None of my fingers have an asbestos coating & the top of that engine is what I call"close quarters".

Why cant I do it cold & get it closer. IF the gap grows as the engine warms up, then as long as I leave ANY lash, cold, it cant ever hold the valve out of the seat,, Unless the seat moves or the valve suddenly wears & starts to squish into the seat?? I AM asking here..Why? Cuz, I want every bit I can get.

Has anyone gone in to adj. valves & discovered they had gotten tighter? What caused it?

When a machine does something & it is repeatable & predictable, I want to understand it. I just discovered that the valve stem length change after the engine is warmed up, is less than the amount the valve moves away from the cam due to the valve face widening & not sitting so deep in the seat. If you guys want to call it silly, you go for it. To me, its interesting & if I can come to understand it, then that would make me happy.

I'll bet that theres a ratio of vale stem length & valve face diameter that would hold the gap. When people "Get It" & the light goes on in their head, I believe it affects them in more than that one area.
Speculation? Isnt that considering the possibilities? Trying to understand something & have it dismissed as "just speculation" is really rude. If you dont want to entertain the subject, walk on by, but dont take a slap at me for my curiosity.

verslagen1 wrote on 05/22/08 at 09:09:45:

I'll second this. Cause you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Do not set those valves tighter than FACTORY specs or you WILL burn them (and the valve-seat). Then you'd wish you'd never messed with it (Hindsight=20/20). Thermal expansion gows the stem which make the clearance tighter and quiets the noise.  

I tried to copy & paste a small section from th4e "Sacred Cows" article.
Author states that the high [performance cams need more clearance, to take up the "shock", as Reel said. But, what doesnt work in MY mind, is.. well, If I was a lump, on a stick, & I was gonna run into something, it SEEMS like the impact would be a lot gentler, IF what I was gonna run into, was Close to me at th lowest part of my lump. Seems like, IF we opened the clearance UP to Maximum, plus a lot, so that the valve didnt open mure than .025 or so, then the cam would come flying around & BANG its nose on the lifter, but, IF I set the clearance tight, it seems the cam & lifter would work more smooooothy together.


SO, that is where MY thinking is stuck. I READ the article & I KNOW what they say, I Just dont get it. So, can anyone splain this in a manner that would Help me see it?
I accept that I am wrong, I just want to understand the mechanics that make it so.

Went & read Mike Nixon's blast on degreeing, now I will read his other articles. Thanks Reelthing. That guy may have just started sumpthin here. We have these cams put in, BUt,, IIRC, the drive sprocket IS a solid little dude & maybe could be slotted, to make for the degreeing being possible. Once degreed, a new pin poked in in a spot not slotted? Gotta have that pin, dont we?

Went over to Stinger's cave again yesterday

All his valves are now readjusted at .004"...some may have been as loose as .007"

Oh did I mention that his timing plug is stuck and will not turn with the standard tool or any amount of beating and turning?  There's a new chapter in this saga coming soon, but we did find a new way to rotate the engine to find TDC on the compression stroke......it's called the:

"Bike on Block, Watch the Valves, Feel the Piston, while rotating the Rear Wheel Technique".

Definitely more complex, but certainly doable in a pinch

Greg, would running the thing till it was good & warm & using either ice or dry ice on the plug do any good? Would antisieze be applied next time?