1990 FJ12 Rebuild in Ireland

[racerrad8]

Wow!

Just by polishing the valve seats, it can change that much. I would say that no material was removed at all, just cleaned up.

So it looks as if I may go through all the shims in there, find the narrowest one and hope that it is slim enough to fit in and give me a gap where I now have none?.

I only have the shims that are in the engine already so I will have to see how that works out.

Yes, the gritty lapping compound is a grinding material. So there is material being removed from the valve face and seat face.

So, with the thinnest shim removed, use it in all of the zero clearance valves.

As Pat said, do not rotate the cams into a bucket without a shim in place. In the US, the .25 cent, quarter fits into the bucket. It is a soft material that will not harm the cams and allows you to check other valves when you have no spare shims. Hopefully you have some sort of coin currency that can be used in place of the thinnest shim. Once you get them measured with the thinnest shim, use the shim chart to know what you require.

Once again as Pat said, you need to check them pretty quickly after the build. If you want to ensure you don't end up with a tight valve, you might leave them on the large side of the adjustment range. So, if in your calculations it says you need a 260, you might use a 258 or 255 in that location. That will allow the additional space for the valve face to reset against the valve seat.

Randy - RPM

[Mypoorfudge]

Not so much that you removed the metal on the valve edges or from the valve seats, but you certainly removed a built up layer of carbon.
What kind of clearances did you have before? I'll bet a jelly donut they were tight to begin with.

When you rotate that crank to turn the cams, be sure you have a shim in *all your buckets* (even if it's the wrong size shim) without that, the sharp edges of the buckets will ruin the face surface of the cams.

Pat, I have no idea what they were prior to stripping. The top end was stripped nearly 6 years ago 

That last tip there Pat is one of those simple little gems of info that I would not have thought of and has probably save me a lot of pain. Thank you. I can probably find one of those euro coins to do the trick for me.

[Mypoorfudge]

Randy, thanks for that.

Im getting a feel for where things are with this now. I was hoping I hadnt made a silly mistake and it seems i havent. Just lack of experience with these beasts.

At the moment im recovering from the worst flu I have ever had in my life. It is bitter cold out there so the engine is gonna have to wait a bit.

I will be taking the "leave it a bit loose" method on board when I get the energy to go to the shed.

Thankfully I managed to get the engine into the frame just before Christmas so I now have a rolling chassis on the ramp. Makes me feel progress is being made.

[Motofun]

I never thought of that "quarter" trick...unfortunately I have accumulated a metric sh*t ton of shims for my 2 FJ's and my CBX (which uses the same size shims).

[MOTOMYSZOR]

I am happy to see that I am not alone in Ireland..... 

[Mypoorfudge]

I am happy to see that I am not alone in Ireland..... 

You are def not alone   

Where are you ?

[MOTOMYSZOR]

I am happy to see that I am not alone in Ireland..... 

You are def not alone   

Where are you ?

Kilkenny City.....

[Mypoorfudge]

You are about an hour and half away from me.

Kilkenny is a great city.

[Mypoorfudge]

Hi Guys,

After a miserable christmas where my wife and I were very unwell, added to the cold weather, no work was done on the FJ engine.

Until today.

With the aid of a valve lifter tool I set about removing all the shims to find the narrowest one.

This turned out to be 250.

However when it was re-positioned to one of the tight buckets it was still too tight.

Following good advice from here I used 50 cent coins to take up the slack in the empty buckets.

So now I am off to get two slim shims and hopefully make some progress then.

[Pat Conlon]

Hey Mike, I'm glad to hear you and your's is on the mend. Stay warm and don't over exert yourself.

[Mypoorfudge]

Hi Guys,

An update and some questions.

I managed to get two shims, 230. I put them into cylinder 1 inlet and I did get a gap.

So I started measuring and writing down my results. I had the Haynes manual with me and Im reading that as I go along.

But the doubts started to creep in. Im now not sure if the timing is correct on the bike. I have uploaded some photos below and would appreciate some comments.

The first two pics show the dot punches on the cams visible through the bearing  caps.



With the dots in the correct position, the two photos below show the cam sprockets.




The photo below shows the position of the timing disc. Is this correct ?


If I turn the timing disc to what is supposed to be TDC no. 1 piston. I get whats in the photos below.

[racerrad8]

Your cam timing in relation to the crankshaft is way off.

You need to get that corrected before proceeding.

Randy - RPM

[Mypoorfudge]

Your cam timing in relation to the crankshaft is way off.

You need to get that corrected before proceeding.

Randy - RPM

I knew it !

Based on the photos Randy where have gone wrong.

Edit

Should the timing mark on the disc be at the sender.

[Mypoorfudge]

Ok so thinking logically about this.

if I remove the tensioner.

Remove the top guide

Loosen the sprockets.

Turn the crank to the timing mark.

Ensure the sprockets are on their marks.

Replace the tensioner

Replace the top guide.

?

[Mypoorfudge]

Ok so I went back to the shed and made some adjustments.

I cant seem to get it exactly right but I hope I am close enough.

The two pics below. With the timing mark exactly right. The exhaust sprocket is slightly high. The inlet sprocket is slightly low.







If I adjust the crank so that the sprocket marks are lined up exactly right. The timing mark looks like this.





Am I close enough guys. ?