Author Topic: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?  (Read 1517 times)

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Offline rockin ronald

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350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« on: March 16, 2019, 10:19:35 AM »
hi guys and ladies.. this is my first post! tks for having me. how many thousands can i take off a 350f cylinder head to raise the compression a bit?

Offline bryanj

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Re: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2019, 10:25:13 AM »
Not enough to make a difference
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Offline robvangulik

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Re: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2019, 02:25:04 PM »
+1 If you want to go faster, put a 400 engine in it, or buy a bigger bike!

Offline dave500

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Re: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2019, 03:16:19 PM »
the valves are closest to the piston during overlap when both valves are partially open and the piston is closer around TDC not at the fully opened position where the piston is somewhere down the bottom.

Offline HondaMan

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Re: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2019, 05:55:57 PM »
Milling the head will not raise the compression a lot: at 0.020" mill-off it is almost 0.2 CR difference, all else being equal.

You must also find thicker O-rings to seal the oil passages between head and cylinders when you take it apart, because all modern head gaskets are 0.2mm thicker than the OEM one that is in it now. Keep that in mind, if you take it apart. ;)
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Offline dave500

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Re: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2019, 03:58:16 AM »
that's drawing a pretty long bow mark,specifying that all modern gaskets are .2mm thicker than the oem?youve been busy measuring them all,and found them all to be consistant,ill bet you some are thinner or thicker and crush earlier,any after market gasket can be hit or miss,and have a softer or harder crush point,since asbestos is missing now they aint as hard and will crush more,i like to wind em down a couple more pounds anyway,ive reused head gaskets over and again with no trouble,oem and after market.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2019, 04:09:05 AM by dave500 »

Offline HondaMan

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Re: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2019, 01:57:40 PM »
that's drawing a pretty long bow mark,specifying that all modern gaskets are .2mm thicker than the oem?youve been busy measuring them all,and found them all to be consistant,ill bet you some are thinner or thicker and crush earlier,any after market gasket can be hit or miss,and have a softer or harder crush point,since asbestos is missing now they aint as hard and will crush more,i like to wind em down a couple more pounds anyway,ive reused head gaskets over and again with no trouble,oem and after market.

To date, since 2002, I have built over 80 motorcycle engines (and 2 USA car engines) using modern head gaskets. The brands are Vesrah, Honda (OEM, not made by Honda, BTW), Athena, CycleX, the red-packaged ones from Japan, and 3 other off-brands that seem to not have any brand name. All of their head gaskets are slightly more than 1.00mm thick, where their OEM versions were 0.8mm thick, give or take 0.1mm.

100% of the modern ones are thicker than the OEM Honda head gaskets on the OEM CB350 twin, CB360 twin, all of the SOHC4, the CB450, CB160, CB175, CA95, CA85, CB100, CB125, CB100, Kawasaki 650-4, 750-4, and a Kawi dirt bike (I don't remember its model), the Honda XL125, 250 (all 3 models), the CBX Six, and 2 Gold Wings (I don't remember their displacement).

This situation is true in all of these, so I surmise it is true in the entire industry by inference (it is even true in my Ford car engines). It is directly related to the loss of asbestos in head gaskets (and industrial high-pressure seal gaskets), due to international outlawing of it in the late 1990s.

;)
« Last Edit: March 17, 2019, 02:03:48 PM by HondaMan »
See SOHC4shop.com for info about the gadgets I make for these bikes.

The demons are repulsed when a man does good. Use that.
Blood is thicker than water, but motor oil is thicker yet...so, don't mess with my SOHC4, or I might have to hurt you.
Hondaman's creed: "Bikers are family. Treat them accordingly."

Link to Hondaman Ignition: http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=67543.0

Link to My CB750 Book: https://www.lulu.com/search?adult_audience_rating=00&page=1&pageSize=10&q=my+cb750+book
Link to My CB500/CB550 Book: https://www.lulu.com/search?sortBy=RELEVANCE&page=1&q=my+cb550+book&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00
Link to website: https://sohc4shop.com/  (Note: no longer at www.SOHC4shop.com, moved off WWW. in 2024).

Offline dave500

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Re: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2019, 12:58:26 AM »
might be why my reusing the old factory ones works so well?plus its recycling good old asbestos!
« Last Edit: March 18, 2019, 01:00:31 AM by dave500 »

Offline Bodi

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Re: 350f piston to valve clearance with valve fully open?
« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2019, 08:49:08 AM »
Mark:
Any recommendation for the 400F orifice seals? The almost universal leak at the ends of the head gasket on rebuilt 350 and 400 fours is driving me mental (more mental?). I have a 400F (Yoshimura 458) to rebuild this spring, I have a NOS Yoshimura head gasket that I will measure before installing but the OEM seal is not an O-ring, it's a wee cylinder of rubber. The Athena ones have let me down many times.