n0other
biker wannabe
THIS IS A CHECK GUIDE, NO ADJUSTMENT WILL BE DONE
Yamaha recommends doing valve check and adjustment if needed every 40 000 km, or 24 000 miles. Mine has nearly 29k miles, I can tell valve clearances were not yet checked on it.
Our bikes have inline, liquid cooled, 4 cylinder engines with 4 valves per cylinder and two camshafts (DOHC). With time, the gap between the cam lobe and valve bucket changes (AFAIK it should only shrink). This means that the valves on the other end of this stay open longer, leak exhaust gas prematurely and cool worse - operating an engine with incorrect valve clearances will result in poor performance, idle rpm, temperature and in worst case a valve will burn through which equals very expensive and time consuming engine repair. Do not rely on luck and get your valves checked, it's not that hard.
This guide will tell you step by step how to check valve clearances on 2004 FZ6-S that was converted to naked version. This means that there's no plastic fairing I need to worry about and that having no ABS - coolant reservoir is below the tank and not up front, near the radiator, otherwise this guide is universal to all FZ6 models.
I have very little mechanical experience, this is the first time I'm doing a valve check so it's likely I'll make the same mistakes along the way that other first timers make, and you should learn from that.
I'll be using the metric system instead of imperial one, also, excuse (and point out) any grammatical errors as English is not my first language.
I've bought the bike last year, it's now winter season and with having riden a total of 350km (200 miles) on it I fell in love with it still and want to keep it.
On with the guide…
Tools needed
You will need a good set of tools. Do not proceed working on your bike if you do not have good tools. In Europe, Proxxon makes and sells affordable and good tools, I'm using this set and absolutely love it, I think it was an equivalent of $100 USD.
You will need a feeler gauge or sometimes called a thickness gauge, preferably it should have gauges in small increments from 0.13mm to 0.30mm, as that's where we need to be with our valves.
A good light - I'm simply using cheap desktop lamp as it provides great illumination and does not rely on batteries.
Pen, paper, rags, towels, container to pour technical liquids in and good mood :thumb up
Assumptions and order of work
I'll be assuming that you have:
* Lifted up and secured your tank. I used a rope to keep it raised.
* Removed your battery, air box with air filter, plastic battery box, rubber protective mat under the battery and taped off your throttle body intake ports to prevent dirt from falling in to basically get to this stage. I'm not documenting this stage because I've already had this done, also because it's very easy to do. When removing the battery box, there's two bolts and two plastic pins - to get the pins out, push the core out with a small screwdriver then pin legs will collapse and you'll be able to take it out.
If you are now at this stage, to take the valve cover off we'll need to:
* Disconnect a few connectors.
* Drain coolant and remove the radiator with fan.
* Remove spark plugs.
* Remove crankcase cover.
* Finally remove the valve cover.
As you see, your valve checks are a good point to replace coolant, flush/clean your cooling system if you want and replace spark plugs.
Bike sides are referred to as you'd be sitting on it. Left - clutch lever side, right - front brake lever side.
Cylinders are counter from the left as you're sitting on the bike - 1, 2, 3, 4. 1st - closest to your left foot, 4th - closest to your right foot.
Do everything when your bike is completely cool.
Draining the coolant
Remove radiator filler cap (top right of your radiator), by first removing the bolt. Secure your front fender with a rag as I hear coolant doesn't mix well with painted plastics. Watch out, a few drops of coolant might come out when you undo your filler cap bolt.
Put a container for your old coolant - you don't have to buy anything fancy, I just cut the side of windshield washer fluid bottle and now have a nice 4l container with a "drain plug"
Remove two hoses from your coolant reservoir (under the tank for non-ABS version)
Remove your coolant drain plug, right side, bottom. Do not quickly remove the bolt, unscrew it slowly or your get a shot of coolant on you. Bring the container up, slowly undo the bolt and keep catching the liquid that comes out. When the coolant drains completely, put the drain plug back, also, put the radiator filler cap with bolt back - just so you don't lose them.
My coolant was dark and smelled like it's been through a human
For some reason, all the manuals say this, so here goes.. dispose of your technical liquids in a safe manner or you'll drink it later!
Radiator removal
Trace radiator fan wires from the fan to it's connector - black connector, black/blue wire pair. Disconnect the connector.
Detach radiator overflow hose (right side top of your radiator) - have the liquid container and rags ready because the hose might contain some coolant. Spin the hose if it doesn't want to come off, it might have "atomically bonded" with the radiator tap. Empty the hose of any excess coolant into the container.
Disconnect the two hoses near it (called pump breather and fast idle unit hoses). Empty any coolant into the container again. Note which goes where!
Next, disconnect the large hose at the bottom right side of your bike's radiator - it's the oil cooler hose.
Proceed to the left side and disconnect the remaining bottom left and top left hoses. Again, spin a bit before dragging down. You are now done with the hoses, but don't pop that beer can yet!
Unscrew the radiator lower and top mounting bolts (two in total), then wiggle the radiator away from your bike and it should come out. Watch out for the coolant spills from the radiator as there will surely be some.
TIP:
Use a piece of cardboard *(disassemble a box), some duct tape and pen - write where the bolt came from and duct tape it to the cardboard. Make pictures if you feel you're getting overwhelmed by the amount of bolts that you're unscrewing. This way, if someone disturbs you and you can continue your work only two weeks later - you'll have it easier to put everything back.
Valve cover
Note that my spark plug wires have stickers marking which cylinder it goes to. I don't know if I should thank Yamaha or the previous owner, but it's nice to have. Make something like this before you remove them.
Remove spark plug wires - the connectors are not screwed in, you just wiggle and pull them up. The connector for cylinder 1 spark plug is a bit tricky to get out because of the frame shape, but with wiggling and force it will come out as well.
Remove spark plugs - for this you'll need a 16mm deep socket, preferably with rubber pad inside, this will stick onto the spark plug and help to lift it out. My toolset includes one specifically for spark plugs.
I put a cotton rag in the spark plug socket after removing it. (just make sure it won't leave any threads or thick hair inside your engine)
Put spark plugs on the cardboard marking which goes where.
Trace this wire from the crankcase cover (right side), it's the crankshaft position sensor, disconnect it at the connector. Use a small flat screwdriver to push the pin in.
Ok, back to the valve cover.
Remove two AIS hoses, spin them before dragging like you did with the radiator.
Unscrew six valve cover bolts, put them in a safe place. Grab the two hose connectors and lift valve cover up, gently, straight up, don't spin it. Make sure the rubber gasket comes off with the valve cover. Remove it slowly, mentally noting how it came off - you are guaranteed good fun trying to put it back on later otherwise!
Finally, with valve cover removed, we can see our camshafts (two long rods), cam lobes (pointy metal on cams) and valve buckets (shinny discs below the camshafts). I've marked all the points where you'll need to measure the clearance. You need to get the feeler gauge in between the cam lobe and valve bucket.
Checking valve clearances
Back on the right side of your bike - remove all the bolts from the crankcase cover, and slowly lift it away. The cover will come out with the wire for the crankshaft position sensor. You are supposed to use a new crankcase cover gasket and dispose of the old one - I don't have it so will just clean the old one and reuse it.
Looks like someone (Yamaha, that can't be you?!) used a non heat resistant hermetic on my crankcase cover, it melted and gummed up at the bottom of the cover. I'll have some cleaning to do.
Valve clearance ranges
Cold engine.
Intake valves: 0.13 to 0.20mm
Exhaust valves: 0.23 to 0.30mm
Cylinder 1
Put the bike in neutral. Notice little T mark and a line on the sprocket in the crankcase. Mount a socket on the sprocket bolt and turn in clockwise direction only. The line and T mark should align with crankcase "joint" line, the T on the sprocket should be horizontal, pointing to the back of your bike. I've marked the joint line and T mark.
Make sure cam lobes on cylinder one (the pointy ends on the camshaft) look away at each other. Like in the picture below. If they don't - give the sprocket another 360deg clockwise spin.
Intake valves are under the camshaft closer to the back of your bike (close to injectors), exhaust valves are under the camshaft closer to your radiator/front - where exhaust pipes are. Again, cylinders are counted from the left - 1, 2, 3, 4.
Uh oh, I've noticed something bad on my cyl. 1 cam lobe, luckily it's just oil residue and not mechanical damage.
When checking the clearances, start with the smallest feeler for the valve range and go up or down to check if it continues to fit. You aim to determine the thickest gauge that fits - that's your current valve clearance for the valve.
If you can't get the feeler in, make absolutely sure it's not the angle - try checking from another side of the lobe, double check, triple check if need be - that's easier than making a mistake thinking you need valve adjustment when in fact you might not need it at all.
Measure clearances either from the middle, between the camshafts, or for the intake valves - from the back of the valve cover. Again, you want to put in the gauge between the cam lobe and valve bucket.
The feeler gauge should be a tight fit, you should feel the lobe dragging the gauge when you try to pull it out, one up on the gauge size and it should not fit at all. Record the last fitting gauge size on your valve map.
Make sure you're not using too much force because otherwise you will overpower valve spring, press the bucket in and essentially be doing what the cam lobes are doing - moving the valves. I got up to 0.60mm on an exhaust valve, freaked out and then realised I'm moving the bucket in - watch the buckets for movement, if you get an out of range reading - keep checking to be absolutely sure it's not you doing something wrong.
Cylinder 2
Go back to the crank sprocket, turn it 180deg clockwise and make sure cam lobes for cylinder 2 are now facing away. The T mark should now be on the opposite side.
Cylinder 4 (that's right, not 3)
Turn crank sprocket 180deg clockwise for the cam lobes at cylinder 4 to be facing opposite direction. If you miss the T mark, keep turning clockwise till you get the needed cam lobe position and T alignment right for the cylinder you're about to measure. Do not turn counter clockwise - while nothing bad might happen, your engine is not designed to turn that way.
Cylinder 3
Turn crank sprocket 180deg clockwise for the cam lobes at cylinder 3 to be facing opposite direction. I'm not including more pictures of this as by now I have faith that you understand what's a cam lobe and what "facing opposite directions" means.
As expected, all of my valves are within spec, so I won't be doing an adjustment tutorial just yet. It's about time to pop that alcoholic beverage of choice!
Putting it back
Put back everything in reverse order, top up your radiator with fresh coolant (don't forget the coolant reservoir as well). While you don't need a torque wrench for anything we've done here, you can use it if you have it.
Cooling system drain plug: 10 Nm
Spark plugs: 18 Nm
Valve cover bolts: 12 Nm
Anything else just tighten by hand and give it a 1/2-3/4 spin with a wrench, do not over tighten anything.
Yamaha recommends doing valve check and adjustment if needed every 40 000 km, or 24 000 miles. Mine has nearly 29k miles, I can tell valve clearances were not yet checked on it.
Our bikes have inline, liquid cooled, 4 cylinder engines with 4 valves per cylinder and two camshafts (DOHC). With time, the gap between the cam lobe and valve bucket changes (AFAIK it should only shrink). This means that the valves on the other end of this stay open longer, leak exhaust gas prematurely and cool worse - operating an engine with incorrect valve clearances will result in poor performance, idle rpm, temperature and in worst case a valve will burn through which equals very expensive and time consuming engine repair. Do not rely on luck and get your valves checked, it's not that hard.
This guide will tell you step by step how to check valve clearances on 2004 FZ6-S that was converted to naked version. This means that there's no plastic fairing I need to worry about and that having no ABS - coolant reservoir is below the tank and not up front, near the radiator, otherwise this guide is universal to all FZ6 models.
I have very little mechanical experience, this is the first time I'm doing a valve check so it's likely I'll make the same mistakes along the way that other first timers make, and you should learn from that.
I'll be using the metric system instead of imperial one, also, excuse (and point out) any grammatical errors as English is not my first language.
I've bought the bike last year, it's now winter season and with having riden a total of 350km (200 miles) on it I fell in love with it still and want to keep it.
On with the guide…
Tools needed
You will need a good set of tools. Do not proceed working on your bike if you do not have good tools. In Europe, Proxxon makes and sells affordable and good tools, I'm using this set and absolutely love it, I think it was an equivalent of $100 USD.
You will need a feeler gauge or sometimes called a thickness gauge, preferably it should have gauges in small increments from 0.13mm to 0.30mm, as that's where we need to be with our valves.
A good light - I'm simply using cheap desktop lamp as it provides great illumination and does not rely on batteries.
Pen, paper, rags, towels, container to pour technical liquids in and good mood :thumb up
Assumptions and order of work
I'll be assuming that you have:
* Lifted up and secured your tank. I used a rope to keep it raised.
* Removed your battery, air box with air filter, plastic battery box, rubber protective mat under the battery and taped off your throttle body intake ports to prevent dirt from falling in to basically get to this stage. I'm not documenting this stage because I've already had this done, also because it's very easy to do. When removing the battery box, there's two bolts and two plastic pins - to get the pins out, push the core out with a small screwdriver then pin legs will collapse and you'll be able to take it out.
If you are now at this stage, to take the valve cover off we'll need to:
* Disconnect a few connectors.
* Drain coolant and remove the radiator with fan.
* Remove spark plugs.
* Remove crankcase cover.
* Finally remove the valve cover.
As you see, your valve checks are a good point to replace coolant, flush/clean your cooling system if you want and replace spark plugs.
Bike sides are referred to as you'd be sitting on it. Left - clutch lever side, right - front brake lever side.
Cylinders are counter from the left as you're sitting on the bike - 1, 2, 3, 4. 1st - closest to your left foot, 4th - closest to your right foot.
Do everything when your bike is completely cool.
Draining the coolant
Remove radiator filler cap (top right of your radiator), by first removing the bolt. Secure your front fender with a rag as I hear coolant doesn't mix well with painted plastics. Watch out, a few drops of coolant might come out when you undo your filler cap bolt.
Put a container for your old coolant - you don't have to buy anything fancy, I just cut the side of windshield washer fluid bottle and now have a nice 4l container with a "drain plug"
Remove two hoses from your coolant reservoir (under the tank for non-ABS version)
Remove your coolant drain plug, right side, bottom. Do not quickly remove the bolt, unscrew it slowly or your get a shot of coolant on you. Bring the container up, slowly undo the bolt and keep catching the liquid that comes out. When the coolant drains completely, put the drain plug back, also, put the radiator filler cap with bolt back - just so you don't lose them.
My coolant was dark and smelled like it's been through a human
For some reason, all the manuals say this, so here goes.. dispose of your technical liquids in a safe manner or you'll drink it later!
Radiator removal
Trace radiator fan wires from the fan to it's connector - black connector, black/blue wire pair. Disconnect the connector.
Detach radiator overflow hose (right side top of your radiator) - have the liquid container and rags ready because the hose might contain some coolant. Spin the hose if it doesn't want to come off, it might have "atomically bonded" with the radiator tap. Empty the hose of any excess coolant into the container.
Disconnect the two hoses near it (called pump breather and fast idle unit hoses). Empty any coolant into the container again. Note which goes where!
Next, disconnect the large hose at the bottom right side of your bike's radiator - it's the oil cooler hose.
Proceed to the left side and disconnect the remaining bottom left and top left hoses. Again, spin a bit before dragging down. You are now done with the hoses, but don't pop that beer can yet!
Unscrew the radiator lower and top mounting bolts (two in total), then wiggle the radiator away from your bike and it should come out. Watch out for the coolant spills from the radiator as there will surely be some.
TIP:
Use a piece of cardboard *(disassemble a box), some duct tape and pen - write where the bolt came from and duct tape it to the cardboard. Make pictures if you feel you're getting overwhelmed by the amount of bolts that you're unscrewing. This way, if someone disturbs you and you can continue your work only two weeks later - you'll have it easier to put everything back.
Valve cover
Note that my spark plug wires have stickers marking which cylinder it goes to. I don't know if I should thank Yamaha or the previous owner, but it's nice to have. Make something like this before you remove them.
Remove spark plug wires - the connectors are not screwed in, you just wiggle and pull them up. The connector for cylinder 1 spark plug is a bit tricky to get out because of the frame shape, but with wiggling and force it will come out as well.
Remove spark plugs - for this you'll need a 16mm deep socket, preferably with rubber pad inside, this will stick onto the spark plug and help to lift it out. My toolset includes one specifically for spark plugs.
I put a cotton rag in the spark plug socket after removing it. (just make sure it won't leave any threads or thick hair inside your engine)
Put spark plugs on the cardboard marking which goes where.
Trace this wire from the crankcase cover (right side), it's the crankshaft position sensor, disconnect it at the connector. Use a small flat screwdriver to push the pin in.
Ok, back to the valve cover.
Remove two AIS hoses, spin them before dragging like you did with the radiator.
Unscrew six valve cover bolts, put them in a safe place. Grab the two hose connectors and lift valve cover up, gently, straight up, don't spin it. Make sure the rubber gasket comes off with the valve cover. Remove it slowly, mentally noting how it came off - you are guaranteed good fun trying to put it back on later otherwise!
Finally, with valve cover removed, we can see our camshafts (two long rods), cam lobes (pointy metal on cams) and valve buckets (shinny discs below the camshafts). I've marked all the points where you'll need to measure the clearance. You need to get the feeler gauge in between the cam lobe and valve bucket.
Checking valve clearances
Back on the right side of your bike - remove all the bolts from the crankcase cover, and slowly lift it away. The cover will come out with the wire for the crankshaft position sensor. You are supposed to use a new crankcase cover gasket and dispose of the old one - I don't have it so will just clean the old one and reuse it.
Looks like someone (Yamaha, that can't be you?!) used a non heat resistant hermetic on my crankcase cover, it melted and gummed up at the bottom of the cover. I'll have some cleaning to do.
Valve clearance ranges
Cold engine.
Intake valves: 0.13 to 0.20mm
Exhaust valves: 0.23 to 0.30mm
Cylinder 1
Put the bike in neutral. Notice little T mark and a line on the sprocket in the crankcase. Mount a socket on the sprocket bolt and turn in clockwise direction only. The line and T mark should align with crankcase "joint" line, the T on the sprocket should be horizontal, pointing to the back of your bike. I've marked the joint line and T mark.
Make sure cam lobes on cylinder one (the pointy ends on the camshaft) look away at each other. Like in the picture below. If they don't - give the sprocket another 360deg clockwise spin.
Intake valves are under the camshaft closer to the back of your bike (close to injectors), exhaust valves are under the camshaft closer to your radiator/front - where exhaust pipes are. Again, cylinders are counted from the left - 1, 2, 3, 4.
Uh oh, I've noticed something bad on my cyl. 1 cam lobe, luckily it's just oil residue and not mechanical damage.
When checking the clearances, start with the smallest feeler for the valve range and go up or down to check if it continues to fit. You aim to determine the thickest gauge that fits - that's your current valve clearance for the valve.
If you can't get the feeler in, make absolutely sure it's not the angle - try checking from another side of the lobe, double check, triple check if need be - that's easier than making a mistake thinking you need valve adjustment when in fact you might not need it at all.
Measure clearances either from the middle, between the camshafts, or for the intake valves - from the back of the valve cover. Again, you want to put in the gauge between the cam lobe and valve bucket.
The feeler gauge should be a tight fit, you should feel the lobe dragging the gauge when you try to pull it out, one up on the gauge size and it should not fit at all. Record the last fitting gauge size on your valve map.
Make sure you're not using too much force because otherwise you will overpower valve spring, press the bucket in and essentially be doing what the cam lobes are doing - moving the valves. I got up to 0.60mm on an exhaust valve, freaked out and then realised I'm moving the bucket in - watch the buckets for movement, if you get an out of range reading - keep checking to be absolutely sure it's not you doing something wrong.
Cylinder 2
Go back to the crank sprocket, turn it 180deg clockwise and make sure cam lobes for cylinder 2 are now facing away. The T mark should now be on the opposite side.
Cylinder 4 (that's right, not 3)
Turn crank sprocket 180deg clockwise for the cam lobes at cylinder 4 to be facing opposite direction. If you miss the T mark, keep turning clockwise till you get the needed cam lobe position and T alignment right for the cylinder you're about to measure. Do not turn counter clockwise - while nothing bad might happen, your engine is not designed to turn that way.
Cylinder 3
Turn crank sprocket 180deg clockwise for the cam lobes at cylinder 3 to be facing opposite direction. I'm not including more pictures of this as by now I have faith that you understand what's a cam lobe and what "facing opposite directions" means.
As expected, all of my valves are within spec, so I won't be doing an adjustment tutorial just yet. It's about time to pop that alcoholic beverage of choice!
Putting it back
Put back everything in reverse order, top up your radiator with fresh coolant (don't forget the coolant reservoir as well). While you don't need a torque wrench for anything we've done here, you can use it if you have it.
Cooling system drain plug: 10 Nm
Spark plugs: 18 Nm
Valve cover bolts: 12 Nm
Anything else just tighten by hand and give it a 1/2-3/4 spin with a wrench, do not over tighten anything.
Last edited:
