Let’s perform oil-cooled maintenance.
People often ask if performing oil-cooled maintenance will improve how the bike runs, but unless the valves are severely out of adjustment or the carburetors are badly out of sync, I don’t think you’ll see much improvement.
That said, if you’ve never checked these things, it’s worth taking a look.
• Generator damper wear is a source of abnormal noise and vibration.
• Engine damper wear is the same—if you keep using it while it’s worn, the case will wear down, so caution is needed.
• Valve adjustment and cam chain adjustment (automatic, but) show changes after contact is established.
• The condition of the cam and rocker arms, and how dirty the engine’s interior walls are, which affects your understanding of the oil change cycle.
• Carburetor synchronization creates stable feel.
If these have declined, they will improve, but I’d appreciate it if you’d think of this more as a tuning job than a repair.
Since it’s inside the engine, the damper hardens over time. When it wears down, you may hear abnormal noise at idle.
The engine damper is a wear item, so we want to pay attention to it.
During service, we photograph all the cams and show you the images when we deliver the bike.
From how dirty the interior walls are, we can sometimes tell the oil change frequency and whether there’s been an overheating history.
Liquid gasket on the head cover that serves no real purpose is nothing but a cleaning hassle—a downside with no upside.
Synchronization is always a point worth paying attention to.
A four-cylinder oil-cooled engine that’s been properly adjusted will feel very smooth and refined.
