Valve Clearance Servicing?

[adesmond2]

I see a lot of workshops offer valve clearance, but what do they do exactly? Under what symptoms our bike have then we go for Valve clearance? 

Asking cuz I used to own a KR and I never had to do any valve clearance.. only do valve cleaning.. haha.. 

Does all bikes have valve? 

[An_idiot]

KR the 2 stroke bike? That doesn’t use intake and exhaust valves lol. 2 strokes mainly use ports and pressure check valves to maintain intake and exhaust as the piston moves up and down. To my knowledge only bigger 2 stroke engines with fuel injection uses additional injection valves. And those are rare in SG.

Valve clearance is mainly for 4-stroke bikes. And it’s to my knowledge that single cylinder bikes especially if you use it a lot, the valves tend to go out of spec faster than multi cylinder bikes. If your bike is a performance bike like let’s say KTM Duke 200, 390 or the RC counter parts. The manual even states to do it every 12k KM, not kidding. 

In the Singaporean context, most people do a VC (valve clearance) when they face power loss or pick up issues. Mostly reactive maintenance. But if you’re into preventive maintenance you can follow your manual or do it even earlier.

Personally, any bike beyond 5 years that hasn’t gone for a VC, I’ll just do it to be safe. Either that or follow your manual. 

 

Edited July 14, 2021 by An_idiot
Grammar

[adesmond2]

On 7/14/2021 at 10:03 AM, An_idiot said:

KR the 2 stroke bike? That doesn’t use intake and exhaust valves lol. 2 strokes mainly use ports and pressure check valves to maintain intake and exhaust as the piston moves up and down. To my knowledge only bigger 2 stroke engines with fuel injection uses additional injection valves. And those are rare in SG.

Valve clearance is mainly for 4-stroke bikes. And it’s to my knowledge that single cylinder bikes especially if you use it a lot, the valves tend to go out of spec faster than multi cylinder bikes. If your bike is a performance bike like let’s say KTM Duke 200, 390 or the RC counter parts. The manual even states to do it every 12k KM, not kidding. 

In the Singaporean context, most people do a VC (valve clearance) when they face power loss or pick up issues. Mostly reactive maintenance. But if you’re into preventive maintenance you can follow your manual or do it even earlier.

Personally, any bike beyond 5 years that hasn’t gone for a VC, I’ll just do it to be safe. Either that or follow your manual. 

 

currently riding mt03.. so just need to know how do we know we need to do valve clearance?