First time Valve adj. half way into it - ADVICE

so half way into the first valve adj. Man how clean the inside of this bike at 22k miles. Notice KTM has the inners of the engine coated with something - probably a spray on but wonder if it's a thermal barrier or what. Anyway -- to the point.

Rear cylinder - Intake valves @ .08 mm
Exhaust @ .30 mm


Front cylinder - Intake valves @ .08 mm
Exhaust @ .30 mm


anyone care to recommend where to set these - both intake and exhaust should be done in my opinion.

I'm thinking subtract .05 from front and rear intakes
and for the exhausts add .02 or .03

Scuderia not open mondays so will pick up shims tomorrow ( tuesday )
Shop wanted 4 hours labour = 400.00 easily for labour and about 60 $ for parts ( plugs and valve cover gasket )

appreciate advice.

thnx

REAR Cylinder

FRONT Cylinder - Sorry for blur - must have moved

Front Cylinder - Dots on cams .

ciao

i'm not the only one who's made this complaint - but KTM fasteners sure rust up easily - not lik'n that.

no clue about the clearances, but I agree on the rusty fastners! I see I'm not the only one with rusty exhaust studs
Insides look very clean though!

Early on first work day of the week so I could be wrong. Valves clearances I believe go out of spec as the valves stretch over time. This would make the gaps smaller, meaning shorter shims required. So I would be aiming to get as close to the max gap as possible within the specs stated. Not got a workshop manual to hand so can't give you the info. Shade did a thread which I listed in Must Read thread. It has a link to a Excel doc that works it out for you I believe.

It depends if your using KTM shims or HD shims ?

KTM shims go to half sizes - which will get you into spec but HD shims go to quarter sizes - which gives more scope.

Intakes are 0.10 - 0.15mm and exhaust are 0.25 - 0.30mm - so you just need to measure the shim you have and go up or down from that to get the correct clearance. Normally you can move some of the shims onto different valves but sometimes its easier to just buy the same size shim - as you may need to remove the cams again.

If this is your first valve shimming its worth noting down exactly what shims you put back in - as it makes the next valve shimming session alot easier.

I've found the opposite to Klinck that the valve clearance gets bigger over time and not smaller - having said that it hasn't moved much from the 10k to the 20k valve check.

Usually valve clearance tightens over time but not always the case.

Tighter spec clearances theoretically offer slightly better performance (could be 1 or 2 BHP) but usually run out of the right range faster.
Just put them in the middle of the range if possible, next time you probably need to check them only without shimming.

thnx guys -

Ps. do you really need to take the engine out of the frame for this or were you rebuilding the bike anyway?

You asked for an example, I gave it.

Like I said, I was confused.

there's an excel worksheet made for ktm 950/990.

all you need to do is plug your measured (estimated) clearance and current shim size. it'll calculate and give you the KTM shim sizes you need.

I found the link from adv rider's ktm 990 forum.

I gotta say one thing about those Cam Covers fastened to the head by Allen Bolts. OMG ......

I grabbed my best allen wrench and went at the allens holding the cam covers down. I couldn't budge the bolts and became sceered i'd strip something out and i'd be totally bummed . So i actually did something ( Smart ? ) and went into town and bought a socket type allen wrench ---- No more flex of the standard allen bolt wrench shaft. I popped em loose easily enough ( when having the right tool ) and they let out some hellacious "Cracks " as they broke themselves loose. Have to admit , that was freeking Scarey

john

Purple Valve covers...

The jokes on me. I'm color blind.