Hello. I have an sm610 (98-04) and left it to my mechanic for valve adjustment and a few minor fixes. I took it back, and realized that I could hear valves noise exactly as they were before he adjusts them. So I called him back an asked him if he did even adjust them. He said that he checked them, and saw some wear on rollers, so he left them at .015 cause this way more oil can be passed to rollers and keep them in better condition... Does that make sense? Isn't .015 way out of normal? I'm reading that normal values are at .002. Besides the fact I payed him for doing nothing, can this be dangerous for my bike? I'm seriously thinking that he got bored when he realized that he had to remove radiators etc, and left it like this cause ..who cares.
It's a tough one Durruti, this is where you are better off working on your own bike. I don't think his reasoning for leaving them loose makes sense, if the rollers were worn out they would have more play and thus there would be more opportunity for the oil to find it's way onto the rocker arm bearings. I set mine slightly loose, .6mm instead of .5mm just because it's better them being slightly loose than slightly tight. Valves tighten as the seats wear, which is why you adjust them. Loose valves aren't dangerous but tight valves are, I find the figures confusing as I can't tell how much looser than the recommended settings they are.
Wait a second. You live in Greece; don't you use millimeters instead of inches? 0.002 inches = 0.05 mm. Some people say that 0.05 mm is too little and so they set them at 0.10 mm for the intake valves and at 0.15 mm for the exhaust ones. 0,015 mm would be way too tight. 0.015 in = 0.38 mm would be way too loose. So, first of all, which unit of measurement was your mechanic using? This doesn't make sense to me. As far as I know, the reason for which valve clearance exists is that, due to thermal expansion, valves become slightly bigger when the engine has been warmed and so the clearance gives them some leeway to expand. In warm conditions, the clearance should become 0 and then go back to the original value when the engine is cold. If the clearance is too big, maybe a little more oil will be able to pass in some moments (I doubt it), but the cams will hit the rollers instead of being in ongoing contact with them. If the clearance is just a little too big, then no problem; it's better if it's a little bigger than a little smaller.
Hm, maybe you are right, I got confused with mm that we use in Greece and inches I read online. Now that I'm thinking of it, I'm pretty sure he was talking in mm, so 0.15 (he didn't specified if that was intake or exhaust) isn't too bad. I'll ask him again to adjust them at 0.05 cause I don't like them working so noisy anyway. Thanx for the reply!
