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My Bike Pings, STRANGE development.

Spaceclam

Spaceclam

Cruisin' Guzzisti
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
472
Location
Chatsworth, CA
So on sunday, i decided to try and measure my squish clearance, as per the recomendations of many. It turns out the bolt that is recessed behind the inner spark plug has a stripped head (from the factory) and can not be removed, but that's not the strange development.

I started with the left side, because i could do it without taking the tank off. Before i went around loosening any bolts, (yes, i did them all in a star pattern, or rather started to) i measured my valves at 5 and 7. (i set them at 6 and 8 about 4k miles ago, but the bike is still new) Also, my exhaust valve was stark white, and had the texture of having been sandblasted. I haven ever seen this before. roughly 6200 miles. :?:

After LOOSTENING but not removing the bolts in a star pattern, the stripped bolt was the last, by coincidence. so having already untorqued things, i just decided to re-torque things, put the project off for another time, and put stuff back together.

I reset my valves back where they were before the aborted surgery, at 5 and 7. They werent too far off, but having untorqued the heads and jugs, i figured i should probably do it anyway.

MY BIKE PINGS A LOT LESS. I dont know why, i didnt change anything. At first i thought it was the weather, but it warmed up today, and i did about 5 consecutive full throttle pulls up a rather steep incline in 5th gear, through my pinging range, 4-5k. I'd still like to tweak the timing a little bit, but THIS i could live with if i had to.

I have no explanation for this. I didnt change anything :huh:
 
Clearances should be 4 thou inlet, 6 thou exhaust. Although very minor changing the clearances will change the cam timing and it IS enough to effect things. My 8V runs absolutely shithouse if the clearances are off by more than a thou.

Pete
 
Spaceclam said:
upon reccomendations from others, i put them at 6 and 8 up from 4 and 6. It made no difference at all.
Click to expand...

Who would you say is the more creditable source, Pete or "others"?
 
creditable?
peteblessingwsscura.jpg
 
John, the man stated what he did, he didn't question pete's credibility. No two engines are exactly the same. If he set them differently and it made no difference, thats not surprising.
 
I believe SpaceClams bike is a 2 valve Griso, and 6 & 8 thou is an acceptable clearance. Some recommend 8 & 10 (RaceCo, .2 and .25 mm).
I like Pete and respect his opinion, but I would be surprised if the valve clearance specs had much, if anything, to do with the pinging. My bike pings and I have tried a variety of valve clearances to no avail. But his bike could be different.
 
I'd forgotten about the Yakulmah, (Is that spelt correctly? :lol: ). That was a good afternoon! The aftermath wasn't very pretty though!!!!

I thought substituting my spare ECU had cured the pinging issues? That surely leaves the blame squarely at the feet of a corrupt or damaged ECU. Unfortunately as your 'Dealer' is You-Know-Who your chances of getting satisfaction from him are buckley's and none :roll: .

Why not continue with the work you're doing with Todd using my computer? It's the reason I bought it as a diagnostic and development guinea-pig. I'm more than happy with it being used for such and if it cures your problems so much the better.

Pete
 
Your ECU DID cure the problem, which is why this is so strange, as i see nothing in common here. Im running my ECU now, and i am now using an autotune. I did not pick up any significant trim differences after re-assembly, but it's light years better. Todd and I are going to try and tweak with mine just a little bit and see what happens, but if it doesnt work, i'd love to take you up on the offer. As i said per PM, im going to owe you a whole keg pretty soon.

I figured id check my squish anyway, because a little better combustion/higher compression would be cool. More power you know, even farther into the land of stupid excess.
 
I don't understand something: you couldn't remove the head but you were able to see that the exhaust valve was white? How?

If it is dead white that indicates extreme leanness - which means for some reason that your bike is putting out a lot less fuel then required and explains your pinging. A good exhaust valve should look medium to dark tan - at least for a road bike.

Ta,

Chris
 
GuzziMoto said:
I believe SpaceClams bike is a 2 valve Griso, and 6 & 8 thou is an acceptable clearance. Some recommend 8 & 10 (RaceCo, .2 and .25 mm).
I like Pete and respect his opinion, but I would be surprised if the valve clearance specs had much, if anything, to do with the pinging. My bike pings and I have tried a variety of valve clearances to no avail. But his bike could be different.
Click to expand...

Ya. I don't think that the valve clearances are going to be critical, I was simply saying that I haven't seen any reason to stray from the *Standard* squarefin settings of 4 and 6 for any reason and it would simply be sticking in another variable to an already uncertain equation, thassall.

As for the white exhaust valve? well, if he's pulling the head off he has to take the pipes off so he can have a squizz down the exhaust port and see the back of the exhaust valve. If it's only on one side perhaps swapping the injectors over, (Dunno if that's possible without looking.) could give some idea if it is connected with the injector itself? Just finkin', not suggesting it is an injector problem and if it WAS why would my spare ECU fix the detonation problem???

As has been established for ages now all of the W5-9AM bikes are horribly lean at the bottom and in the midrange, I'd expect exhaust valves to look horribly hot but if the PC-V and Autotune have been doing their job that SHOULD of been sorted.

Pete
 
If it's UBER lean i am seeing, it's because of how lean it was stock. the PCV is MOST CERTAINLY doing it's job, and doing it well. Will it look like that forever, or will it change over time?

dark tan is what i would have expected, but this looked almost like sandblasting medium, shaped like a valve.
 
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