I'm getting a ticking noise sometimes it is louder sometimes not. I was told by the dealer it is camchain noise, but it isn't constant and it is a tick. I bought a service manual and the valves are to be set at .006". I removed the rocker cover and checked them, and they are at .006". The bike didn't make the ticking noise when I bought it, it runs fine, the sound is just annoying more than anything.

Has anyone set the valves closer, like .005-.004"? I know they need some clearence for heat expansion, but really would like to get rid of the ticking.

BTW, it has about 295 miles on it, 26 hours. I have run Mobil 1 15w50 in it since the first oil change.

 

Set the valve clearance to spec otherwise the performance will suffer. Why do you run 15w50 when it calls for 0w50? I run 0w40 Amsoil in mine, you may want to try the thinner oil first.....

 

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

Set the valve clearance to spec otherwise the performance will suffer. Why do you run 15w50 when it calls for 0w50? I run 0w40 Amsoil in mine, you may want to try the thinner oil first.....</end quote></div>

I should explain further. I changed the oil at 10 hours with Polaris 0w50 oil just to be safe with any warranty issues IF they came up. I changed it again at 15 hours, and went with Mobil 1 15w50. It began to make the ticking noise after the first oil change using the 0w50 oil, that is why I decided to try a slightly heavier oil. At that time I didn't realize that the valvetrain was simply rocker arms. Stupid me thought it was like a motorcycle with the camshaft riding on top of shims on the springs.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

IMO, and I'm no chemical engineer but 0w oil in an air cooled engine? Not me. I cannot see HOW an oil can be expected to cover that range of tempertures. The 0w oil has to be so thin at high summer running tempertures that bearing gauling could be a problem. According to the shop manual, oil pressure is NOT very high anyway because the engine has mostly ball bearing in it.

The dealer told me that he has "tried" several things to attempt to get rid of some of the valvetrain noise in Hawkeyes. He said that he hadn't had much luck, and refused to elaborate.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img] Hummm.....

 

Are you sure its valvetrain noise ? it could be an exhaust leak, Ive had exhaust leaks emulate rocker noise, But if you have used a thicker Oil then that might be the problem of it getting thru the oil journals at start up, or at running these new ENgines have very small oil feed holes thru the whole engine, thats why Poorlaris say to use only 0w50, But Powerslider uses 0w40 and i think thats okay.