I did my break in maintenance today.  Actually it was a little late, the 2008 S40 had 1060 miles on it.  I took some extra time and found out some interesting things.  
I changed the spark plug and found the porcelain tip to be very white.  Running a little hot.  No jetting changes have been done, only a Harley Dyna muffler installed at 682 miles.   I will consider changing the main jet to 150.
Before removing the head cover, be sure you are at TDC and all valves are loose.  I used a small dowel in the spark plug hole, rocked the bike back and forth in 5th gear to "feel" TDC.
I checked the valve clearance BEFORE doing anything. Found Left Exhaust .005, Right exhaust .004.  Left Intake .004 and Right intake .003.  I reset them all to .005 after retorqueing head.  Getting feeler gauges in the small opening is difficult.  I had a set of feeler gauges I bought at a garage sale for a buck.  Took them apart and bent the .003, .004, .005 and .006 in a Z shape to fit into the tight quarters.  Then I held them with a hemostat for a better handle.  A flashlight helped get them in the proper spot.
The head cover bolts are different length, so I took a hint from a post here and took a box and drew a picture of the head on it with a Sharpie.  Then I took a paring knife and poked an X in the bolt locations.  As I removed the bolts, I stuck them in the X cuts to keep them all in order.  Also in a post here I remembered that 2 bolts have to be in the head cover before you place it on the head.  The one in the middle under the frame and the left front chrome cover bolt.  
I marked the head nuts with a Sharpie, before I removed them to see what I gained by retorqueing to 24 ft/lb.  Looks like I got an additional 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn on each of them.  Oiling them before torqueing is important.
I used High Temp red silicone seal on the new plug over the right front head bolt.  The one that usually leaks if not sealed.  I found the after applying the sealant and poking the plug in the hole, it wanted to back out.  I had to wedge it in for a half hour so it stayed seated and the silicone began to harden before I proceeded.   The nuts under the head are a little hard to get at.  I ended up rounding one a little, so I bought 2 new ones.  Also, had to guess on torque, because torque wrench won't fit in there. I know what 24 ft/lbs feels like and those nuts get only 20.  This all took about 5 hours, but I took my time to get it perfect.  I have confidence it was done right, going to a dealer is a crap shoot.  You never know who is working on it and they will hurry the process to keep shop time low.  If you study and prepare, it is not that hard.  Like my old prof always told us, "Nothing is hard if you know how".  Read Rubbersidedown and Clymers and it all gets easier.

EssForty wrote on 10/31/08 at 04:03:22:


Or just head on over to your local head shop, or take a peak behind the dumpster.

Nice post Bear, in fact perfect.

Good for you Bear. Hey do you guys know if anyone has ever posted a video on how to perform the 600 mile service for riders such as myself that arent as mechanically inclined. I dont want to pay a dealer $300 bucks but at the same time I dont want to fluck up my engine due to lack of experience. Sorry if I hijacked this thread just curious to know if there is a how to video somewhere out there. Thanks