newbie asking for advice

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:38 am

Yes after about 100,000 miles you need to rebuild the motor. Sounds like you just need to do a tear down and replace some gaskets and seals, adjust some stuff. Any idea why it blew a head gasket? how do you know it blew a head gasket?

Oh, and Howdy

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:56 am

Shame on you. Laughing

Kick that so called machinist in the ass and tell him to stick to what he does best, which obviously isn't motorcycles. Take it apart, clean it up, put new gaskets in, lap the valves, run through the SeanG checklist and away you go. Maintenance is important on a 30 year old bike.

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 7:05 am

Welcome CB! wave

How many miles total on the bike? Frank said 100K and you stated 15K on the engine.

Me thinks it is much less than 100K, in fact less than 50K miles.

I would simple have the head check to be sure it is still true, replace the valve seal gaskets and lap the valves, check the cam chain tensioners for cracks and put it back together with a new cylinder base and head gasket.
Do not forget to re-shim the valves to .005" clearance.

You should be good to go.

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 7:11 am

What part were you planning on having milled? While the slop, I mean tolerances, of a Hardly Ableson will allow you to mill a couple inches off the head and cylinders to achieve a flat deck, the Japanese motors are too tight to allow that kind of behaviour. You'll end up banging your pistons and valves together. Those semi-circular indentations are on the piston crowns for a reason.
Your "machinist" is an idiot, apparently brainwashed by today's instant gratification throw-away society.
These bikes used a lot of aluminum in order to save weight and radiate heat faster and more evenly, allowing them to produce more power and go faster.
Remove the head, clean off all old gasket material, hone the surfaces to ensure they are flat and smooth. Put in a new gasket (along with some o-rings and such), put it back together and learn how to take care of it.
Here's a factoid for you: the Washington Monument is capped with a pyramid of solid aluminum, which at the time it was completed, was considered a precious metal. I doubt the Washington Monument was intended to be a "throw-away" monument...

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:45 am

Welcome to the site CBnut ... Smile

That 'machinist' is clueless .

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:38 am

Welcome to here wave

Look around the site, a lot of people rebuild these old bikes. Don't take that idiot machinist any work, he'll probably just screw it up for you.

Read through the links in my sig to learn a few things about the site.

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:51 am

In my usual quirky way I was saying 15,000 miles is no miles at all, that motor has got tons of life left in it. Do like the guys said and you will be sick of riding the damn thing before you will wear it out.