Valve Check On 2013

[max]

Valve clearance check performed yesterday, mainly peace of mind and this is roughly what happened.
Even without changing shims it took the best part of the day, tank, coils, heatshield, pair valve all have to be removed.
Had a hard time disconnecting the fuel connection from the tank because didn't know how to operate the coupling, the heatshield needed bending and was a bit difficult, valve cover took some time and came free after pulling the wire harness up for a little more clearance.
The ecm was not disconnected but layd back and the tray removed ( it moves back )




There was some light rust developing on the inside of the tank where the paint was very light, i used some clear lacquer to stop this getting any worse, you can see clearly how the plastic blue lock works to disconnect the fuel line and how the rubber keeper sits underneath the wings to prevent unintentional disconnection.



It took about an hour to get the bike ready for clearance checks and the inside was in perfect shape, no oil residue anywhere, nice shiny camlobes and buckets which retain some oil between them and this will reduce wear at startups greatly.
this shows the wear pattern and how the buckets rotate constantly when the engine runs.



Had feeler gauges with 0.01 mm increments so i could have a close look at the gaps, i did not loosen the tensioner and rotated the shaft clockwise during the process.
here are the findings;


spec; ex 0.28 in 0.15 +/- 0.3 mm.


#1 - exhaust .28,.28 intake .16,.17
#2 - exhaust .28,.28 intake .15,.16
#3 - exhaust .27,.27 intake .18,.18
#4 - exhaust .28,.28 intake .16,.15

No adjustment needed.



Had a look if the camshafts were timed correctly and should have checked if all the bolts holding the shafts were tight but that's for next time.
was very happy with the lack of oil residue from using full synthetic oil in the engine.



Cleaned the gasket and surface and put a light smear of black sealant on both sides and a little dot in all the corners for the round hole covers before putting the valve cover back, tightening the 8 bolts and putting the bike back together which went a lot better than taking it to bits, i ended up greasing the little boots on the coils on the iside because it made it easy to slip them over the little plastic ridges and prevent water getting onto the terminals, you can connect 3 terminals with the coils outside the frame and the last one once they are inside the frame, honda spent some time getting this right.
so here is how it looked after the work was done;



Here you can see the discussed earth terminal on the frame.
A better insight of how the bike works was achieved and the tank put back on with checking for ( the absence of ) fuel leaks after the pump primed the system and the engine started as if nothing ever happened.

More coffee; max