Should I check my valve clearances?

Am riding an '04 with 37,000 miles. Only about 7k are mine. I bought the bike from original owner who serviced at the local dealer. I checked at the dealer and as far as I can tell maintenance was restricted to fluids only. I have replaced the thrust bearing (in pieces) and done oil and gear oil. I expect that valve settings might affect mileage and possibly heat output. Short of actually going in and measuring are there 'performance characteristics' that would indicate adjustments are necessary? Has anyone noticed changes/improvement to performance (acceleration, exhaust note etc) after following the adjustment protocol?

I have 64K on mine, and they've been within spec every time I've checked them (recommended intervals). It's fairly common to find them within spec, but I've heard of needing adjustment at 32K. Checking them is pretty straight-forward. Half the job is getting all the tupperware off. Adjusting them requires removing the cams, and that's a lot more work. If they're too tight, you risk burning a valve at the worse, poor performance at best. Being more on the anal side of maintenance, I'd say check them. It's worth the peace of mind to know they are good.

+1 on what kckbiker said!

ToddC said:

+1 on what kckbiker said!

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+2 Being on the anal side, checking them is the easy part and at least you'd know where you're at with a reference point. Prolly don't need to adjust at this point, but nice to know where things are.

My bike is also an '04, with 38,800 miles on it of which only the last 3500 or so are mine. There was no service history available when I bought the bike.

About 250 miles ago I did the clearance check- the right way, by measuring every one- and found both exhaust valves on no. 2 cylinder to be out of spec. I did not have the time nor the parts at that moment to do a shim change but it's on the docket for "real soon now". And I will not be so casual about the next check- 48K on the nose is the target, so I get a sense of whether there's and change and if so what's the trend.

As far as I know- and it isn't very far- the ONLY way to really KNOW is to do the measurements. I am fortunate to have another local rider who volunteered to provide adult supervision for both the checkup and the pending adjustments.

Do the check and you'll have that peace and serenity that comes from knowing. Skip it and you'll always have a nagging doubt in the back of your mind.

There's an excellent write-up on "the other" ST forum about why valve clearance checks, and proper valve clearances, are so important. I recommend it highly.

Being a bit on the careful side, and having some spare time, I did the valve check while doing a bunch of other 16k (miles) maintenance items. It takes longer to do remove/install the tupperware than to do the valve check. You WILL need some gray RTV Permatex sealant, a good set of feeler gauges ( I use a set of GO/NOGO gauges to assure that I do it right), an inspection mirror, and the manual of course. It's not nearly so hard as you might think. Mine were almost all right in the middle of spec, with one or two within a thousandth or two of the middle. Do the check....it'll give you peace of mind!!

Make sure to verify your feeler gauges are accurate before checking valve clearances. I had a friend call me a few years ago saying he needed several shims for his high mileage ST1100. I had to see it for myself and when I checked my gauge set all were in spec. His gauge was off. I recently checked 4 sets of gauges at a local Advance Auto Parts store and only one set of gauges had accurate feelers in the sizes I needed.

KEB

kebrider said:

recently checked 4 sets of gauges at a local

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There are reasons why it is important to buy high quality tools for something's. Basically anything that measures, feeler gauges, micrometers, torque wrenches, etc.

+1 error on the side of caution. The most important valve check is the first one. I just bought my 2008 in April with 14,700 miles on it and checked the valves at their 16k check they were within spec., but Chuck who walked me through said that on his first valve check on his 2003 there were several that were out of spec on the tight side. The valve check itself is not a hard thing to do. The adjustment will take additional skills and confidence. IMO I think the adjustment on the 1100 is much easier than the 1300.

Loose is better than tight. If they get to tight you can possibly burn the valves. Symptoms tight valves hard starting, popping on deceleration are the obvious ones.

+1 to Ken/kckbiker's recommendation.

Mine had 2 valves at limits at 16kmi, and were out of limits at 32kmi.

You'll have no way to know they're in spec or not by sound or feel of the engine, until it is so out of tolerance that you risk burning a valve.

Most of the time the valves are going to be within specification. This gives rise to the thought it's a waste of time and money to check them at all. Even if they are out of spec Honda's use of high quality components and close tolerances may prevent damage until noticeable performance changes so bad things rarely happen. Once in a while though one or more valves are out enough to potentially cause a problem and the only way to know this is to check them. Anything else is playing the odds and one's comfort with or aversion to risk will guide them. Myself, I like to know as much as I can about my stuff and it would bother me not to know. I'm not sure I would feel this way if I did not do my own maintenance. It could get expensive paying someone else for stuff that rarely goes wrong anyway so the comfort level with risk would likely increase. That's the only way I can explain people not doing valve checks, replacing coolant, spark plugs, etc. It is cheap and easy IMHO to do it or ask a friend to help.

That would generally be true......but what were the initial clearances?

At 37k there well past full seated and possibly moving less then when new so it's probably not a big deal that you don't have the 16k and 32k numbers to see their movement. As mentioned a tight valve has less contact time for heat transfer. There's more than a few dealers of the opinion that these things are bullet proof and don't need checking. Some members have measured otherwise. If the Tupperware is off might as well check em it's not as involved as adjusting them. rtv on the half moons putting it back together. More is not better for preventing leakage.

beeker said:

Short of actually going in and measuring are there 'performance characteristics' that would indicate adjustments are necessary?

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If they're out of spec long enough, you'll start to notice that you need a lot of cylinder head and valve train work.

This has already been said, but I'll repeat it anyway. The bottom line on valve clearance is that not checking it is a crapshoot. Most STs don't need adjustment, which is great. But a few do, and it's not as if there's some way to tell, like all of the ones where the VIN ends in a 6. The early checks (16K, 32K and, ideally, 48K) are important to establish a baseline for where the clearances are and how much they're moving. Making a blind decision to extend the check interval or skip them altogether doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

st1300doug said:

Ok....I'm gonna be the 'Test-Mule'. Meaning: I will check mine at 75K. I have 54,550 miles now. I'll post and let you EVERYONE know what my tolerances are. Last check was at the 15K from the Dealer.

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Your results would only be valid for one bike.

ibike2havefun said:

I am fortunate to have another local rider who volunteered to provide adult supervision for both the checkup and the pending adjustments.

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I know who it was and "adult" might not be the right word.

--Mark

The valves on the ST1300 are always within specification until they are not. There is a reason the Honda Factory puts service intervals in the Service Manual.

Do you feel lucky?

My ST1300 needed one new valve shim at 15,000 miles and I believe 2 or 3 new valve shims at 30,000, and one new valve shim at 45,000 miles. Of those, one was an intake shim and the others were exhaust shims.