Adjusting Valves on a Kawasaki zx-750 Engine

So in our shop at school, we have a Engine on a mount from a Kawasaki zx-750, a Japanese inline four.  For the past couple  months we have only been working on cruisers and Harleys, and I've been kind of itching to get my hands greasy on a Japanese inline four engine, from the sportsbike perspective.

I own a 1997 Honda cbr600f3 and I have been planning on doing a valve job on it since it's probably due for one for it's age and the current miles on it.  Previous owner said the engine was rebuilt and has 7k miles on it when I got it at 46k.  It does run like it's been rebuilt, but you never can tell.  Valve jobs on your typical sportsbike can usually run from 500-800 at a local motorcycle shop, but hence the reason why I'm in school and all the more motivation to do it yourself repair and adjustment jobs. 

Anyways, since the zx750 engine was out of the frame and already on a mount, it was slightly more easier than if it were still in the motorcycle frame.  Usually when you're working on a inline-four on a sportsbike, there's very little room to work with.  And if you got gorilla sized hands, the higher your chances at busting your knuckles up.

The motor has already been taking apart and rebuilt numerous times, so the inspection values for the clearance via the shims were super off.  We didn't have any of the right shims to put in, but we got a general idea of how to measure the clearance levels between the valves and the camshaft. 

I would say the most difficult part of the task was taking off the camshafts and putting them back on and making sure the timing marks were aligned correctly without damaging the camshafts.  I didn't get to do a lot of wrenching this time around but I got a real good idea of what to expect when I start to work on my bike when I get time to adjust the valves on it.

Taking apart a 1980 Harley Davidson Ironhead Engine

So a couple weeks ago, our class got to take apart a 1980 Harley Davidson Ironhead engine.  I was really looking forward to because my instructor has often preached at how simple and self explanatory it is when it comes to taking apart and rebuilding Harley Davidson engines.  The real issue with the engine that we had was that we had to split apart the crankcase to see what was damaged on the crankshaft.

Often I have heard at how much of a pain it is when it comes to splitting apart crank cases, so this was also another new on hands situation for me to see what its really like for a Harley Davidson engine.  Honestly splitting apart the crankcase was the easiest obstacle compared to taking off the cylinder heads off.

We might have been about an hour passed since we started taking the engine apart and when we got to the point of splitting the case, our instructor used a razor blade to make some leg room to split it apart evenly without causing damage where it seals.  We thought we had all the screws and bolts loose, but apparently one snuck up on us as one bolt was still hiding in the corner of the crankcase where we couldn't see.  My instructor kept commenting about how easily the crankcase usually splits apart in a matter of no time and when we found that last bolt it was a matter of "ooooh, that's why."

I really want to get my hands on a newer model Harley Davidson engine to get a real feeler about how simple theses engines are. Where as it usually takes a full day taking apart and rebuilding a Japanese engine from let's say a sportbike, it only takes about 2-3 hours to disassemble and rebuild a Harley Davidson engine.