I did my valves this weekend. 800 miles, 125 hours. Now Im concerned I got them too loose. I haven’t done valves on anything prior so this took me a bit of time. I would like to hear some input from the more experienced.

I marked with a marker the original location of the screw, then adjusted it to squeeze the feeler then backed it off a bit. Most only took a small bit of adjustment, IE loosening from like 2:00 to 12:00.

I noticed all were tight, I tried to get them all in the middle of the range. 10-15 intake to 13 and 20-25 exhaust to 23. Anyway I did this and it certainly starts better, but I can now hear the valves at idle to about 30% throttle. Is this normal and I have just not heard them before? I checked an intake with a 15 after I used the 13 and it was able to slide in there, maybe my 13 was a bit wrong sized or somthing??? The front was difficult, its hard to slide a feeler in there with a 90degree bend in it and determine if its having resistance or not.

What would be bad if they were on the loose side?

Thanks much

 

I have a Bayou 250. Don't know if it is related...but thought I would share my experience with adjusting valves.

The first time I adjusted the valves, I did not follow the instructions in the manual as I should have. I just went ahead and rotated the crankshaft until the timing mark was aligned and set the valves from there. I started the engine and they ticked very loudly. Then, I read the manual carefully and found that I needed to rotate the crankshaft CCW to approach the timing mark (I had rotated it CW). Anyway, re-adjusted the valves using the correct method and everything sounded correct after that.

 

I first was going to do that wrong too, but I caught that in the book.

 

got you in the other forum.