Vtech Valve Rattle

Hello ... I am a new member to this site. I am in Nova Scotia Canada and currently own a 2001 VFR800 with 70,000 km and a 2005 VFR800 with 21,000 km.

I have had the 01 for a year now and really love it. I just picked up the 05 for 2 reasons ... 1) great price that I couldn't pass up. 2) Want to see once and for all which engine I like better, since there doesn't seem to be any clear consensus on this.

There is definitely a noticeable difference between the "feel" of the 2 motors and my first impression is that I prefer the beautiful musical "whine" that the gear driven cams provide on the 01. I also prefer the linear power progression over the sudden lurch that happens when the Vtech opens up. But I've only driven the 05 a couple of times and I’m trying to keep an "open mind", especially since the 05 is a "thing of beauty" to look at.

Question .... When the Vtech opens up around 7000 RPM there seems to be a rather pronounced valve noise (rattle ?). Is this a normal "Vtech" thing?

I look forward to your input. This is a great place for VFR folks. Glad I found it.

Dan

 

Hi again everyone. I notice that nobody has replied to my question, so I'm (politely) asking again. Is it normal to hear what sounds like valve noise (rattling?) when the V-tec cuts in? My bike is smooth as silk below 6800 RPM but when the V-tec hits it always has this extra noise. I'm used to my 2001 so I don't know if this is just normal noise. Somebody ...... please answer. Thanks Dan

 

Might not be the valve..............Do you know if the bike ever been service? 21000 kilometer is nothing. If the valve knock I would think it will knock all the time not when Vtech kick in. Check your chain slack. I thought my valve were knocking at one time but after several test run I found the chain have to much slack and it ruff on the guard. Hope someone have more knowledge would chim in

 

the v-tec valve makes some noise when it kicks in but shouldnt sound like rattling. it would be worth it to check the vlave lash as a floating tappet will sound like a rattle. the chain tensioner is another place to look but the noise would be all the time if it was a chain.

does the noise go away after your drop below 6200 rpm? if you go up to 7000rpm then float between 6500 and 7000 is the noise still there and does the tempo of the noise speed up with engine rpm increase?

download the FSM for the 6th gen and there is some procedures to follow for valve lash checks.

the snappy power can be smoothed out by making adjustments to the bike but solve the noise issue first.

 

The vtech actuation is quite noisy , but usually its done on full throttle, or close to it, so a lot of the noise is induction noise and exhaust, and normal engine noise.
As an experiment, let the revs climb on a lower throttle in a lower gear, just let the motor spin up, and see if it is as noisy under these circumstances.
When I do this on mine the vtec engagement is almost unnoticeable.
I had a 5th gen years ago and it sounded similar to the vtec under hard acceleration at about 6000RPM and above.
With the vtec the sudden change from 2 to 4 valve operation is bound to make more induction and exhaust noise under hard acceleration