Hi Speedy,

After doing this the other week, there was a little oil, but not half a gallon, by any stretch. A rag under the lower end of the timing cover catches it all - its maybe 20 or 30 ml of oil in front and rear.

I'll probably do the oil at the same time anyway, so it's probably irrelevant. I was just bloody annoyed when I pulled the water pump out expecting a trickle or dribble, and got a full-on torrent! lol

You'll still get some up there - it pools in the lowest corner of the V's when its on the sidestand - did this on my NC21 as well when I was checking the shims.

Best bit is when you forget you have taken the cover off and find a couple of random drips of oil on the floor "Where the F* did that... ohhh yeah!"

speedy231278 wrote:I'll probably do the oil at the same time anyway, so it's probably irrelevant. I was just bloody annoyed when I pulled the water pump out expecting a trickle or dribble, and got a full-on torrent! lol

The water pump goes directly into the engine, youll get most of the oil come out if you remove it without draining the oil.

I dont have the haynes book to hand but surely it doesnt say remove the water pump with the engine oil in the bike.

The generator cover yes, but the waterpump?

Neosophist wrote:I dont have the haynes book to hand but surely it doesnt say remove the water pump with the engine oil in the bike.

The generator cover yes, but the waterpump?

Nope, water pump! I believe the wording is 'some residual oil may be present'. I can only assume that I glanced at the section that states how to remove the water pump while taking the engine apart, in which case there will be a previous instruction to drop the oil first. Regardless, the lesson was learned! lol

speedy231278 wrote:

Neosophist wrote:I dont have the haynes book to hand but surely it doesnt say remove the water pump with the engine oil in the bike.

The generator cover yes, but the waterpump?

Nope, water pump! I believe the wording is 'some residual oil may be present'. I can only assume that I glanced at the section that states how to remove the water pump while taking the engine apart, in which case there will be a previous instruction to drop the oil first. Regardless, the lesson was learned! lol

Aha yes,

If you lay the bike almost on its side so the oil is in the clutch section of the bike you can get the pump out but otherwise drop the oil else you will have a sea of oil going on, as you seem to have found out!

Busy with valve clearances, most seem to be the right gaps but 2 or 3 are 0.02/0.03mm out, should i still change them or will it be ok?

If they're out of the range of acceptable clearance then change them. It would be daft not to for the effort of pushing a rocker arm over and changing a £2.50 shim.

They'll be tight rather than too loose (unless they've been maladjusted previously) and worst case you can burn out a valve or have valve/piston interface.

I left them as is cause they were too loose and will probably tighten up and couldnt get them out

Jac-al wrote:I left them as is cause they were too loose and will probably tighten up and couldnt get them out

they will be loose probally because of carbon build up around the valve stems from poor jetting etc,

youd be better to investigate than leave as is because your only going to get the engine running worse, and if the valves are open slightly they you run the risk of smacking into the crown in time.

Hondas tollerances are tight for a reason,

What size shims are currently in the out of tolerance valves?