Here’s our annual oil-cooled maintenance campaign.
By the way, the customer wanted to order and replace the camshaft on a GSX-R1100—back order, unfortunately.
Now that the parts have arrived, it’s time to install them.
The bike has 70,000 kilometers on it, so we’ll check the valve clearance (before replacement) just to be sure.
I was expecting no cam wear, but—★
Correct! There’s absolutely no wear.
By the way, this is the first time the head cover has been removed on this bike.
Whether the cam wears or not depends on things like regular oil changes and frequent valve clearance adjustments.
That’s not wrong.
But unless you use really poor-quality oil, I don’t think cam wear will happen. Even OEM oil is fine.★
As long as the valve clearance doesn’t drift too far out of spec, I don’t think you’ll see any problems.
So why do we run an oil-cooled maintenance campaign anyway?
Think of it as a regular checkup. A little inspection now and then confirms everything’s good.★
We replace the dampers too,
and sync the carburetors,
and the idle settles in perfectly!
Tension the cam chain and you’ve got peace of mind.
That’s why it feels so good.
The best way to keep the cam from wearing is to not let the oil dry up around the head (cam area).
Run decent distances regularly and keep a good film of oil on the rocker arm area—that’s the trick.
That’s what I believe.
On this bike, the cam chain was pretty slack.
The inside of the engine is clean—nice!
