Loud top-end noise after valve adjust

[omgang]

'99 busa w/67,000 miles.  Just put back together after valve adjust (6 valves needed shims).  The bike has been sitting for over two months with top-end apart and drain plug off.  When I fired it up last night there was a loud 'clattering' sound from under the airbox.  I shut off immediately.  It's probably been 10 years since the last time I actually had to replace shims and I can't remember if it made this noise last time; of course, it probably hadn't sat for over two months without oil in it either.  My gut feeling is that it just needs a few seconds to build oil pressure.  Since the bike fired up after only a few cranks I'm pretty confident I got the cams in correctly (per manual).  Still, thought it'd be better to check here first before doing serious damage.  Cam-chain tensioner is in and adjusted tight (it has the hydraulic/oil pressure tensioner), I torqued all bolts with torque wrench, I don't have any left over parts.....

Should I fire it back up and let it run for 10 or more seconds?  Should I take it back apart and look for ?
OM Gang

[LVBUSA]

Take the plugs out and turn the starter until the oil light goes out.  Me personally, I would pull the valve cover and recheck all the torque specs and all the goodies, including all your valve adjustments, and alignment marks.  Once validated, then reassemble and fire.

Secondly, how tight is your interpretation of tight on the chain tensioner ?. Did you push the adjuster out with a lot of force ?.  Made that mistake once and ate up a chain guide in the process.  The noise was the chain chattering away on the tensioner side guide.  While you have the plugs out, remove the tensioner while at TDC and reset the tensioner all the way in.  Then take a small screwdriver and gently click it out until you feel a little resistance.  Reinsert the spring, tighten the seal and plug. Let the oil pressure push it more as needed.

Just thoughts. A.

[TT]

id fire it back up and let it run for a few minutes, when cam chains get out of adjustment they rattle until they readjust them selfs on the little ratchet thingy what ever its called, plus like u said it sat for a while with no oil so the oil line going to the tensioner is probably bone dry

[omgang]

<<Secondly, how tight is your interpretation of tight on the chain tensioner ?. Did you push the adjuster out with a lot of force ?.>>
Yes.  I used a small, Philips, screwdriver to push/extend the tensioner until it wouldn't click anymore.  I rotated the engine over by hand a couple of times while checking valve clearance again and then was able to get one additional click on the tensioner using the screwdriver again.  Quite a few years ago there was a thread here (sh.org) regarding getting the tensioner tight to prevent rattling.

Amount of time to remove the cover and double-check everything and then to reset the tensioner isn't really too much.  If I break something in the engine because I didn't double-check I'll just be a dumb-ass (and I'm too old to still be a dumb-ass).  Then I'll spin the engine over without the plugs to make sure I've got it pressurized.  Then if it rattles when I fire it up I'll give it a minute or so (with my fingers crossed).

Thanks to you both for your input.
OM Gang

[Ghost-Geezer]

I know this sounds "off the wall" but I redid the valve adjustment on my old ZX9 and ground the shims down on a high dollar surface grinder we had at the aerospace plant where I wuz working at the time.  Got 'em all perfect.  Put everything back together and fired the bike up and lo and behold...........top end clatter.  I pulled it down only to find out I had placed the intake cam 1 tooth off..........corrected that........bike ran like lightning after that with no top end noise.  Stupid mistake. 

[knecum]

Shim out of place or cams off a tooth,  put back in time, should be fine, if it runs but misses you screwed up, or just noisy until o gets everywhere should only last 5 secs most,

[wildphil69]

You shouldn't put extra tension on the tensioner at all. oil pressure and the spring do that.

[Rocketgeezer]

Pull the cam cover double ck the cams, if OK then crank over with plugs out, you can jumper a car battery to get it to spin faster if you want it wont hurt anything if just spun for a few seconds, when oil light go's out replace plugs and fire up if noise is still there after a few seconds  as Knecum said, you most likely have a shim missing or out of place, and don't be afraid every dude on here has been a old dumb ass at one time or another

[omgang]

Thanks for all the tips.  I'm out of town for the weekend but plan on going through it on Monday or Tuesday.  I did recheck valve clearance on every shim I replaced so am thinking it's not a missing shim.  I'll post back what I find.  And thanks for the tips on the tensioner.  I did a search here yesterday for 'tensioner' and do find posts from way back in the day (~2004) about pushing the plunger out until no more clicks, and then backing the mounting bolts off just a bit to get one more click, and then tightening the bolts back up.  This was the method I was using; thinking I am supposed to get the tensioner as tight as possible.

OM Gang

[omgang]

Took it back apart and everything checked out, valve lash clearances, timing, etc.  I had one intake that was a bit too loose after the shim change so I replaced the original shim.  I rechecked timing about 5 times including paint dots on both sides of the chain to make sure pin count is correct.  I spun the engine over without plugs until the oil pressure light went out.  Installed the plugs and it fired up after a few seconds but it's still making a pretty loud racket though.  It fires right up each time I start it and throttle response is very good but the rattle-sound hasn't gone away.  I've run it four times for a maximum of 20 seconds each time.  I'm thinking it must be the cam chain.  I have a third-gen tensioner with the oil line to it.  When I installed it this time I let the spring push the tensioner out (heard it click 2-3 times or more). When I rotated the engine over by hand to recheck valve lash I heard it click once or twice more.

By the way, do factory cam gears have holes in them?  The manual shows using a zip-tie through the gear to hold the chain in place.  I have Yosh cams but there are no holes in the gears.  I'm assuming they're factory gears though as all the markings are the same as shown in the manual.

[omgang]

One other thing I just noticed.  The Suzuki shop manual says the marks on the cam gears should be 15 pins apart.  The instruction sheet for the Yosh cams says 14 pins.  I have the cams installed 15 pins apart.  Which one is correct?