SV650 photos under valve cover

[twX]

I just checked the valve clearances for the first time on my 2008 Suzuki SV650S with 37,000 km. Most oil changes have been with Rotella T4 15W40 with 2,000 to 6,000 km OCIs, every 1-2 years. The engine has been running Mobil Delvac 1300 15W40 for the past 5,500 km. The Delvac only has 800 ppm phosphorus, so I'll be switching back to Rotella to be safe.

Photos aren't great, but I'm pretty impressed with how clean everything is (at least inside the engine).

 

[Overfill]

I just checked the valve clearances for the first time on my 2008 Suzuki SV650S with 23,000 mi. Most oil changes have been with Rotella T4 15W40 with 1,250 to 3,750 mi OCIs, every 1-2 years. The engine has been running Mobil Delvac 1300 15W40 for the past 3,400 mi. The Delvac only has 800 ppm phosphorus, so I'll be switching back to Rotella to be safe.

Photos aren't great, but I'm pretty impressed with how clean everything is (at least inside the engine).

The photos look really clean on that top end. Do you have any noticeable consumption across these change intervals? Did you have to adjust/shim anything?
Don't forget that you can also grab Supertech, as it has over 1000ppm phos as well.

 

[twX]

The photos look really clean on that top end. Do you have any noticeable consumption across these change intervals? Did you have to adjust/shim anything?
Don't forget that you can also grab Supertech, as it has over 1000ppm phos as well.

There's no noticeable consumption, certainly not enough to warrant a top-up.

One exhaust valve measured between 0.18 and 0.20 mm (spec is 0.20-0.30 mm), while all others were still in spec. I wasn't prepared to do an adjustment, and I decided to leave it for at least another 15k km or until the next time I replace the spark plugs. The clearances on these engines don't see much movement after break in, and other owners report that their engines still run fine and don't burn valves with exhaust clearances at 0.10 mm or even lower. I also tend ride a lot more conservatively these days and recently made the gearing taller, so I don't expect they'll tighten very quickly at all from here on out.

 

[BISCUT]

Love the pics! ALwaus do but why the check at such low mileage? Was there a particular reason?

 

[twX]

Love the pics! ALwaus do but why the check at such low mileage? Was there a particular reason?

Suzuki recommends measuring the clearances every 24,000 km, which is a pretty common maintenance interval for high-revving motorcycle engines. A lot of 250-300cc engines that spin 7-8,000 rpm in highway cruising recommend 12,000 km inspection intervals.

 

[fantastic]

Just what you want to see when you pop the top open... clean internals!

 

[Bjornviken]

there you can see the results of good oils

 

[jeff78]

It won't look bad unless you've seriously neglected your oil changes. I've got 90K miles on my FZ-09 and it looks as clean under the valve cover now as it did during its first oil change.

 

[KrisZ]

Looks good
Had an SFV650 (the ugly refresh) for a little while with over 40k miles and it pulled hard and ran like a champ. These things are quite tough.

 

[demarpaint]

It doesn't get much better than that.