Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods F-ed up and need new valves now

I cocked up real bad and bent all 8 engine valves so I need new ones. Since the head was comming off now I figured it was a good time to port & polish and have oversized valves installed. The best price I've had so far was $77 a valve from a place in QLD Australia, so if anyone knows of someone who's re-valved their engine or a place that makes Stainless 1 piece performance valves please let me know.

Hey Dom

WTF did you do????????

I hate it when that happens!
I have a core head with good stock exhaust valves in it. Let me know if you're interested.

Welcome Dom! I sure hope you get this sorted out soon. I can't help but ask... what happened?

I got some performance cams and in the rush to get them in and get back on the road mixed in with out - then tried to start the motor instead of turning it over slowly by hand.

Thanks mrt202 for the offer but i have a spare stock head and valves and I want to work the old head and install new oversized valves.

Good luck with the repairs. Hope there's no damage to the pistons.

Bill Gately at bonnevilleperformance.com has oversized valves, I think I paid between like $17 to $24 a piece for them, depending on intake or exhaust... I'll try and find an invoice so I can say for sure, but it's been a few years.

I used Advanced performance machining at Albion Park to do my machining. I had 904cc sleves fitted, port and polish and valve grind. You would have to buy the valves yourself and then get them to do the machining as they don't stock parts but they are pretty knowledgable guys who deal with race/drag cars etc.

Remember to take your inlet ports and get them match ported to the head.

I did the same thing a few years ago during a valve adjustment, but I only toasted 4 valves. The left side. The right side valves were close and not damaged. Sucks. Ordered valves from BikeBandit.com who in turn ordered them from somewhere overseas (perhaps Triumph direct?). Took 3 months to get my valves.

you didn't check your shim clearances after installing the new performance cams. I am doing a valve adjustment now so any clearification may help me prevent the same mishap.

Just don't mix-up your cams (ie intake cam with your exhaust)

Yes, and they ARE different (besides the lobes). There's a casting mark, a groove, on one of them. Check the manual.

wlee i swapped out my heads, checked clearances and re-assembled everything and now the ****** wont start. Had a look around and some ppl say that if the battery is even just a little flat it wont do anything, got a click from the solenoid but no turn - even tried jump starting so now have the battery on charge to see if its the issue.

Will the engine turn over by hand? If so is there any other noise when you hit the starter other than a click like a whine. (dreaded broken starter idle gear bushing)

Have you checked your fuses and connections? Was the battery put in backwards????? Just looking for the obvious things now.

Take the spark plugs out and make sure the motor spins freely!!!! Put it on a bike jack, put it in gear and spin the rear wheel to turn the motor. Check your timing marks and make sure your not 180* off!!

Well problem solved, during the rebuild the starter motor got dissassembled and then rebuilt- problem was that neither myself nor my mate realised that the starter needs to be correctly shimmed out to enable it to free spin.
this was remedied and the bike started, now just to run in the new cams and dial everything in. will keep you all posted on progress