Gen 4 Cams Removal

Hi all,
You may have seen another thread that I posted where my new to me Gen4 idle was hanging. I sprayed the manifold boots with some aero start and found that he two front boots were leaking.
So, I removed the carbies to give them a good clean, they are on my bench while I wait for some parts before doing anything with them.
I decided to clean up the engine which I have done.
Then I thought, may as well check the valve clearances while everything is apart (I don’t have any service records for the bike, it has 73k km’s on it).
So, I pulled the valves covers and found that the exhaust valves are pretty much spot on;
Exhaust (metric) left to right sitting, tolerance 0.25 +/- 0.03
#1 - 0.25, 0.25
#2 - 0.25, 0.25
#3 - 0.24, 0,23
#4 - 0.25, 0.25
The inlet valves however, need attention;
Inlet (metric) left to right sitting, tolerance 0.16 +/- 0.03
#1 - 0.14, 0.16
#2 - 0.11, 0.13
#3 - 0.16, 0.12
#4 - 0.12, 0.10

So, my thoughts are just leave the exhaust shims alone and re-do all of the inlet shims to bring them back to 0.16. Is this the best approach?

I am a little confused about the cam removal procedure and would appreciate some assistance. The workshop manual says to line up #1 on the compression stroke for the rear cylinder, and then #2 on the compression stroke for the front cylinder. Does this mean I can go ahead and remove the cam holders for #1 and #3 intake when I have lined up #1 on compression stroke, then, when the first cam is out, rotate the engine to align #2 and then remove the front cylinder inlet cam, or do I have to remove one cam, re-shim, put it all back together, then rotate the engine to align #2 and work on #2 & #4.

when #1 is on the compression stroke, the cam markings align with the head surface on the right side of the cam gear on both front and rear heads. I just need some help or reassurance so I don’t stuff up the timing. Should I just be doing one inlet cam at a time, measuring shims as needed and replacing as required (this would mean having to go to the bike shop multiple times to buy the required shims so I’m thinking surely this isn’t the way to do it)

 

having only done it once myself, I won't comment on the procedure but I will say that the easiest way to deal with the shims is to buy an assortment. It isn't that expensive. I got a Hot Cams assortment. https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Cams-HCS...-4&vehicleName=1997+Honda+VFR750F+Interceptor

 

remember that there is a tolerance limit of .001" + or - from the recommended setting. be sure to slowly turn the engine by hand after finishing work to assure timing is right, and stop if any resistance is felt.

before doing any work as critical as cam r/r place small paint marks on cam gears to indicate where they match up for extra help with timing.

 

Thanks for the wisdom guys, I have purchased a hot cams shim kit online, and will be marking the cam gears with paint prior to removal.
Once I have the shims, I can get cracking.

 

As a side note to this - I also have the HOT Cams Shim kit & seriously suggest you DO NOT install them without checking the sizes first. In other words the shims are fine - but double check the sizes using a micrometer

 

I wish I had heard this tip before I did the job. After installing what I calculated were the correct size shims, I had a couple that were off and had to take it apart again. I thought maybe I had just calculated wrong but my math skills are pretty good. Maybe the size wasn't accurate...

 

I had a little knowledge passed to me from a racing car engine builder quite a few years ago. It was on the lines of: if it wasn't in the engine before, you measure it. Don't assume as that's why some engines fail.

 

bk9 (brian) did a good job by rechecking after shim changes and allowing for inaccuracies.