Condition of LRB's Valves!!!!

[suecanada]

Do ya think I was just a whisker away from winning the trophy from Joan's Blueberry valve grief photos?? I shoulda' been dusting off a spot on the shelf me thinks!!

[Bob_Roller]

Sue,

Did you happen to take any photos of the valve face, where the valve contacts the seat ?

I was kind of curious about that, as when I had my 'top end' done on my heads, the valve face was excessively worn, but no visible wear could be seen on the valve seats.

Like the others have posted, got lucky this time!!!!!!

Is this just on the '81 and 82 model year bikes, or is it problematic with earlier and later year bikes as well ?

[Justin B.]

I would also like to see the valve head, the ones on my '81 R100 were almost razor thin.  Plus, the seats look like you had a little troll with a wee jackhammer living in your cylinder...

[Semper Gumby]

Wow Sue!  You are one lucky gal!  

Laws yesh!

[suecanada]

I'll take more pics for you...... speaking from my own ignorance and untrained eyes, the valve edge on the worst valve are NOT skinny thin but is thinner than the other exhaust valve.

I'll return....in a moment or two.

[suecanada]

Let's try that URL again as I have taken more pics. I hope I have taken what you guys want to check out.

My questions are: is what you see pretty standard wear and is there anything odd about the keepers wearing so thin? Is there something odd about the bike running very well except that I kept having to set clearances on only one exhaust valve?? The diagnosis of "too much closing-up in too little mileage" led me to haul the bike off the road and get the work done by a fellow who knows R65's.

Is the melted metal look (looks like flowing plastic!) on the valve seat something that Ted produced when removing the seat or is that damage too? There is no way I would think that the valve could'a ever seated in those seats and not leaked like a sieve!

Here's more photos in the same galley I set up:

http://my.fotopic.net/collection/01459975/

[suecanada]

Sorry..try this:

http://www.sue5762.fotopic.net/c1459975.html

[suecanada]

Another thought:

Looking at each valve now. The one with the very knife-edge keeper grooves is the one with the worst burnt mottling on the valve face..part that sits on the seat. The other side of the valve face is darker that the other valve and it's edges are NOT as knife-edged..what's with that?

The other valve has "some" edges to the keeper grooves; more of a knife edge on the valve HEAD and a lighter brown on the part that hits the piston. The "Valve face that sits in the valve seat is evenly coloured and not mottled which I'm thinking shows that there were no leaks or as much leaking anyway :-/

What conclusions do you all reach? What do we learn here?

[Joan]

Do ya think I was just a whisker away from winning the trophy from Joan's Blueberry valve grief photos?? I shoulda' been dusting off a spot on the shelf me thinks!!

[size=12]Darn tootin'! Very fortunate LRB indeed! [/size]

[Bob_Roller]

Your valve faces, are in a lot better shape than mine were, in the first picture of your valve, all I had left was the thin band that is illuminated, the rest had 'flowed' toward the valve stem.

[Joan]

Your valve faces, are in a lot better shape than mine were, in the first picture of your valve, all I had left was the thin band that is illuminated, the rest had 'flowed' toward the valve stem.

[size=12]What he said, iirc it's called Valve Face Plastic Deformation.

VFPD. Now THAT'S a dirty word.   [/size]

[Bob_Roller]

It's a good thing you didn't take LRB on the trip you had planned, as it may have turned into a nightmare !!

[Ed Miller]

Hey Sue, I think Ted Porter is talking about your valves on the Airlist:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24027522@N04/?saved=1

or



I wonder if your aftermarket one piece valves experienced the plastic valve deformation.

[Semper Gumby]

That is a freekin' scary picture!!  

[Ed Miller]

Ted says BMW used two different materials to make their valves for a good reason.  I believe him.