Look in my head and header

[falcon]

Hey fellas, any ticker experts out there? I pulled my headers for some exhaust work, and figured it's a golden opportunity to do a ticker assessment. I am not sure if I'm one of the chosen ones.... I get some tink-tink-tink on the left side of the engine when cold, but nothing above idle, and nothing at all when warm.

Here's what my head and headers look like inside of cylinder heads 1 and 4 that I could access without removing the radiator completely.

To my amateur eyes things look pretty good, I don't see evidence of oil splattered all over the place in here, but there is some smoot / cabon buildup that might be more than usual.

leftmost port:

leftmost port closer:

leftmost header:

rightmost port:

rightmost header:

complete set of pics including larger images https://www.flickr.com/photos/27748751@N02/...5495904/detail/

 

[Ignacio]

Looks good to me. Some minor carbon, but no oil I can see.

 

[Patriot]

I get some tink-tink-tink on the left side of the engine when cold, but nothing above idle, and nothing at all when warm.

cam chain tensioner failing ???...<course it's on the right side of the engine when sitting on the seat>

 

[falcon]

cam chain tensioner failing ???...<course it's on the right side of the engine when sitting on the seat>

i've been reading about CCT and i was wondering about that. my tink tink tink is on the left side when sitting on the seat.

 

[falcon]

doing some more ticker research, my tink tink tink doesn't sound like the ticker video/audio i've been able to find, so i'm not worried about ticker syndrome at this point.

so i guess i'm confident in recommending these pics to use as a reference for a non-ticking bike. i'm at 13,000 miles on a 2004 for reference.

 

[FJRBluesman]

Those are some of the most absolutely cleanest exhaust ports I have ever seen. No issues there.

And they say bikes polute more then cars.... My arse (well that does polute)!