Valve clearances too tight?

erburtt

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I just got finished taking my whole front end apart, got the forks out to change out the oil, figured I should check the valves as... well I'm at 70,000 km and they havent been checked yet :spank:

It was a little messy and a hassle to get everything out of the way and sorted out, but I managed to get the valve cover off and do some valve checks. I checked them all sitting under the nose of the bike (forks and front wheel off).

Cylinder 1:
Intake: L-0.16 R-0.18
Exhaust: L-0.23 R-0.06???

Cylinder 2:
Intake: L-0.14 R-0.16
Exhaust: L-0.18 R-0.16

Cylinder 3:
Intake: L-0.15 R-0.14
Exhaust: L-0.07??? R-0.18

Cylinder 4:
Intake: L-0.18 R-0.15
Exhaust: L-0.20 R-0.26

So I'm outside the range on almost all the exhaust valves, always too tight, and then there's the two that seem impossibly tight... I made sure the cam lobes were pointing away from each other for each cylinder check. Oil and filter changes for me are every 8000 km or so (~5000 miles). Castrol 5W30, motorcycle specific oil. I literally have had zero issues with the bike, apart from a little loss of MPG (I ride faster, and if I back off and cruise like I used to I see my MPG go up) I cant think of anything to influence this. It has the normal yamaha tap, no noises had been jumping out at me as bad.

I read one thread where someone had tight exhaust valves, but there wasn't much follow-up. I think I'm going to go back tomorrow (she's apart where I store her in my grandmas garage) and check while the cam lobes are pointing out and up slightly more. Does anyone have any thoughts?
 
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FinalImpact

2 Da Street, Knobs R Gone
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Here is mine at 20,000 mi...
I would fix it while you are there...
Top row in RED and all exhaust out of spec OPENING up vs tightening up...
Did you turn it exaxtly 90° or whatever the FSM calls for? I know the cam lobe is NOT 180° straight opposit the valve like one might expect when checking...
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erburtt

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I have looked at that chart of yours many times haha, I was following the guide and going in 180 degree increments, but I ended up forgoing that and just watching for when each cylinder in question had its cam lobes opposing each other. I'm going to check for a third time tomorrow then pull the cam off and grab some shims. I was pretty tired and sore from tearing everything apart and being at weird angles with a flashlight in my teeth, so starting from fresh tomorrow should yield more reliable results.

I was just quite concerned with how tight those two exhaust valves were compared to what the spec is.
 
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