valve clearances no good. now what?

Found this on another website:

on the KZ900's, you want to try and get the valve clearance in the 0.075mm to 0.125mm range (3-5 thou inch).

Originally kawasaki stated 0.05mm to 0.10mm, but in a later service bulletin changed this to 0.05 to .15mm.

That must be what I remembered about running them a shade wider than the 0.05 - 0.10mm spec. I also run mine .003" - .005" just to make sure I don't get one tight.

ok. got the oem tool. works great. switched some shims around and got 4 of them in spec. im going with the .003-.005".
now ordering shims. do you order them in Metric?
the number on the shim. most of mine are 265. that is 2.65mm right?

according to the manual.

lets do one so i know im not screwed up here

i have a clearance of .008" or .203mm
i want .15 mm
subtract that and .053mm

the shim that was in there 2.65mm
difference .53mm
need this shim 3.18mm

round up to 320mm

so i need a 320 shim?
is that how that works.

thanx

320mm... No-No....

Shims come in .05mm increments....
example: As you noted correctly, a 265 shim is actually 2.65mm in thickness...

Kawi spec is .05mm to .1mm...

Via other experienced members...
Intakes @ .05mm to .1mm
Exhaust .1mm to .15mm

Rule of thumb shoot for .08mm to .13mm on both intake and exhaust you'll be good to go...

Ok, if I understand your posting, you have a 2.65mm shim @ a clearance of .203mm... You swap with a 2.75mm shim thus decreasing the distance to .103mm....

Or as the chart depicts, go with a 2.80mm which knocks you down to .05mm clearance....

NOTE: Due to our engine builds (performance cams, over sized valves, head porting, increased compressions etc...), this may be a little tight for exhaust clearances and have found .1 to .15mm is best suited, .12-.13mm is ideal....

Anyhoot, this may come in handy....

Just a tidbit of info... When you install a new shim, be sure to turn the engine over several times at the bolt to seat the shim down hard, purging any oil film that can cause a difference under the shim.

GL.

There's easier ways to measure clearance that makes shim selection very simple. Use metric feelers and only in .05mm increments as that is the shim sizes available, so use .05 .10 .15 .20mm feelers. Find the biggest feeler in these sizes for each valve and call that your clearance. So instead of:
intake 1-4 .007,.007,0 clearance,.003

exhaust 1-4 .005,.008,.007,.005

You get:
intake 1-4 .15,.15,0 clearance,.05

exhaust 1-4 .10,.20,.15,.10

Now decide what clearance you are aiming for. Generally .10 is acceptable. Look at what you measured and it's easy to see you would add one shim size to intake 1-2, subtract one from 4, add two to exhaust 2 and one to exhaust 3. The zero clearance takes some fiddling, start by subtracting two sizes and remeasure.

Don't over-think this.

A shim fills some of the space between cam and valve stem. The remaining unfilled space is the gap or clearance.

Shims are available in thickness sizes 2.00mm, 2.05mm, 2.10mm, etc. on up to 3.20mm.

Replacing existing shim with next thinner shim adds .05mm clearance.

Replacing existing shim with next thicker shim reduces clearance by .05mm.

Through normal wear, usually the gap gradually reduces, closing the clearance, until the next thinner size shim is needed to add .05mm clearance.

When the thinnest 2.00mm shim is still too thick to allow sufficient clearance, the valve stem itself may be ground down ("tipped") to add more space between cam and valve stem. The amount of permissible tipping is very limited and must be done per specs.

Good Fortune!

ok.. thanx a lot, i got it now. the way the manual does it is very confusing. at least for me. IPS education here. thats Indianpolis Public Schools.