Sounds normal to me.

When was the last time you checked them?

I don't blame you for wondering, but while 10K on a bike sounds like a lot would anyone ever think to do a valve adjustment on a 10k mile car????

I think what you should be checking is the cam chain tensioner, because that is the weak link on these bikes.

Why not just go ahead and check them. Then you'll know for sure.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1325991352

If you just replaced the tensioner , that would have been the time to check the valve clearance. It's not that you might be damaging the valve train , but that you may be robbing the motor of power,  after about 5000 miles the ends of the adjuster bolts tend to become hardened from striking the valve stems and may increase the valve clearances ,that may be why they seem slightly louder to you, but that also reduces how far they open.

 There's no reason to drain the oil, you may loose a tiny bit when you open the plug to rotate the motor to TDC . but you should read about it first ,remember to rotate the motor in the same direction as the wheels turn for starters.

ohiomoto wrote on 04/12/20 at 17:15:31:




No most cars have a hydraulic valve system that self adjusts for 1000's of miles.
A bike with a slightly tight valve which is just under the low end of spec will start up cold perfectly, and want to stall 5 seconds in. If you used the choke and keep it revved and keep it from stalling it will warm up and once warm, run perfectly till you shut it off and it cools down - where it will repeat the original problem.

See when hot, valve clearance increases. The heat path between the 2 that are adjusted when you adjust valve clearance is all aluminum - via the head, and all steel Valve to rocker tip. The aluminum will expand more than the steel will. However that does not mean they heat up at the same rate. The valve heats up faster. That causes the near 0 but positive clearance to turn negative (valve hangs open in the chamber when its supposed to be closed). Eventually it could burn, valves shed head by the intake charge flowing over their face and the seat conducting it into the head. But to burn, it would need to sort of never close - it has to be very tight, and it will not run right even when warmed up.

A valve with too much clearance will make a lot of noise. This is annoying but really not too big a deal till it really really gets excessive. Then it will beat up the adjuster and top of valve stem too much.

You can check/adjust the valves without doing anything else. Oil change not necessary. BTW you need to get the spark plug out, and if you were going to change that this is a good time to do so. Its an easy enough task if you have tiny tiny tiny and super strong fingers. LOL. Fatter and weaker fingers have more trouble.

Cool.
Srinath.

The tank, left side "spark plug door", the big slotted cap on the left side cover need to be removed. After which you can tell when a the valve is closed. Weirdly its not required to do them at TDC on compression stroke.

So think about this - TDC on compression stroke has the intake closed for almost 180 degrees of crank, and exhaust has been closed for 360 degrees. So intake is set to open in 360 and exhaust set to open in 180. You don't need to be there. You can well do it separately as well with the exhaust 1/2 way up the compression stroke, and intake 1/2 way down the suction stroke. You can see the rocker lift and turn the crank 90 or so degrees from there and check that. Repeat on other side. Its a lot easier if you can do it that way. In effect you can put the bike in gear and spin the back wheel cos I hate turning it at the crank. You can see the intake easily there. If you really need to you can have a spotter for the exhaust.
On my GS 500 thanks to the center stand and a cam on top of bucket design, I never turn the crank. You can see all 4 cams from the rear wheel and is easy to turn it.
Cool.
Srinath.