Valve ticking after long freeway ride

[isaac]

I destroyed the cams and head on my last bike when I went for a long freeway ride, and I'm afraid this may have happened with my Hawk.

I went 540 miles back and forth on the freeway from 5,500-6,500rpm the whole way, and when I got back, it has ticking. It doesn't make the sound at idle, but when I hold the revs up and then drop the throttle, you can hear them on overrun the most. It'll do this under load as well.

It also backfires much louder and more frequently while engine braking. It'll backfire once or twice pretty loudly (stock exhaust) while slowing down for a few seconds. It always backfired a little, but now it's accentuated.

I hate hearing these sounds, because like I said I'd destroyed a head by riding on the freeway before.

I checked the oil today, and it was a quart low. It wasn't that low when I started on the ride. When I'd gotten 270 miles into the trip, it still sounded normal.

It had just over 2,000 miles on the Valvoline 10w40 during this ride. I changed the oil today to see if it helped. This made the sound a little quieter, but it's still there.

So does ticking on overrun sound like I just need an adjustment, or is my engine f'cked? Thanks!

[hawkLer]

isaac,
where by no means am i an expert on the subject of engines, i do know a tad. the ticking noise and resultant low oil level sound to me like you need a valve adjustment.
the ticking might be one of the valves knocking on something now that it's reaching too far. hence, if it is out of spec. then you may be blowing oil through the now new space between the valve and valve seat and then the oil is being burned off.
Does this sound about right to anyone or do I need to crawl back into my hole?

[bradrenea]

The oil consumption could be due to the extended constant high RPM riding, coupled with the fact that it had 2000 miles on it. 2000 miles is not that much for a car or truck, but on bikes like ours that are ridden fairly hard the oil might start to break down quicker.

I would say adjust the valves and see what happens. Was your temperature normal for the whole trip?

[isaac]

Yeah the temp was normal. I keep a close eye on that. The highest it got was the few minutes I was caught in traffic just sitting there, and even then the gauge only got up to halfway. The rest of the time it was at a quarter or less.

[isaac]

Well I pulled the valve covers and checked things out today. Turns out it was the best case scenario (thank God) - just very loose valves.

I'll repeat that they were not loose nor ticking before this 540 mile ride.

So right on the 17,000 mile mark, I gave it an adjustment. All of them were .001-.002" loose. The exhausts were slightly looser than the intakes.

That .001" looseness might not sound like much, but it was the difference between zero sound and a ticking cacophony at idle.

I adjusted them all down to .008" and .006" again, and the noises are completely gone. Good stuff, and a major relief.

[hawkLer]

heyohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
congrats on that, isaac!

<sigh of relief>

[Doc]

Sweet!

Now post up the "How to adjust your valves" class.

[LeftRightLeftThrottle]

Yeah I noticed the link from the hawklist archive about valve adjusting is no longer active so if anyone has a good walkthrough posted let us know. Valve adjustment is next on my list.

[MrDude_1]

Yeah I noticed the link from the hawklist archive about valve adjusting is no longer active so if anyone has a good walkthrough posted let us know. Valve adjustment is next on my list.

yea, im getting so annoyed with all of these articals in diffrent places....

im almost to the point where i want to copy everything and anything i think is decent, and re-host it while its still up...

[isaac]

Dude that adjusting article is in the "how to" sticky thread in this forum.

[MrDude_1]

Dude that adjusting article is in the "how to" sticky thread in this forum.

this brings up something i have a theory on in most forums.

most people dont read stickies.... so i avoid using them... rather, i just keept the thread near the top with posts.

[Doc]

Dude that adjusting article is in the "how to" sticky thread in this forum.

I meant I wanted to see yours. With pics.

[isaac]

Dude that adjusting article is in the "how to" sticky thread in this forum.

I meant I wanted to see yours. With pics.

I was going to. I aimed my post at the other two guys who said "I wish there was an adjusting article."

Doc, considering that you're the one who posted the article I was referring to, I'd say there's a fair chance that I wasn't talking to you when I mentioned that it existed.

[LeftRightLeftThrottle]

this brings up something i have a theory on in most forums.

most people dont read stickies.... so i avoid using them... rather, i just keept the thread near the top with posts.

I had read that sticky before the valve post had been added. I've had trouble with the forum not listing what posts are new if my login times out and I log back in. This happening to anyone else?

[isaac]

So about that thing I "fixed"...it's broken again.

The bike is back to ticking again, despite my having purposefully set the valves slightly on the tight side.

It doesn't tick when cold, but once fully warmed up it's ticking a lot. I dunno what that could mean, since I figured the valve clearances should be tighter when the engine's hot.