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450 rebuild or 500 swap?

  • Thread starter Thread starter 81gs450l
  • Start date Start date
8

81gs450l

Guest
My 1981 gs450l is starting to leak oil out of almost every gasket in its poor lil engine. I found a new gasket kit, but I decided to just rebuild the engine. The other issues i am having with this engine is the previous owner stripped out 2 of the 4 bolt holes for my exhaust and the bolt that holds the tach cable in is broke off in the engine. I decided its time to just pull the motor and rebuild it or just replace it. i found a new gasket kit for it, but where can i find a rebuild kit for this engine? would it be easier to find a 500 engine or another 450 to bolt in? I know the 500 exhaust is inline with the frame, what else would i need to swap the 500 in?
 
Carbs and maybe the ignitor will be needed too. The early GS500 motors have an analog tach sending unit (like your 450) and should fit better. The later 500 motors have a throttle position sensor (I'm not sure what it hooks up to though - ignitor?) but also have an oil cooler.
 
As I understand it you will also need to use the 450 head because the exhaust ports would be blocked by the frame
 
Someone posted some pics on here a while back of custom headers that were made to allow the GS500 motor in a 450 frame. It wasn't what I would call elegant but it worked. Also the 450 head could be bored to fit 500 O.S. pistons, the connectors and rods are the same parts. They should drop right on. I had bought a spare head to start this mod, but never got to follow through with it.
 
You won't find a "rebuild kit" for it, but you can still get all the gaskets and oil seals from Suzuki. Boulevard Suzuki have got good prices.

I got an Athena after market gasket set and have regretted it. Fortunately I used a genuine base gasket.

The external case covers are ok but the valve cover gasket never stopped weeping and I replaced with genuine. Breather cover is doing the same thing.

Do a search for BIGYAM member's 450 tracker and you will see how you can do a 500 in a 450 frame...
 
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