Good Morning, long time no post. I recently pulled the valve cover to do my 10000 mile valve adjustment on my 09. Low and behold I glance at my Cam Sprockets and what do I find? The Intake Cam is UPSIDE DOWN. Now for another interesting discovery... my valves were within spec even though I had ridden the bike with an upside down Intake Cam for.... wait for it... 7437 miles! Not to mention two trips up the Dalton highway to Deadhorse from Fairbanks, Alaska.

So apparently my bike doesn't give rat's behind if it had an exhaust lift before it has an intake lift... Well kudos to Kawasaki for designing a sturdy top end.

I am not sure what that would make my valve timing, but I'm sure it was nothing short of retarded.

This bike has a 351 along with about a million other mods. Anyhow... be careful. My cup of luck still had something in it apparently.

 

holy crap

 

Did you do those 7473 miles backwards? :-)

 

What do you mean upside down? You mean 180 degrees off? Sorry I haven't had the valve cover off on one of these engines yet. I'm trying to envision it upside down.

 

I guess your referring to just the sprocket...?

 

Just to clarify, the entire cam was 180 off. As in the lobes were facing in rather than out when the engine was at TDC. Yeah, I was just as surprised my engine was alive and that it ran.

 

I've done valve checks and adjustments...I can't even imagine putting it upside down..

 

I'm trying to get my head around this. If I think I understand what you're saying, I can't see how the cam could be oriented in that position in its relationship to the exhaust cam and the crankshaft and still run. But...maybe I'm not really envisioning what you describe correctly.

 

Yep, something is off 180°. lol..

 

Oh wait, after reviewing the Uncertainty Principle in Quantum Mechanics, I believe that is the principle your engine has been running on.