help with rebuild on 83 kz1100 spectre

hey guys, i have a 83 kz11 spectre, bike has 14000 miles, 2 months ago i went to adjust vavles and i went a little overboard. i guess i have ocd or somthing. i did a compression test, only had about 100 in each cylinder some barly making the 100 mark. so i began pulling the bike down, i already had the head in the shop and rebuilt, one problem started when i went to adust the valves while the head was on the bench. I have NO clearance on any vavle, so im lost as to wear to start on shims, as of now they are all 250, but i don't want to have to start throwing shims at it espiacally when they are like 10 dollars a peice. im waiting now to order rings and have the jug honed, but im hoping to get her back on the road before the season ends any adive welcome here guys, Thanks tried to attack a pic hope it worked

kildragon6 wrote:

...83 kz11 spectre...14000 miles...about 100 in each cylinder...NO clearance on any valve...all 250....

Hello, Robert, and WELCOME to KZR forum!

Considering low mileage, at least some compression, and no clearance with 2.50 shims:

Could get one 2.40 test shim and try in each valve, for clearance measuring purposes.

Good Fortune!

+1 with what Patton said. I might even start with a 2.30 shim. The shims at Z1E are only $4.93. I am presuming that you have had a full valve and seal job done on the head when you checked the clearances. I hope that who ever did the work had enough sense to grind the stems also after he ground the seats. If you are not sure if they did, than make sure that you find out before you start buying shims. Because if they did not, you may have to start with a 2.00 shim to do all of your checks.

what otacar said, I had a head done at a local engine shop that usually does car and truck work. They royaly screwed up all the valves. Ground all the tips too short. Now you can't shim it. needs all new valves. So let this be a lesson to everyone. Make sure the person doing the valve job has done one of these before!!

Also i forgot o mention. since you have everything off, i would replace the valve springs. after all these years they will be tired.

If the seats were just cut and/or the valves refaced, whoever did it probably did not tip the stems.

Generally on a virgin head, the valve sinks about .010" from cutting the seat to get it straight & clean. Refacing the valve could add another few thou. You might be in the 230 shim range now. That will work but it's getting down there.

If you take the head back to have that done or do it yourself [really needs to be done with proper grinding equipmment] the installed height of the valve from bottom of lifter bore to tip of stem is 1.475" to put you in middle of shim adjustment range.

To check that you'll have to take the head back apart, remove the seals and spring seats, then measure.

If you need to remove more than .025" from the stems to get the 1.475" I/H you have to watch how much stem is left above the keepers. I like to see at least .020" there but you could take that to .010"

So with that information, if you decide to check that out, first measure the I/H, then put a retainer and 2 keepers on the valve, pull the retainer up tight, measure the tip to keeper dimension to see what you have to work with, then make correction grinds on the stems.

Larry, my ears are bleeding (or eyes are bleeding) after having to read all that. :laugh: But you are 100% right. I would just say to buy the little gauge from APE to check the stem heights. It is so much easier. One other thing I would like to mention is that after you do a new valve job, the valves will re-seat and will have to be re-shimmed after about 1K-2K mikes. If he is already approaching the service limit of the valve stem height he will be hard pressed to be able to adjust his clearances.