Lost Valve shim!

[rubenastley]

Hey guys,

Just a shit situation i got myself in and i need a little guidance. I was in the process of replacing the head gasket a while back and i seem to have lost the storage bag of one of the shims i took out. The shim was the second from the top left if you were to sit on the bike and face forward. What are my options now? Whats the process of replacing it?

Cheers -

[richyrd5]

Hi.you could place a shim of watever size in and then take measurements to acertain the correct clearance...start with a small size first and see how you go.dont worry its no biggie!

[speedy231278]

Think of it like this... at least you didn't lose the thing inside the engine!

[Neosophist]

Buy a new one.

Have you actually measured the valve clearances and done them properly? You'll probably need to order more than one shim so it makes sense doing it all togehter, it will also allow your engine to run its best if they are out of spec.

For now as above, pick any shim you have and measure its thickness (you need a micrometer capable of reading to 2 decimal places)

For example, say you measure one and its 2.65mm thick, if you put it in and your clearance (after aligning them cam as per valve clerance guide) is only 0.05 then you need a 0.10mm thinner shim to open the gap upto 0.15mm which is in spec for the inlets.

[vfrman]

Think of it like this... at least you didn't lose the thing inside the engine!

What he said.

[richyrd5]

Second from top left is exhaust not inlet! Or am I missing something?.edit:you were using that as an example.

[rubenastley]

Cheers guys. Just a question. Can I bolt down the cams and measure clearances of the seven shims still in place? Record those measurements and then take a random shim and put it in the missing valve and measure that. Essentially will bolting down the cams without all the shims in give me an accurate measurement of the valves that do have shims in them?

[Neosophist]

Cheers guys. Just a question. Can I bolt down the cams and measure clearances of the seven shims still in place? Record those measurements and then take a random shim and put it in the missing valve and measure that. Essentially will bolting down the cams without all the shims in give me an accurate measurement of the valves that do have shims in them?

Yes as far as im aware it shouldnt make any difference.

Ive done it before and never had any issues

[vfrman]

Put the random shim in and take all the measurements at once. Each valve is independent of the others, so they won't affect the measurement. I would put in a thin shim for the calculation. Using one too thick will make the measurement too tight and you won't know how much thinner to go if there is zero clearance. I hope that makes sense...