Drowned bike

I have seen brand new four-strokes with valves out of spec so it’s not necessarily a sign of damage from the water. That said, if I ever drowned a bike I would be doing a complete tear down to assess damage.

Valves can tighten up by 10 hours. A bike i just had in my shop had 12 hours on it and the intakes were .02mm tighter than spec. Just adjust them.

Now, water damage can rust out your bearings and crank. Thats where youre gonna see your motor blow up. The oil will probably mitigate this but id still do a top end and take a peek at your crank just in case. 10 hours its about time to do that anyways.

Acidreamer wrote:

Valves can tighten up by 10 hours. A bike i just had in my shop had 12 hours on it and the intakes were .02mm tighter than spec. Just adjust them.

Now, water damage can rust out your bearings and crank. Thats where youre gonna see your motor blow up. The oil will probably mitigate this but id still do a top end and take a peek at your crank just in case. 10 hours its about time to do that anyways.

You know that 0.02mm is less than 0.001" right? Stop spewing your BS that a 450 needs a top end at 10 hours, it is just not remotely true.

I've done a bunch of work of submerged jet skis. As long as you get the contaminated oil and moisture out they have always been fine. Change the oil so it is no longer milky and run it. When you shimmed the valves did you check the cam journals for scoring? If they were not harmed by the water contaminated oil then you are most likely fine. A small drop of water can make engine oil look like shit...it does not take much. Run it for a while and pull the valve cover to check everything. The valves being out of spec had nothing to do with water injestion...

Acidreamer wrote:

Valves can tighten up by 10 hours. A bike i just had in my shop had 12 hours on it and the intakes were .02mm tighter than spec. Just adjust them.

Now, water damage can rust out your bearings and crank. Thats where youre gonna see your motor blow up. The oil will probably mitigate this but id still do a top end and take a peek at your crank just in case. 10 hours its about time to do that anyways.

BobPA wrote:

You know that 0.02mm is less than 0.001" right? Stop spewing your BS that a 450 needs a top end at 10 hours, it is just not remotely true.

I've done a bunch of work of submerged jet skis. As long as you get the contaminated oil and moisture out they have always been fine. Change the oil so it is no longer milky and run it. When you shimmed the valves did you check the cam journals for scoring? If they were not harmed by the water contaminated oil then you are most likely fine. A small drop of water can make engine oil look like shit...it does not take much. Run it for a while and pull the valve cover to check everything. The valves being out of spec had nothing to do with water injestion...

Meant .02”. No need to be an asshole dude.

Acidreamer wrote:

Valves can tighten up by 10 hours. A bike i just had in my shop had 12 hours on it and the intakes were .02mm tighter than spec. Just adjust them.

Now, water damage can rust out your bearings and crank. Thats where youre gonna see your motor blow up. The oil will probably mitigate this but id still do a top end and take a peek at your crank just in case. 10 hours its about time to do that anyways.

BobPA wrote:

You know that 0.02mm is less than 0.001" right? Stop spewing your BS that a 450 needs a top end at 10 hours, it is just not remotely true.

I've done a bunch of work of submerged jet skis. As long as you get the contaminated oil and moisture out they have always been fine. Change the oil so it is no longer milky and run it. When you shimmed the valves did you check the cam journals for scoring? If they were not harmed by the water contaminated oil then you are most likely fine. A small drop of water can make engine oil look like shit...it does not take much. Run it for a while and pull the valve cover to check everything. The valves being out of spec had nothing to do with water injestion...

Acidreamer wrote:

Meant .02”. No need to be an asshole dude.

0.02" is a massive amount for a valve clearance

BobPA wrote:

You know that 0.02mm is less than 0.001" right? Stop spewing your BS that a 450 needs a top end at 10 hours, it is just not remotely true.

I've done a bunch of work of submerged jet skis. As long as you get the contaminated oil and moisture out they have always been fine. Change the oil so it is no longer milky and run it. When you shimmed the valves did you check the cam journals for scoring? If they were not harmed by the water contaminated oil then you are most likely fine. A small drop of water can make engine oil look like shit...it does not take much. Run it for a while and pull the valve cover to check everything. The valves being out of spec had nothing to do with water injestion...

Acidreamer wrote:

Meant .02”. No need to be an asshole dude.

BobPA wrote:

0.02" is a massive amount for a valve clearance

He said they were tight by 2 hundreths. No units. My kx450s intakes were tight by .03mm and it caused it to take 6+ kicks to start instead of 1. This was after 10-15 hours of ride time. in my experience thats normal wear. Id still be concerned about rust forming either way in this guys case. And yes i know the oil is going to help with that.

Thanks for the info guys. I actually had a shop adjust them because my garage hasn't been built yet so I don't have a suitable space. My riding season is close to being over so I guess I'll take it apart and check things.
I'm hoping to avoid rust because after all the oil changes to get the water out I changed the oil filter, rode it and then changed everything again.

And yes, it was .02mm, I'm in Canada and we use metric.

A friend sank his RMZ 450 in brackish water a few weeks ago in the trails... fired it back up, and rode it a mile back to the truck. We drained the fluids, hit inside the cylinder with some spray shit, changed all the filters, electrical greased all connections .. good to go. Did a heat cycle and changed oil again, the bike hasn't missed a beat since.

Edit: I see your question was more about the valve spec, I apologize. But FWIW as previously mentioned, water has nothing to do with valve spec

My question was more to do with whether potentially dirty water would prematurely wear the valves.