Valve Stem Seals

[johnr]

but taking the head off gives you the chance to re lap the valves and clean up any carbon build up caused by burning oil.

[johnr]

its simple to do and easy to understand, google it or look on youtube, there are probably plenty of videos on there. it wont take you long to do whilst its apart.

[weaver]

don't bother with the base gasket if its not leaking

[johnr]

put a drop of oil on the seal before sliding it onto the guide, also a bit onto the valve as you slide it back in, just to avoid the seal being damaged in fitting. as for the cams, when youre putting them in just give the journals a squirt of engine oil, the moly paste is what suzuki reccomended for building an engine up from fresh, engine oil is good enough for them imho, its only so they dont spin dry when you start it up. but if youre concerned, just spin the engine over with the plugs out after youve reassembled it, just till the oil pressure light goes out, so you know its all got a good coating..

[johnr]

make sure the chain is engaged with the sprocket on the crank, if its slipped by half a tooth then it will ride on the teeth and be too tight. take the sprocket bolts out and slide the sprockets off their mounts, leaving them loose. fit the cams with the chain over them loose. allign the cams using the slots in the ends, then slide the chain onto the cams and slide them into position whilst maintaining both cam allignment and crank allignment using the tdc mark on the ignition marks. it might take a couple of goes, but it will fit easy enough. its just a bit fiddly, once everything is lined up and the bolts are back in the cams (and loctited) then refit the tensioner, and turn the engine over with a spanner a couple of times, then re check that everything is still lined up.
you struggle with the assembly with the sprockets on the cams because even with the tensioner removed, you are still trying to overcome the spring in the bend of the tensioner blade.

[johnr]

well, if you move it so the marks on the cams allign, to the head, are you moving them by one camchain link? they should be bang on more or less, so you might be a tooth out, mark where the chain alligns to a fixed point on the sprocket, a dab of paint or nail polish will do it, then when you move it, you dont lose track of where its been.

[johnr]

nah, thats a tooth out mate, its just one link of the chain out. think of it as half an inner link and half an outer, making one link, you just need to move the chain one tooth on. simple enough for you, to do and then just spin it over to make sure everything is right.

[weaver]

yes mate wont do any damage,turn by hand any problems stop,go one tooth and you should be sorted.

[johnr]

if its only one tooth out it will be fine to turn over by hand, these engines arent built to such tight tollerances as more modern motors where a few degrees out would see pistons kissing valves.
leave it as it is, unbolt the sprockets from the cams, jump the chain over one tooth, then put the cams back in place and rotate the engine with a spanner till the bolt holes line up with the cams, pop the bolts back in and give it a couple of rotations to check its right.

[johnr]

if you take off the exhaust and after putting in your earplugs, fire up the engine, it may be possible to identify the individual cylinder that requires new stem seals and then using the old rope trick, you can do that cylinder without taking the head off, or, you could just do all the valves using the same technique. it shouldnt really be a problem at mot time, my old bmw used to smoke like buggery on first startup, but the mot man never bothered because 'they all do that' so long as its not excessive when its running. but afaik theres no requirement to have the engine running at any time for a motorcycle mot as they have no emissions component for the test.