i just got my 08 420 rancher and just did my first oil change and valve adjustment. the intake valve was still dead on but the exhaust valve was off a bit...it seems to run better and has more power than before but i can hear a slight ping or knock......any help would be apreciated!!!!!!!!!

 

exhaust valves are going to be looser than your intake. they have to be,or it wont run good or at all. also you can burn your lobes up on the cam.

?...y u doin a valve adjustment on a 08 ? dont it have a warrentee

 

becasue it says in the manual to check the clearance after first oil change or 3 tanks of gas is what the honda shop told me to make sure they are still within limits. sometimes after break in they loosen or tighten up. anyways that is the way it was explained to me.

 

Im about to do a valve adjustment too but waiting on my service manual to come in before I try. How hard was it and about how long did it take? Im sitting at like 130 miles on it but only like 7 hours. I did my first oil change at 20 miles and about to run synthetic through it but not sure whats good. Ill probably PM reconranger on here if I dont hear a reply from anyone else.

 

I think when he said the exhaust valve was off a bit, he means it was out of spec a bit. .006" for intake and .009" for exhaust is the specified clearance.

Though the machine is likely under warranty, warranty doesn't cover scheduled maintenance.


Anyway, it didn't make the slight knock/ping before you changed the oil and did the valves? If so, are you absolutely positive you have the oil filter in the right way? (On some Hondas the filter can be put in upside down, and if you do so it blocks all oil flow). Also, what oil did you use?

 

yea the clearance of out of spec just a little bit but i did adjust them and it runs alot better but i can hear a little noise/taping from the valves. and yes the oil filter is in the right way [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] i used the honda oil during break in and now i got valvoline 10w-40 atv oil. should i use a little heavier oil since it is very hot here (new orleans) and humid.???????????

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: wzombie03

yea the clearance of out of spec just a little bit but i did adjust them and it runs alot better but i can hear a little noise/taping from the valves. and yes the oil filter is in the right way [IMG][/IMG] i used the honda oil during break in and now i got valvoline 10w-40 atv oil. should i use a little heavier oil since it is very hot here (new orleans) and humid.???????????</end quote></div>

You are water cooled, and you have a cooling fan. If you look at your owner's manual, 10W40 is the heaviest oil they recommend. If you look more closely, they are even recommending 0W30 as a year round oil....which I think is insane (I don't think 0W30 comes in anything but synthetic)!

The trend in general is toward thinner oils. This reflects the higher film strengths you can get with synthetics. What this means is you can run a thinner oil for less fluid drag, better pumpability, and better cooling, yet get protection like a heavier grade petroleum oil.

Is your Valvoline oil petroleum based, a blend, or synthetic??? The Valvoline ATV/MC oils I can recall seeing on the shelf were API SG/JASO MA, so that is a good thing.

The tapping sound would be a lot of concern to me! Seeing it started after the valve adjustment, I would be suspicious that something wasn't done correctly.

 

The first time I did the initial valve adjustment I mis-read the specs and set the clearances to the wrong spacing. (too large) The result of which created noticeable valve noise. While it wasn't severe it was enough to cause me to discover my error.

After removing all the plastic a second time, ($%$#!!) I set the valves to the correct clearance, the valves quieted down and the engine has ran fine since.

 

Hondas can tick a little in normal operation, but if it clearly started after the oil, filter, and valve adjustment I'd also wonder if something was done wrong.

When you say the exhaust valve was off a little, do you mean you changed the gap like .001? If you made a big adjustment I'd wonder...

One of the mistakes people sometimes make when adjusting valves is they have the piston at top dead center, but between the exhaust and intake strokes (where the valves may be slightly open in an overlap phase), instead of having the piston top dead center between compression and power stroke, were both valves are fully closed... If you set the valves to the specified gap with the engine between exhaust and intake, you actually get a much larger valve gap...

 

ok well i know that when doing the valve adjustment it has to be at TDC. and i know it was at TDC becasue both rockers had play when i got it to tdc. but i will check it agian. its kind of a pain to get the gas tank and plastics off on this model. not to mention the exhaust valve adjustment is in a weird place and a little hard to get to also.