First valve adjustment - check my math?

Alright, finally getting greasy with my new '82 XJ650 Seca with 33kmi. First up (other than safety check and oil and filter - both of which were pretty dirty) of course was valve clearances.

Checking I feel went pretty smoothly (thanks bigfitz52!), if took a bit longer than it should have being my first time, finding all my tools, and double checking everything.

Here's the measurements I've got, followed by the shims installed, then the shim I read as replacing it with. A lot of the sizes on my feeler gauge seem to by .02mm apart, hence a range spec'd for some (where it felt loose on one, but tight on the next size up). Hopefully gets me close enough though.

Intake: - Installed - Swap
.04-.05! - 290 - 280
.10 - 290 - 285
.10 - 295 - 290
.04! - 290 - 280

Exhaust: - Installed - Swap
.13-.14 - 275 - 270
.10-.12 - 275 - 270
.10-.12 - 280 - 275
.09! - 280 - 270

As you can see, nothing was quite in-spec and few were frighteningly tight. Have to wonder if and when they were ever checked last.

Feel pretty confident about the measurements (other than wish my gauge were graduated every 0.01mm), as I said, I measured everything a few times, including once though after checking the shims and rotating through a few times.

I did have two supplemental questions/observations too - One of the tight intake valves had one spot where if the cam lobe wasn't perfectly oriented to the shim angle, it measured about .06mm wider. Only on a very narrow range of rotation though. I'd guess this is small "flat" spot on the heel of the cam lobe? Is this a significant problem? I didn't see any visual signs of significant wear.

Also complete noob question - there was a bit more oil up there than I'd expected - I'd say it came up to about the bottom of the heel of the cam lobes/halfway up the slope of the valve, if that makes sense. Is that normal? All the pictures I've seen (ie, fitz's guide) it looks a bit, er, drier, than I'd found.

Sorry it's so wordy, just want to get this right. Thanks for the help!

 

First off, the cams occasionally do have some "interesting" machining on the backsides of the lobes; as long as you figured it out, it's nothing to fret about.

It's GOOD that there's a lot of oil up there. For my photo journal, I soaked a lot of it out with shop towels so the pics would show more.

Re: Your exhausts, the two that are at .10~.12: One shim size would make that .15~.17. You're still teetering on the edge of tight there. If you wanna split the difference and call it .11, then you'll be right at .16.

If it were me, I would probably go ahead and drop two sizes on those unless they're FOR SURE looser than .10. They're only going to tighten up.

If you do go only one size down on those two, re-check after re-shimming, and make sure you check again in 5000 miles.

All your math is solid.

 

Thanks for the help, Fitz! Now to put together an order with chacal.