Rook, I'd be the first person to check 'em at 15K, sounds like everyone is running way more than that and they're still coming out fine. You had twice that many miles and I'd venture to say none were tight enough to cause any harm. I'll wait at least another 5000 miles, that's about 2 years away as the big girl doesn't get ridden much these days. VTX is going to get torn down and valves inspected as soon as the temps drop and I can stand being out in the garage.

Ass your pucker position if you would rather sit on one cap or the other? Ask your right hand which cap is crap would you be shitting a brick and look at that bottom end if we want to go closed course over and over and over and over are the laps.

Same oil pressure. Same basic oil going thru the engine. Same air suck you later, however, there is a no-visitation of microns to the pit area in my pit. Clean up Rook's pit down the road was a suck you later over the ram chamber. Then, and only then, do you change from leaner and meaner street map ~ Passing gas stations and way past any emissions standards later.

Then, you remove the cat filled grunt can jumpers or the stock exhaust system. Inn-stall your choice of 4-in-1 or the dual selection category, either way, switch maps. The next move is remove air cleaner. This is now one clean open snout. The stock resonators are clear of any dirt or bug settlement in those bladders or whatever you want to call them. You are now clear for take off is took enough off, put the right combo on is anybodies guess.

Bottom line, you come to the line with the clean machine with less lines rubbing your hands, here comes the cash window. It's a racing discipline is all it is.

The caps are made for THE ENGINE. One and only. can't replace. Have to replace the engine--at least the block- to get fresh caps

well not whole block but head at least .. but i'm not a believer of the caps are made to an engine crap .. i know way to many guys that mis-matched caps and in some cases whole engine cases and motor ran fine ..

* Last updated by: Badzx14r on 8/18/2011 @ 10:55 AM *

I once had one that was sooooo tight, I thought it was gonna break right in half.

Oh... that's right. we're talkin about valves...wrong topic

What caps are we talking about here, camshaft bearing saddles? We run the camshafts straight in machined aluminum case bores on our aircraft engines and they almost never wear out, no bearings, rebuild the engine over and over, they just don't wear. Cam is spinning only 1/2 engine rpm and very lightly loaded by comparison with a crankshaft bearing.

Rook, you're starting to sound like HubMeister?

What caps are we talking about here, camshaft bearing saddles?

Prolly nothing to do with the valve clearance at all but here is the way some of mine look. Some are smooth as glass.

what I was saying is do the valve clearance and yoiu might discover something other than valve clearance that needs tending to.

Grasshoppa, it is not what you seek in life that matters most; but what you find.

well not whole block but head at least .. but i'm not a believer of the caps are made to an engine crap .. i know way to many guys that mis-matched caps and in some cases whole engine cases and motor ran fine ..

Cool. See Kruz, this is just half the adventure of owning a sportbike you ride hard you start to ware stuff out and you replace it. Hell, most owners won't put 29,000 miles on a bike for ....maybe ever?

The SM DOES say to to replace the cylinder head unit if the caps are worn out of spec. I thought the head and the cylinder was all molded into one piece.

whatever, I'll fix it up as best I can but I am looking at this as an opportunity to do some cool modding to camshafts and head down the road.

I once had one that was sooooo tight, I thought it was gonna break right in half.

Oh... that's right. we're talkin about valves...wrong topic

I agree, tighter is better.

Rook, shoot your one piece cam cap aligner. Do not ~ DO NOT take any sanding or anything to any cam cap!!! WHY? You'll add clearance! Last thing you want is to polish that out. The soft aluminum is made for dissimilar metals to operate between each other. Those lines are spitter outters. The oil pressure, the movement of debris is pushed out of there because other oil pressure is coming. They just look bad.

The cam aligner cap will show you how large that piece was. In other words, if this is one cap, that was a one time deal. If the aligner cap is clean?

If by "aligner cap" you mean the skinny one that the CC guard bolts to, the cap right behind the CC sprockets---that one is like a mirror. I had a look at those caps tonight. Actually, it was a feel I had. See, those scratches look a lot worse than they feel. I ran my finger over them and I couldn't tell they were there by touch alone. I'm sure sanding will open up clearance. That was my first thought. I guess I will give it some thought and decide which is the lesser of the two evils. Gualed caps or increased clearance.

could wait a few thousand miles and open her up again to have a look. If it's not any worse, maybe leave it for a year. I will do the battery of tests on the C shafts an dif they look good, I will be inclined to bolt it back up. I'm not too worried about it. if I was hearing a lot of racket from the motor, I would be a lot more concerned.

Just about there. Picked up a $17 micrometer at HF. Will be pulling up those lifters and measuring those shims. Gonna order ALL tools, plugs and shims (have inexpensive aftermarkets, I hear) from Dennis Kirk . I hope to have the 14 up and running in the next couple weeks. This will be like the start of Spring all over.

* Last updated by: Rook on 8/18/2011 @ 8:37 PM *

Every head is different. Every bike is different. Go back to the cam caps. See the half moon cuts on the outside of the head? That is so the bore machine can take one pass down those cam caps to cam journals in the head. Now those caps are matched to that machine pass.

Say, we take one example, I'm sure there are more, but try this; Yes, you can probably swap cam caps and nothing will happen but a slight tag somewear out at that high spot. Say there are production runs with wide gaps so you can compensate for the sloppy fit. Sort of interchange or a close tolerance of a tolerance to swap parts like order new [and it fits perfect].

The parts are not like say a ferrari door fit. That door will probably fit that car and that car only. Not like going down to the dismantler, buy a VW door and you are on your way. The head is more that fit in the middle. Say we never line bored the head. Found a pea under one side of the head surface. That pea got squashed down, but still raised the one side.

Here comes the line bore to that pea'd head. That head, is technically machined to those caps. Imagine you install a pea'less head all square from X to Y flat as that. You have a dropped cap with a sort of production run at the holes. You also have a raised cap if you use the other side. The interchangeability kind of; see the way and why you cap for the journal it came from? They even cast-in where each specific cap is to placed [where] on the head. It goes something like that one kind of variable to watch out for.

There you go. Normal wear. Wear means ~ Expansion. I'm going to sanda floor so the cam really walks up and down. Now when the valve opens, the cam rises up in the cap, the valve is less extended = Press ~ Show smiles - Click the finger pointing at you sanda nut'inn honey!

Rook, don't mess with those bearing caps, that looks normal, they will last the life of the engine. Hoped you numbered them.

^^^No need. They are #ed by the mold. 1 2 3 4 and 5 is a loner. No mistaking that un.

you don't think I would take a hundred hours to do this and then make a silly error like that , do ya?

.....not with 1bad and Hub backing me up.

the 1 thing 1bad has learned 1bad does it his way and no listen to dummies on the internet ... listening to dummies on the internet cost money .. but its not their money ..
what little I've read of hubs postings is sound . but costly factory way that don't happen in the real world with manufactures .. bottom line shit wears and don't stay new forever ..when it breaks is time to fix it..other wise patch it up like KHI would do under warranty work and go on until you break it again .. KHI don't put new heads on because a cap is worn..or replace entire engines over bad rods and cranks ..

* Last updated by: Badzx14r on 8/19/2011 @ 10:42 AM *

My turn to vent. I have to share a garage with a crabby old insane B that looks like a chubby Mick Jagger witha cigarette hanging off her (his) lip and she is out there sweeping the sh!t out of the driveway churning up dust like a mofo. I went out and wrapped the bike up in a blanket extra well.....draped to the floor. THANK GOD I sealed that head with plastic. and had the bike covered.

I knew something like this would happen. All I did was ask her to close the door if she was going to sweep and she doesn't reply. Makes a call on her cell phone while I am standing there and starts talking. I just raised my voice and asked her to please close the garage door. She tells the person "I have to go now, D--- is bitching at me." Then she is all pissed like it's not a good enough reason to ask her close teh garage door to keep the dust off my bike. I told her there is an open engine under there and if dust gets in it, it's toast. I didn't want to go on. My kids were sitting there and they never even heard the word bitch before so I thought I better just let it go. The motor is covered up. Would still rather not have someone sweepung the floor in the next stall. I guess that is a lot to ask but you'd think they would at least hear you out.

Renting sucks. This is why I will prolly never marry again. NOt a middle aged divorced woman. Have you noticed? They are all insane. Really. Divorce makes them neurotic. I know so many examples. I don't know any emotionally stable divorced or women. I think that clock ticks and if something goes haywire the alarm goes off for ever. I .......... my god this woman is a nurse...I would kill myself if I saw her walk in my hospital room.

Imagine Miock jagger wwith a ciggarette and boobs wlk in your hospital bedroom.. That is like a nightmare right there.

* Last updated by: Rook on 8/19/2011 @ 5:45 PM *

This is actually scary. I can't look.

* Last updated by: Rook on 8/19/2011 @ 6:36 PM *

gett'em rook

* Last updated by: Badzx14r on 8/20/2011 @ 7:11 AM *

The resemblance to Don Knotts/Mick Jagger is truly uncanny. My cam has a good zoom. If I get a chance, I will snap a pic. It'll freak you out. If she was skinny, she could make money as a double.