the confidence a stranger will do more than just start up the engine and say "sounds fine" and bill me $300 for it. Hence why I want to do it myself and one of the holdups for me is the fuel line. It's supposed to be disconnected but some people have swivelled the tank.

I suspect it is harder than it looks.
 
fastar1 said:
Track or street km?
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All street on the zx10, not sure about the 600 but if it had 20,000 track km I doubt the valve clearances would be a concern lol. Forgot, 25,000km on a 98 zx9 and they all needed adjustment too.
 
gmang35 said:
I'm assuming he would be doing it himself.
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Oh hell no lol

I can change the oil/filter, coolant and do basic chain maintenance but I am not going into the engine.

As I build up confidence with smaller things I might attempt it in the future.

And thanks for the responses everyone. I had a few buddies being very adamant about how a valve inspection at 24,000km~ would be a waste of money.
 
dricked said:
All street on the zx10, not sure about the 600 but if it had 20,000 track km I doubt the valve clearances would be a concern lol. Forgot, 25,000km on a 98 zx9 and they all needed adjustment too.
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I dunno, this is very unusual in my experience. There must be 100 other bikes you can mention that didn't need their valves adjusted at 20,000km?
 
My '04 ZX10R never needed a valve shim until around 70,000 km, at which point I opted to go through the whole engine "just because".

My race bike (FZR400) needed a valve job after 25,000 km of previous owner's street riding, but in 15 years of beating on it at the racetrack, it has not needed anything up until now.
 
Curious question but I've noticed some bikes at KC and LnL meets with an audible valve tick. Would it be too late to adjust valves once the tick is audible? (ie. would the engine explode and kill itself not long after lol)
 
fastar1 said:
I dunno, this is very unusual in my experience. There must be 100 other bikes you can mention that didn't need their valves adjusted at 20,000km?
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Maybe, if I do a check I adjust anyway. I'm only 1hr away from a full adjustment just doing a check so why wouldn't I set them if I'm in there already? Maybe I'm just anal.
 
油井緋色;2054759 said:
Curious question but I've noticed some bikes at KC and LnL meets with an audible valve tick. Would it be too late to adjust valves once the tick is audible? (ie. would the engine explode and kill itself not long after lol)
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a good valve train will have a slight "tick" when valves that require shims are out of spec they tend to actually tighten up and get quieter.
 
油井緋色;2054704 said:
Oh hell no lol

I can change the oil/filter, coolant and do basic chain maintenance but I am not going into the engine.

As I build up confidence with smaller things I might attempt it in the future.

And thanks for the responses everyone. I had a few buddies being very adamant about how a valve inspection at 24,000km~ would be a waste of money.
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Are you and your friends the type that when they sell their bikes they state "well maintained" in the for sale add, even though valve clearance checks never done?
 
dricked said:
Maybe, if I do a check I adjust anyway. I'm only 1hr away from a full adjustment just doing a check so why wouldn't I set them if I'm in there already? Maybe I'm just anal.
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2004 ZX10R

Time to gain access to the valve cover and remove it, and put everything back together afterward: 7.5 hours. ALL fairings and gas tank have to come off, airbox, throttle bodies (a real bugger on that bike), and you have to move the radiator out of the way. Upper engine mounts have to come off. Ignition coil wiring harness, throttle body wiring harness have to come out, ignition coils have to come out. BIG job.

Time to remove the tensioner (2 bolts), reset the tensioner (1 bolt), camshaft holders (about 20 bolts that are all the same), remove the camshafts to get access to the buckets and shims, and put all this back together: probably half an hour if you do it right. If you zip-tie the timing chain to the sprockets on the camshafts so that they don't go out of whack (and there are extra holes in the sprockets which allow you to do just that!), you don't even have to think in order to re-install them in the correct positions. The camshafts don't actually have to come out of the bike ... just moved out of the way enough so that the buckets can come out.

If I'm in there and anything needs adjusting, it's going to get adjusted, and it's going to get new spark plugs too, because that 7.5 hour job is needed to get to the spark plugs, too.
 
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