Yamaha YZF-R1 Head and Valves Inspection (MY 2020) - Part 2

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Army Of Darkness won the 2020 WERA/N2 National Endurance Championship on a 2020 Yamaha YZF R1. They then went on to win the 2021 and 2022 championships as well.
Eventually the 2020 engine started jumping out of gear which is going to require a complete tear down to build a new engine for the 2023 season.
Mike Godin at KWS Motorsports offered to be the engine expert so follow along we see how the valves, seats, pistons, rings, bearings and clutch look after 4,000 miles at redline.
There is also some fun photos of the team including Chris Peris, Cody Wyman and Ben Walters.
Please enjoy part 2 and subscribe to the channel!
in 2022 AOD was sponsored by: Army of Darkness, Pirelli, Yamaha Champions Riding School, Yamaha, Industry13, Chicken Hawk, Wood Craft, Hindle, Supersprox, Thermosman, N2, WERA, Roadracing World.

[@farschadabolfathi]

What great interesting material to share with us .. thank you

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@ther1kid]

This is really great. Thanks for putting this together, and to Mike for sharing the wisdom.

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

Hey! Thanks for watching! It took a few months to get all the parts together but we should be going to install the new engine at the beginning of April.

[@r6brah]

The 5vy has 3 intake valves, but it’s the same idea. Buy some gaskets, that valve spring tool and a valve and shim kit. Pray nothing is missing when you lift the cams, pray more, find a sharpie 😂

[@kingschwag4208]

Know this is a little older video. I have a 2017 Yamaha R1 and cannot for the life of me find a solid answer to the shim diameter. Is it 7.48 or the 9.48 shims? Thank you much if you’re able to answer :)

[@kevinortiz359]

How did u clean the combustion chamber?

[@chrisandtori9083]

Also, good in the informative video however, your estimates for the exhaust valve temperatures are extremely off by about 80%…And not accurate by about 6,300 degrees Fahrenheit, the exhaust valves will generally only get up to a maximum of 1700°F… lol not sure who told you that but 1700° is about the maximum some a little hotter forced induction or highly modified top fuel stuff. But pretty good video overall. Im a master engine builder / Race vehicle engineering / as well as a mechanical engineer / and own a few race shops here in the US and we build Superbikes, superbike engines, and also specialize in the Yamaha R1 Race platform as it’s our favorite bike, and race engines all the way up to ( WSBK SPEC) world level race engine/bike / endurance superbike engine part development also on the bike side of things. As well as other forms of racing engines in all different categories of racing , including offshore boat racing which is arguably the hardest motorsport on making an engine live, GT2, GT3, LMP1, LMP2, etc etc. but like I said, good video overall. 👍

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

Yeah... Godin misspoke.

[@chrisandtori9083]

@@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883 I figured lol all good but good video again overall 👍

[@lokeshdeshwal5288]

Hey sir! From India 👋 Plz tell Which engine is more durable Suzuki or yamaha??

[@robertreid5379]

Hey my 2018 r1 has a ticking can’t tell if it’s valves,timing chain rod knock ect, my bike been down for about 8 months wondering where is Mike shop is located saw one in Charleston which is close by but wasn’t sure if it’s the same shop. love his attention to detail and would for him to fix my bike thank you.

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

Yamahas are a little ticky. Rod knock usually shows up when you rev high and close the throttle, not usually at idle so that would be really unusual unless you ran it out of oil. Sometimes on Yamahas when the cam chain is between notches on the cam chain adjuster they get a little louder. We've been known to loosen the cam chain adjuster very slightly until it "clicks" into the next notch and then tighten it down again but that is not recommended unless you are really familiar with it all. Anyway... KWS Motorsports is www.kwsmotorsports.com/ KWS Motorsports Address: 4657 Franchise St. N. Charleston, SC 29418 Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone]

[@robertreid5379]

Thank you, yes it’s a constant ticking on the cam chain side gets quieter once warm but still there for sure when doing small revving ticking get louder/faster because of revving, I have a video hopefully I send over a video to kws so they can give me a better Idea of what it maybe and a estimate to fix it shop is 4hrs from me but its definitely worth it for them to do the job.

[@Scott-sb1xi]

Is that a Tommy Hayden poster I saw?

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

Good spot

[@SmoothOperator412]

Where are you guys located? I jumped time on my R1 and I’m pretty sure I need new valves at the very least. It’s a street bike.

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

KWS is in Charleston South Carolina.

[@mhsucio6830]

Can you tell me what shims I should buy?

[@mhsucio6830]

when should the valves really be checked when someone who doesnt ride too hard and is only on the street with full exhaustm filter/tune

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

Assuming your R1 is a 2020+ R1 then the factory suggests checking valve lash every 24,000 miles (40,000) km. Judging by how good everything looked in this engine then it suggests that a street R1 with decent maintenance should last a very very long time. A roadrace engine is catching full power gear shifts about every 1/4 mile or so. That really beats up the edges of the sintered metal gears which led to this engine needing to come apart. If not for the gears wearing out we would not have otherwise stripped down this engine so go enjoy yours! Pro Tip - do take your bike to a track day with beginner coaching. Once you've been on the track, even just a single time, you are much safer on the street, as long as you only use your new race track lean angles on the street in emergencies, not every turn...

[@mhsucio6830]

Thanks for your response, I take my R6 to the track. But as for my 2020 R1 I was genuinely curious what someone’s thoughts were who actually had an idea of what they were talking about. My bike has around 17k miles n it’s well maintained and I mean I baby it. Oil changes , on oil changes , on oil changes along with keeping up with the suspension, brakes etc. I want to check the valves myself, being that I am really really handy and have access to CNC machines etc (irrelevant to the question) but I’m good with my hands. And am very anal when it comes to working on things. I just don’t know if it really needs done yet. I was also thinking of buying a whole used engine on the side and rebuilding that just for the fuck of it and not fucking with my oem one and leave that one to professionals until I feel confident in my ability. I appreciate you for real tho.

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

Checking the valve clearances is tedious, but not too hard. You just have to take off a lot of stuff to get to the valve cover. And then, once you check them, you will find that they are all still in spec and you don't need to mess with them until 48k miles. Or, do it dirtbike style, and wait until it gets to be hard to start... (j/k).

[@kristot4000]

im surprised its not ported.

[@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883]

Its a Yamaha, not a TM! :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gamzkIWHo6qUbLM Its amazing how much power that R1 makes with the rough casting in the ports!