For those who have experience...

The day I took home my bike it has had a tick. I questioned the noise and the person I bought the bike off of said the noise are the valves, maybe the CCT.

I bought a APE CCT... ALOT of engine noise went way.... but still this feint... ticking sort of noise.

Skip forward to bike going boom.

I do leakdown test. Cylinders 3 & 4 are out to lunch. 60% loss in #3 (the damaged cyl) #4 the spark plug was vapourized but the cyl was ok. #1 was bad-ish & #2 was the best.

So my engine bought the farm and I had to eat rebuild sandwich. I inspected the head and everything looked ok (because I am a professional ) . I decided since I was in there to replace the valve springs (carpenter). Now... newbie mistake... I dont have free access to a leakdown tester and due to my newbness I didnt say "do a leakdown on the head, dumbdumb"

I pulled out all the valves and cleaned up the head and valves... which had alot of carbon build up on them. 1 valve in #2 cyl was... let me try to be as clear as possible... "more difficult" to get out. now when i say "more difficult" i mean barely any difference compared to the other valves. I figured it was the carbon build up (because after a nice cleaning it slid in like all the others. So now being a worry wart, think I might have a bent valve?. (IDK). #2 cyl was the only good leakdown and I would assume that a bent valve would = crappy leakdown #'s???

I did a valve Check & adjustment. Again... #2 cyl was the only one is spec.... the rest out to lunch. I wasnt even able to get a feeler under #4 intake & exhaust cam

Also, the "ticking noise" goes away when revving, anything above idle.

My question to the pro's....

Am I on to something? or do all these 14's make ticking noise? Even if the valves are in spec? When I see other 14's they pur like a kitten.... yet my 14 (& past bikes) tick like a clock. Maybe I am OCD towards my own bike?.

Perhaps another leakdown test before I go crazy and start ripping this bike apart.... AGAIN.

IDK

I heard a ticking right after my valve clearance inspection. I didn't even notice it until it stopped immediately when the bike went to slow idle. That has happened before a couple times. IDK if it was the can chain. I'm not concerned as long as it doesn't happen all the time. Probably just something is temporarily lacking adequate lube for a short time. Not much I can do. I'm not tearing the motor apart if it sounds good 99.9% of the time.

My bike has it's little ticky-tappy noises. I don't bother about it. I think I hear some slappy piston noises sometimes. You can drive yourself crazy with this crap. If the valves are in spec, I would go ahead and ride. What would bug me is the low compression. I'd want to fix that some time in the next year if possible.

Also the out to lunch valve clearances. How many miles on the bike? Only one of my valves was really in need of adjustment when I first checked at about 27,000 miles. Odly, it was one of my intakes at .102mm. Min spec is .15. All of the exhaust were tight at .178 or .203 but min spec is .22mm so I figured not totally out to lunch. Was still right where I set them when I just checked at 44k miles.

You are right about the "drive you nuts thinking about it" part. LOL. All my bikes have ticked... but now I am a little gun shy since the incident.

The problem with my engine is that I dont know where it came from, how many honest km were on it, or if it was even damaged before hand. At this point I have come to the conclusion that it was built from old racer parts. Beat up pistons, shitty rods, mis-matched bearings, bad clutch. I had clutch slippage when he bike was stock, the CCT wasnt adjusting, valves were out of spec. The fact that it ran just as well as it did when i first put on the turbo leads me to believe it was on its last legs anyways.

I think i still have the valve clearance values. I'll post them when i get home.

Perhaps if i can get my hands on a leakdown tester I can check when I replace my plugs.

Valves that have too little or no clearance will make less noise than ones that are within spec. All machines with moving parts make some mechanical noise.

Tick = Too tight a tappet/shim clearance.
Bent = 50% leak or more.
Cams out = I can leak one cylinder after the other and it's pushed to the lowest point is the piston, so no cams, no open valves.

Excuse me Danno, tight is tick, within spec and loser than spec is no noise. You are going to get yourself into a heap of sucking you into an argument, unless you set valves day in and day out for decade after decade. You looking for another squid spanking? Prove how the tick is produced when loose or say within spec is pretty loose and tight within spec is pretty loose.

My 07 had a light ticking noise all the time...valves were checked..all within spec...at 24K.Went on after that till I sold it...50K miles total...always had very light ticking.My now 14R...it has a very light ticking...at 20K.Has done this since new.I don't know (without video sounds)what the OP is actually talking about...it COULD just be the way these engines operate.????I think my 2013 has a teensy bit more of that sound than my 2012 did,or my 07.Just out of curiosity here...have you tried a heavier weight oil?Could be something normal...

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 1/2/2015 @ 6:49 PM *

fazer I have a leak down tester you are welcome to use any time

When my bike idles you can hear a ticking. Took it to Mitch and he said it's the tip over sensor, and that is true of all 14's. He called it the "Kawi Tick." You sure your not hearing that?

I've got a great garage block heater for many of my projects, should u need, let me know. If she tows anywhere let me know. Reinburst me for gas and I'll take her anywhere that needs attention.

Good luck with it, wish we could hear it. Will this site let you load a wave file or\and is it audible on you tube?

Love to know what this tick sounds like before you blow your brains out chasing it.

Good luck.
W

Not sure if it's related, Just an Observation. I noticed a ticking on my 2009 after I did the pair block off. (Tested it by putting it back and ticking was gone.)

Glad I found this topic because I'm noticing a slight ticking sound that didn't occur until I did the pair block off mod on my 14R. Since I own a ZX10R I'm aware of the automatic CCT known as the "Kawi-Tick" and it's very similar to the sound, but this tick showed up after I performed the mod. After noticing the sound I've observed that it goes away after I accelerate above 3500 RPMs. Is there a possibility that something mechanically associated with the pair valve block causes this tick on the ZX14R's, because it didn't rear itself until after the first startup after plugging up the pair valve system?

Tick has nothing to do with PAIR. Ticking are tight valve lashes usually. Last time valves were checked? I set mine at the widest gap.

Had them checked at 24K and I’m currently at 30K. Just find it odd that the noise didn’t start until immediately after I did the block off mod. Like the old advice states…..if a problem occurs you back track changes you made and there usually lies your solution. Note: I still have the pair valve solenoid in place and connected….I only blocked off the hoses and pair tubes with rubber vacuum caps. I would assume that if it were tight valves it would tick throughout the rpm range. This ticking only occurs at startup and immediately after pulling off up to 3500 RPMs. Once the bike is warmed up the ticking is still there below 3500 RPM but very faint where I have to intentionally listen for it.

Ah, more info. Find the PAIR connector and disconnect that. Might be the open end closing [ticks] of the PAIR unit. Still no joy, then return to full PAIR to see if the tick goes away. Tick remains, it's the one day you go out to the bike and shows no/or compression is low it won't start.

Same, same, you go out to the bike, there is a new sound off the bike... says either PAIR (last thing you did to the bike), or is valve tick or the beginning of piston slap; where the piston moves in the opposite direction and that side of the skirt slaps by traversing.

Hard to diagnose not hearing the sound. Just throwing darts at it.

untamed has the answer. Let it ride. Takes a man to ignore hacking the bike throwing codes/ticking PAIR's.

Yeah I read this theory several times on this forum and other forums related to other manufacturers bikes. Something related to leaving the pair valve solenoid plug in tack causes the tick. If the solenoid is replaced with a plug to ground it out the ticking stops. I’m going to buy the blanking plug and strip the unit out completely and hopefully this gives me a peace of mind. I don’t want to pull it just yet because it’ll likely throw a code. Like I mentioned earlier that I’ve owned several Kawis and they all ticked, but I never noticed it on the 14R until I tinkered with the pair valve system which had me concerned that I may have mucked something up.

Thanks Hub!

Ticking is normal and expected. I suppose it's a matter of degrees. Louder or changing/different ticking is probably a sign of some sort of clearance issue, if as noted by siroht it's coming from the valves. There are most definitely some other components on this bike that can make repetitive ticking sounds.

As far as going away when revving, not true. You just can't hear it as easily at last to some point. I know this because one of my helmets sort of amplifies that valve-trainy sound for some reason.

As far as tight vs loose louder ticking... I know 100% on my VF1000 if you didn't hear any ticking it meant the clearance was too tight. If you ever see a VF1000 (which had the screw type adjusters) and hear it running, when the valve clearance are set perfect it should have the slightest amount of ticking, barely audible. Anything as loud as my 14s, and the valve clearance was definitely too far out. No ticking, it's definitely not going to run optionally. I know this, because that's the bike I learned about valve clearance's on and I learned from experience about how the bike ran, noises it made, etc. I get the impression it's similar on my 14, but i've only done one valve clearance inspection on it in which several valves needed adjusted and the amount of ticking stayed about the same.

Thanks for sharing Vic! This helped me understand the ticking much better.

I think I mentioned long back in this thread that I have always noticed some mechanical noise from the engine when I listened to it idle. I only had one loose valve when I did the adjustment and it didn't seem to make a lot of difference in the soft ticking noise. I think I noticed it more on the RH side of the engine. ...of course, the engine is positioned more to the RH side in the frame.

See if this makes sense. If you pull the plug on the PAIR, ticking is still there, it says tight valve clearance.
EX. 0.22-0.27mm (.0087 - .0106 in.)
IN. .015-.020mm (.005 - .0079 in)

Where .0096 in. is the blueprint number of the exhaust lash, and the center aim is for the intake is at .00645 in.

Where .005" shows the tightest clearance you can run with. This is where a decrease of clearance is the valve sinking up into the head with the valve's 45° cut flattening out, and/or the seat itself pounds into the head and moves that way.

Where .0079" would be the valve tip going flat and curling over, and/or the rise of the under bucket going flat as it touched the top of the valve [curling over].

Where the only explanation I can come up with is the valve bouncing on the close and more bounces the bucket off the tips where they meet at the bottom of the bucket, or at cam lobe ending curve? Because it is not constant, but sporadic is the tick.

Can't be the opening to cause the tick, being the ramp up has no air gap at the bucket tip to the valve's tip. Seems logical that the spring bounce would still be there on the close, but farther away are the wider valve lash ranges.

That's why I use the wider gap, but are still within spec of the high range and shows no breakout using a .0011" for the exhaust, and a .007" feeler gauge at the intake.., Called the 'Go-no go-system.'

The tick pertains to both shim buckets and rocker arms. Has more oil to push thru, has a wider gap to tag a tick.

I could be 100% wrong at this guess, but it walks for me. Especially doing 1000's of valve adjusts on bikes and Honda cars.

Once past curling feeler blades that can return back into the sleeve like new... you're not there yet.

I'm not here to dispute anything. I'm only stating my experience and not claiming anything I am saying is 100% fact or the one correct way.

I just remembered this morning about my high school car. Again, definitely a different situation from motorcycles. But it was an interesting experience. It was a SBC. Me and a couple friends who also had SBCs, being high school kids, were "clever" enough to actually run the engine with the valve covers off and even adjust the rocker arms. I wss able to do this because I affixed the valve cover gasket to the head (we did this so we could pop the valve covers off and on at will...you know because that was cool), adding a berm to help keep the oil from spilling out. And yes, occasionally a little oil would spill out particularly when one of us were dumb enough to rev the engine a bit.

Now, these were hydraulic lifters so it was a complete different ball game BUT overall The "ticking" pattern was similar to what I experienced with my VF1000F. When the rocker arms were looser, there was a more pronounced ticking. If you (over) tightened them there became no ticking. And similar to my VF1000 (as it would turn out, not really even relating that at the time) when optimal there was a very slight amount of ticking. You could also learn the feel of manipulating the rocker arm (when the crank was in the right location rocker by rocker) the feel it should have.

Oh and about the VF1000F if you're not familar it didn't have a mid fairing (had a small bell scoop) so getting to the valve covers was a lot simpler than on something like our ZX14s. It was a great bike to learn on, because adjusting those clearances (even with some prior mechanical experience) wasn't always straight forward. And it took a couple tries at the time to get it right. That and I also had a friend who had a VF1000R which was about the same motor except gear driven cams instead of chain driven. But my VF1000F was faster!

* Last updated by: VicThing on 9/30/2023 @ 6:22 AM *