When to advance cam teeth

For Lou and other "stripped out cam cap thread" contributors, Helicoil's work perfectly. I actually stacked two on top of each other and they mated perfectly.

Still the 82' kz550 LTD:
While setting the cam timing, working my way as the service manual said, counter clockwise, exhaust to intake 1st link above the ex, 5/Z between 43 and 44 I noticed a unnerving amount of slack between cams. I'll insert a picture. So, using mechanical logic, I advanced one tooth intake to take up slack, up twords the cam cover tensioner, letting the auto tensioner under the intake cam obsorb the remainder chain slack. The cam cover went on fine, mating surface didnt float above the gasket (as if the chain was too tight an would roll the cams before the tensioner went on), timing marks landed perfectly parallel above the top of the head. And everything went smoothly is it could appear.

Was this the right decision on my part? I know the best test is to turn it over and see if the timing is all jacked. It ran and i'de led before I took it apart to adjust valve lash. But this being an interference engine as I understand wanted to seek council before I turned the little monster over.

You'll notice in the first image with healthy slack in the chain the outer caps don't have bolt. Both sides of inner caps (6 & 7)are holding down the cam. Looking back I'm not sure why I decided to do this as I already stripped a thread, hindsight is 20/20 and I'll do better next time to even the pressure of the valve springs. ( just avoiding rash comments on why it looks funny or illogical)

What you have done is wrong and will affect the running of the engine if not risking valve to valve or valve to piston contact,
Go by the book and set the timing as described.
Fitting the cam cover and then installing the tensioner LAST will take care of any perceived slack if the cam chain is within spec.

Go by the book, doing things like that will cause poor running at best, and engine damage at worst. Degreeing a cam is mostly only for performance setups with big cams and everything double checked.

The cam cover guide takes much of the slack up, tensioner does the rest.

Yup, start over.
Steve

Either I don't understand the entire function of the system or I wasn't clear. My title is a little misleading. I didn't change the degree of the cam. I just choked up the slack between the two cams, and let the tensioner remove it from the loop. I felt that if I left the slack when the cam tensioner did its job it would rotate the intake cam counterclockwise a tooth or maybe half. Which is why I was clear to say the cams were in time, level with the face of the head, and the cam cover tensioner wasn't over tight by reason that it had no issues sitting flush.

There is supposed to be a lot of slack between cams. This is because the valve cover is part of the guide system. If you haven't already, read the valve train warning in my signature (I suspect you did already). Also, there are slightly better gif images of cam-timing in that link.

That said, your first photo does appear to have a little too much slack, but I can't make out the marks in the photos. Were both (intake and exhaust) timing marks lined up with the deck (with crank at "T" mark)? If not, that explains the excessive slack.

The tensioner does not always have enough power to rotate the camshaft when the tension initially gets applied. If you rotate the crank, back and forth a little, the tensioner will eventually take up all the slack, and the chain will appear straight across the top. But as you probably know, the cover should not be installed then. (Take off the 17mm cap and let the crosswedge come out or retract, to take off the tension for installing the cover. You don't have to remove the tensioner itself... just the cap and crosswedge.)

Do not alter the number of pins between the EX mark line, and the Z/5 mark line.

To be clear, I should mention, if the tensioner is installed, it will always be trying to put tension on the chain, but it is not enough to always take up the slack. It's only when the crank rotates in the forward (clockwise) direction that sudden changes in cam position will place the slack on the tensioner side of the engine. That's when the tensioner will take up the slack. This happens anytime the tensioner is installed. Only when the crosswedge, second spring, and cap are in place does the tensioner not allow the slack to return. As long as the cap and wedge are out, the slack can be taken back and moved to another location (such as at the top of the cams).

(And yes, you should never have the cams mounted fully with some caps missing, as that obviously bends the camshaft... in case others may see this thread.)

Tensioner comes off before valve cover. Valve cover goes back on before tensioner otherwise you can and will screw the pooch, use the links in lou's signature

Not recommended, but the 550 's seem to have quite a lot of headroom, even the GPz's. One of mine (had ten over 20 years) was a tooth off when I got it. Setting it up right and instantly restored the punchy bottom/midrange power.

Both of my 550's run dialed - in slotted cams, (non standard cam timing) this works -really nice, just you need to be very precise about it, and know what you want. Kawasaki got it right for optimum performance.

Skimmed heads and worn camchains can affect valve timing.

Tyrell Corp wrote: ... Skimmed heads and worn camchains can affect valve timing.

That is what I think is happening on my yellow bike. I think the piston is catching up to the (now slightly retarded) exhaust valve and just starting to kiss it when the oil pressure is low after a hot restart.