2V ducati Valve Clearances

[jcbell1007]

So I've undertaken my valve check as the bike has close to 7,000 miles on it. My question is this

Both intake clearances seem to be spot on, or at least pretty darn that I'm not going to mess with them.

My exhaust valves though, on the vertical cylinder, I can get a .002 feeler gauge in between the opening shim (shows 2.7 on the side) and the arm. It's touch to get in, but once it's in, it moves freely and doesn't bind. It takes a little down pressure on the closer or a little up pressure on the opener to get it in. when I unload the clearance by pushing on the closing arm, I can get a .004 in there and move it freely. If I unload the closer, with the feeler in there, it will pull out with some effort.

On the horizontal side, I can't get a .0015 in there until I unload the valve with down pressure on the closer. Without this, I can't get any gauges in between the opener and the arm.

Is it normal for both exhaust sides to be that tight on the openers. I was using the values on Ducatitech's site that put the clearances at .003" gap for intake openers, .004" gap on the exhaust openers, and .001" or closer for the closing gap on all. I've rotated the engine to confirm TDC before measuring on all the gaps and have found the same thing multiple times for my measurements.

It's a 2008 Hyper 1100S that I bought last year. This is my first attempt at valve maintenance.

[jeantarrou]

Wrapped up my first valve adjustment, timing belt change, etc (12,000 mile service)... on my 08 Hyper 1100 non S, it was quite an experience.

I can't speak with any credibility about whether your clearances are or are not common, my sixth sense says it's a bit surprising how tight they are though? And in my adjustment all my gaps were too large, although not by much, but I think I changed 6 out of 8 shims?

One thing I found to be convenient was taking the timing belts off so I could just spin the cam gears independently instead of having to turn the whole motor, I found that very small cam position differences created big differences in clearance measurements, not surprising I guess when you're measuring to the 1000th of an inch...

Also, I was using LT Snyder's service book, I can't recommend it highly enough, LOTS of pictures and very thorough instructions. I'm pretty sure his recommended gaps were .004 for all openers (wider is better than tighter) and <.002 for closers. I wasn't exactly sure what <.002 meant, does it mean .00000005 is ok? But, I ended up going for a clearance where I could get a .001 feeler in, but it was a little tight.

Hopefully Degsy will chime in, he's got the experience...

EDIT: Oh, and after getting the new shims most of my closers were super tight, I couldn't get my smallest feeler guage in there, so I ended up doing quite a bit of sanding. Worked out fine but my fingers were wrecked!

[jcbell1007]

My guess is that the valves were done by the PO at a shop as all of the shims are marked with values except 1 (opener, exhaust, horizontal shim). But, based on what I'm seeing, I could sand the openers down a touch without having to touch the closers based on what I have measured so far. Glad to see the clearances you got from that book are similar to what I found so I'm not way off base.

My new belts should be here soon so I will probably just take the old belts off based on what you are saying. I never thought to take mine off and had been turning the engine by hand using the rear wheel.

Thanks for the input.

[jeantarrou]

My new belts should be here soon so I will probably just take the old belts off based on what you are saying. I never thought to take mine off and had been turning the engine by hand using the rear wheel.

It really made things easier. I was initially worried about getting the timing right after taking them off, a lot of the "tutorials" I read and videos I watched seemed to be really anal about marking the old belts, taking them off carefully so the gears don't move, blah, blah, blah... Well, all I did was line up the marks on the cam gears and crankshaft gear with the marks on the engine cases, made sure the mark was showing on the flywheel sight hole, 200 miles later and she's been running great!

[jcbell1007]

I just pulled them off and found that the vertical cylinder wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought as far as tightness on the opener. I did however find that the tightness on the horizontal cylinder did not change. I pulled the opening shim and slowly sanded it down about .0025". I found the clearance now is about .0025" with the closer being about .0005". I'll pull it off again tomorrow to see if I can get it closer to .004" and do a light sand on the vertical exhaust opening shim as well. Hopefully I'll have all of the clearances done tomorrow and be ready for belts thursday when they arrive.

Thanks for your help!

[Kurlon]

I wouldn't sand those shims. You're eating through the hardened surface and it's not like Duc shims have a lot of surface area to spread the load onto...

[jcbell1007]

Really? Not knocking your advice but I've read about sanding them down in several spots across the interwebs given the close tolerances.

[Kurlon]

I've read about all sorts of things as gospel online that I'd never do. I may be paranoid in this case, just never found the idea appealing personally.

[jcbell1007]

I just did some research and the shim kit from EMS only gives you between 15 and 20 shim in .1 mm increments (.0039"). With that much difference between shims, you must have to sand in order to fit them in as .0039" is a big difference for clearances.

[jcbell1007]

So I stopped by Ducati VT (Cyclewise) on my way home today and spoke with one of their techs that I know. It's normal for the exhaust valves to tighten up like this as the valve seats differently than the intake. He also told me that sanding the shim down was acceptable and the only way to make small clearance changes.

[scottieducati]

Yeah, Kurlon the issue was with rocker coatings. The shim, while likely surface treated, should be uniform hardness all the way through.

JC, just sent you a sext message... I mean... wut?