I've just noticed that my Pan engine is getting a little tappety on the offside bank. Nothing major, just a very soft noise on idle. I only noticed because I was comparing something on the sides of the engine and just happened to have the engine running and as I leant forwards and backwards the difference was apparent.

so I'm thinking about whipping it apart and checking the valve clearances. After all, it is 20 years old this year and I don't know when it was last done

Anyone done this on the BEC engines? Apart from making the tappety noise go away does it actually have any benefit? Extra ponies?!?!?

There maybe a slight tick but i bet the valve clearance is still in tolerance ,there better to be on the large side of the scale rather than the small,its when you cant hear any noise that you should worry . ,you may have some tight ones so worth having a check if the larger sized feeler gauge goes in it buts its tight then i wouldn't bother changing ,unless you have to take the cam off to do the other one

Sweet. Will have a fiddle with some feeler gauges and see what's what. I suspect I'm worrying about nothing.... Cheers

Valve shims only need checking every 16k miles on Pan European. This is quite a lot of miles compared to most bikes.

Extra spacing on the valves results in loss of power (valve closed for longer), and more cam wear (cam hits valve more abruptly).

The pain is getting replacement shims as you have to leave the engine "open" while they arrive (or pay dealer prices at £5 a shim which adds up fast on a 16v engine).

Matt