Tappet shim replacement 08 DF150's

[cprice11]

How hard is it to check or replace the shims? Is it worth doing it yourself . looks like you would pay many $ to get it done at a dealership on two motors .
Can you get a set of the shims in various thicknesses? did not see a set on the parts diagram, single shims are $ 8.43
Looks it would take forever to take the valve covers off ,measure 32 gaps on the tappets of two motors ,order the right shims then install . Any advice is appreciated. 220 hours on the motors.
Thanks.
.

[artdf175]

https://www.suzukioutboardforum.com/.../albums/46375-

need to get two things a full service engine repair manual and a tool and a feeler gauge
measuring the clearances is the easy part!

the above link has a couple of pictures of a tool I made

[jHydroman]

I don't expect that you will find that you need to make any adjustments at 220 hrs. I checked mine on my pair of DF140's last fall, 500 hrs on each engine, all valves were within specifications and this was the first time that they were checked.I was able to reuse the valve cover gaskets.

Jim

[Harper]

I don't expect that you will find that you need to make any adjustments at 220 hrs. I checked mine on my pair of DF140's last fall, 500 hrs on each engine, all valves were within specifications and this was the first time that they were checked.I was able to reuse the valve cover gaskets.

Jim

On the other hand, my '07 DF150 had some WAY out. and most were out in the bad direction, They were way too tight. Of the 16 valves, only 5 were in spec.

[cprice11]

Thanks for the info. I will probably wait till 300 Hrs. The engines run fine.

[jHydroman]

[QUOTE=Harper;n53561]

On the other hand, my '07 DF150 had some WAY out. and most were out in the bad direction, They were way too tight. Of the 16 valves, only 5 were in spec.

I wonder id some specific HP engine are more prone to require adjustment than others. I have only owed 3 Suzuki's all were DF 140's.

[artdf175]

waiting should not be an option!!
checking the clearances is relatively easy
it may save you thousands to catch a problem, if there is one, early.

[cprice11]

Why would the gap change very much ? Cam wear ?

[Harper]

Why would the gap change very much ? Cam wear ?

Things just change a little as the engine "wears in". Numerous heat/cool cycles cause valve seats and valve faces to compress a little perhaps. Cam wear is probably less a factor until many hours. Most of the changes will occur in the first several hundred hours of a new engine, then everything tends to stabilize. We're only talking about a few thousands of an inch.

[Moonlighter]

A few years ago here in Australia, Suzuki head office noticed a small number of warranty claims costing fairly large sums to rectify and traced the cause back to valve adjustment issues.

They discovered from their records that the servicing dealers of thise specific motors had never purchased the special tool required to do the shim replacement, nor had they ever purchased any shims or the shim kits that are available to dealers.

So they had enough evidence to satisfy themselves that those dealers service departments had NEVER done the valve clearance checks required as set out in the service schedules.

They made those dealers eat all the warranty repair costs themselves.

Engines are built by people. They are mechanical beasts. The engineers who designed and built them decided that valve clearance checks are prudent at certain intervals in order to ensure they run at optimal performance levels. I am pretty sure that those engineers know a lot more than me about that stuff, so I simply do what they say to do.

The argument that most engines dont require adjustment when checked is of no help at all if your engine is one of the few that does need adjustment. The check is not difficult to do.

[tsturm]

Why would the gap change very much ? Cam wear ?

valve seats get beat into the head causing less lash at cam to follower.

[cprice11]

Checked the tappet clearance at 280 hours on both motors. All exhaust clearances are in spec. Intake shim clearance is .007 to .008 inch, low limit is .009 . Think i could run them a little longer ?

Made a Tappet shim removal tool out of angle iron for 2 $, factory one cost $200

[Harper]

Checked the tappet clearance at 280 hours on both motors. All exhaust clearances are in spec. Intake shim clearance is .007 to .008 inch, low limit is .009 . Think i could run them a little longer ?

Maybe you could. But why, knowing that they're too tight? You're much less likely to have problems with gaps that are a little too wide than a little too narrow. And less likely to have problems with intakes out of spec than exhausts out of spec. Still no good reason to wait, knowing it needs to be done at some point. At 280 hours, the clearances aren't likely to change much more, if that's what you're waiting for.

You don't have to buy a whole shim kit, or even 8 new shims, if that's how many valves are out of spec. The shims you have on your buckets right now are not all the same thickness. They are all different thicknesses, based on what was needed at the time of assembly to have each valve properly clearanced. Since you've made yourself a tool, pull each shim that is out of spec, look on the back side to see the printed size of that shim, or if it's unreadable, measure it with a micrometer, and you'll find that the shim in one location might be exactly what you need in a different location to bring it within spec. So even if you have all 8 intakes out of spec, you might only need 3-4 shims (or if you're extremely lucky, no shims at all). The rest can be swapped around.

[cprice11]

Good idea
Thanks

[kagira]

I would like to underline one thing based on my experience: it is better to measure each shim with the micrometer,and not look at the measurement written on the shim only.
I disassembled all 16 shims on my DF140A after 1300 hours, and many are not the same size written on the shim.
For example:Shim Id is 253,so 2,53 mm...but with micrometer size is 2.52 mm on some and 2,525 on others..some are corectly 2,53 as written on shim.