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GS(X)1100E cracked cylinder head

  • Thread starter Thread starter Suzuki mad
  • Start date Start date
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Suzuki mad

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I've just had to strip my GS(X)1100E due to a very noisy 5th gear. All of the engine came apart well with no major mishaps apart from needing more in the way of gearbox parts than was earlier assessed. Funny thing looking at the parts to see whats wrong rather than guessing!

Went to clean the cylinder head up and found one small crack between the exhaust and spark plug holes on No2 and No3 cylinder. This bike was running a wiseco big bore kit to 1168cc, dyno jetted carbs and 'ram' foam filters.

Has anybody else found this sort of problem before?

A replacement cylinder head, valve guides plus the 6 cogs in the gearbox is now going to cost way over £1500 here in England so I want to find out if this is a common fault or something that can be rectified in the rebuild before shelling out all the money.

Cheers
Suzuki Mad
Wanting to ride and getting fed up without it.
1983 GSX1100ESD In bits
1981 GS1000E tucked up away from the salt.
 
Suzuki mad said:
I've just had to strip my GS(X)1100E due to a very noisy 5th gear. All of the engine came apart well with no major mishaps apart from needing more in the way of gearbox parts than was earlier assessed. Funny thing looking at the parts to see whats wrong rather than guessing!

Went to clean the cylinder head up and found one small crack between the exhaust and spark plug holes on No2 and No3 cylinder. This bike was running a wiseco big bore kit to 1168cc, dyno jetted carbs and 'ram' foam filters.

Has anybody else found this sort of problem before?

A replacement cylinder head, valve guides plus the 6 cogs in the gearbox is now going to cost way over £1500 here in England so I want to find out if this is a common fault or something that can be rectified in the rebuild before shelling out all the money.

Cheers
Suzuki Mad
Wanting to ride and getting fed up without it.
1983 GSX1100ESD In bits
1981 GS1000E tucked up away from the salt.
Click to expand...

I have been through several rebuild on these heads and have found only two bad ones. The crack will be as you said from the valve seat to the spark plug hole. I always check them for cracks and after bead blasting them the crack shows up better...
 
What kind of noise did you have in 5th gear. I have one that has gotten progressively worse over the last couple years and I am about to tear mine apart and fix it. The last year or two I could shift between 4th and 5th a couple times and it would sort of go away but now it is there most of the time. I figure it is worn shift forks or something. What did you end up replacing?
 
Well, over here on the other side of the channel (NL) you sometimes see complete, running GSx1100's for €600-€750. I even bought a complete one with a broken pistonring for €150 and could use the complete engine (ex. block & piston), sold the rest and made a little profit. I suggest you keep your 1500 quid in the pocket and go looking for a complete, well running engine in a bad chassis. You shouldn't have problems with the gearbox or other on a normal used bike with oil in it.

Marco.
 
Mine was a very loud whine when I was in 5th. So far I will have to replace both 5th gears, 4th gear driven as the cogs have locaters that join to the 5th and the locators have had lumps knocked off the sides. All three selector forks as they are badly worn and the bushes that they run in. Due to the cost 3rd gear driven has been damaged, one edge of the teeth has been rounded not square as it should be but at the price of new gears it's all getting rather expensive.
 
In the interest of providing assistance to our brother across the pond, do any of you guys that tear into these things more frequently, know whether or not there's enough mass in that particular head area to have that crack ground out and re-welded? Aluminum heads are fairly easily welded if you are close to a machine shop. The head will need to be properly ground down in the area of the crack, and the assembly typically has to be clamped in a jig while being welded to prevent warping, or at least minimize it, then it sometimes has to be trued afterwards depending on the warp. Sometimes a head can be repaired for a lot less than it can be replaced. Just a thought.
 
Thanks, mine is not a whine but maybe a whur but I think something is not engaging right in there.
 
I've spoken to a few engineers who are 'happy' to weld the cracks and reshape the cambers but concerns have been about how close to the valve inserts these cracks may be. There seemed to be no problems with the spark plug area yet for some reason the valves seats were very different. One guy suggested about being very hard area's and having to remove the insert before welding then having to replace the insert before regrinding the valve back in.

As for the gearbox, mine went in and out perfectly OK, just it was very noisy when travelling along in 5th. I was supprised at just how bad the gears were when I got into the box.

Suzuki mad
Still wishing that I was able to go for a ride.
GSX1100ESD 1983 in bits
GS1000E 1981 tucked up away from the salt
 
Last edited:
Suzuki mad said:
I've spoken to a few engineers who are 'happy' to weld the cracks and reshape the cambers but concerns have been about how close to the valve inserts these cracks may be. There seemed to be no problems with the spark plug area yet for some reason the valves seats were very different. One guy suggested about being very hard area's and having to remove the insert before welding then having to replace the insert before regrinding the valve back in.

As for the gearbox, mine went in and out perfectly OK, just it was very noisy when travelling along in 5th. I was supprised at just how bad the gears were when I got into the box.

Suzuki mad
Still wishing that I was able to go for a ride.
GSX1100ESD 1983 in bits
GS1000E 1981 tucked up away from the salt
Click to expand...
These heads are cheap to replace. Unless you have a million dollar port job just get another head and have a valve job done and throw away the cracked one...
 
Go to www.aluminumrepair.com and check out HTS-2000. This stuff is easy to work with, and supposedly fixes problems that conventional fixes can't handle. There's an online video that shows some impressive repairs being made. Worst case scenario is that it doesn't work and you still have to replace the head...

Good Luck!
 
Throw away the head and get another one. The crack goes from the spark plug hole under the valve seat and stops who knows where. Don't try and patch it. It will be a lot of work for nothing.
 
Suzuki mad said:
I've just had to strip my GS(X)1100E due to a very noisy 5th gear. All of the engine came apart well with no major mishaps apart from needing more in the way of gearbox parts than was earlier assessed. Funny thing looking at the parts to see whats wrong rather than guessing!

Went to clean the cylinder head up and found one small crack between the exhaust and spark plug holes on No2 and No3 cylinder. This bike was running a wiseco big bore kit to 1168cc, dyno jetted carbs and 'ram' foam filters.

Has anybody else found this sort of problem before?

A replacement cylinder head, valve guides plus the 6 cogs in the gearbox is now going to cost way over £1500 here in England so I want to find out if this is a common fault or something that can be rectified in the rebuild before shelling out all the money.

Cheers
Suzuki Mad
Wanting to ride and getting fed up without it.
1983 GSX1100ESD In bits
1981 GS1000E tucked up away from the salt.
Click to expand...


I had exactley the same problem with my ET 1100, only came to light during the bore & porting job, I may be able to get pic's if Bigcc haven't thrown it yet!
I had 2 cracks 2 & 3 cylinder if I remember correctly, I found a good head from west coast £150 not that cheap but a much cheaper option than if the weld failed on a run......

I'd plumb for the "new" over repair any day.

Best
 
Have tried over 30 breakers in the UK without luck. So will have to resort to the Suzuki agents and get a new one.

As they say, 'Easy come easy go!'

Suzuki mad
1983 GSX1100 ESD in Bit's
1981 GS1000E tucked up away from the salt.
Want to be riding to repairing.
 
These cracks sound really bad, but from what I read here, The crack wasn't causing any trouble, & if you could have fixed the tranny without pulling the head, you wouldn't have known the crack was there, so do you think it is really a problem? Every 2.6 liter Mitusubishi head I've ever seen off the engine has cracks in & around the valve seats, but I've never seen one give any trouble. Nearly all the 2.6 mitusubishi's blew head gaskets, & that's when you found the cracks, but I never saw one of these cracks give any problem. Maybe these cracks aren't as bad as they seem
 
This is part of the reason I've suggested trying HTS-2000 ... what have you got to lose? It's a darn sight cheaper than buying a new head, and worst case scenario it doesn't work...

Somebody talked about wasting time on a difficult repair, but if you check out the site (and the video) it seems that this sort of repair would be EXTREMELY EASY to take on, with a good chance of acceptable results.

By the way, there was another GS'r who repaired a crack AND rebuilt a broken cooling fin with an earlier version of this material (I think he used Alumalloy, which is harder to work with) and the result not only performed perfectly, but was almost impossible to see if you weren't specifically looking for it.

DEFINITELY worth considering!

My .02 :)
 
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