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Replacing head gasket 80 gs850

  • Thread starter Thread starter 520eek
  • Start date Start date
520eek said:
Okay, Saturday is assembly day at last! I have done some reading here and came up with a few observations and still one nagging question...

1. base cylinder o-rings...some say yes and others say no, I don't think they will do harm to put them in. Can't hurt to use them, but I wouldn't wait a week for delivery if you don't have they already

2. on the base gasket, apply some gasgacinch or hylamar...both sides? No need if using an OEM base gasket. That said, it won't hurt either.

3. on the pear shaped o-rings use very little (or none at all) sealant No need or desired.

4. with mls gasket there is no need for rectangle o-ring?? No need. Guys on the Kawasaki KZ site swear by filling the cylinder groove with RTV, which is another of those "can't hurt" things.

5. and with this mls gasket, it goes in dry...no sealants Correct

6. nagging question about mls head gasket....once installed and torqued down, whats to keep oil from leaking out the oil feed stud holes on the initial start and run in after that? MLS gaskets have rubber between the steel layers which help seal. Supposedly, they seal so well the O-rings aren't needed, and real world experience supports this. You just need really clean and smooth gasket surfaces to use MLS properly. If your's aren't, consider getting the head and cylinder skimmed. Unfortunately, this sort of business is not cheap but you gotta do what you gotta do. Either that or stick with a fiber head gasket, which seems a little more fault tolerant.

Any thoughts or comments? Needless to say you should do the valve stem seals as well as the gaskets and consider rings. After running and putting a few heat cycles on the engine it's a good idea to check the valve adjust again and torque the head again. Always back off the head nuts by about 1/8 turn before making them up to tighten. Use a good quality torque wrench too.
Click to expand...

See above...
 
Thanks! I did do valve seals and have new rings ( and circlips) ...on the rings, all I see on the rings is the letter "N" I would think that these go with letter up?
 
So I have the motor assembled, cams on valves adjusted..... now on to the easy stuff like putting valve cover on ...yup! That went good...and then for the exhaust pipes...now where are those brand new exhaust gaskets? I have searched high and low in the garage and any where else I think they might be...I just can't find them. :mad: I even double checked the invoice..yup I ordered them all right and I thought I remember seeing them when I opened the package. Maybe not....sigh, just have to order another set. Any one else get to do this fun exercise of brain drain other than me?
 
Finally...the day is here! Time to drop the battery in it and start it up...... Well maybe one more little hurdle! It seems that in the re fabrication process of the rear sub frame and solo seat...someone (me) forgot that I would be temporarily using bike battery for initial start and few hundred miles of test ride before sidecar was attached. Once sidecar is on, a car battery goes in the trunk area of sidecar thus eliminating need for bike battery.

So...while I was doing this and that, I now have a welded to the frame, a solo seat support brace that blocks me from putting in the temporary battery...:stupid:

Back to drawing board....:-\\\
 
So I put this critter all together ( with pods and sawed off pipes...) ( not really sawed off...but free flow decorative pipes ) well any way, it ran pretty good with choke all the way on! However, after a 2 mile run it was making more noise from the top end than I remembered. It was a little bit "rattley." I don't recall that noise there before.... It seemed to be coming off the exhaust cam area...evenly on both sides. It was idling fine and responding to throttle input with no load quite nicely. So on a whim I pulled valve cover and really checked things out. Only one valve, ( exhaust #4 was out by one shim..) ( I will adjust it later ). I checked chain tensioner as well. I marked the knurled knob with a small dab of paint for a point of reference. I rechecked it and all seemed well. I double checked my valves, cam caps, chain idler sprocket carrier thingy, even the sprockets on cams. every thing I checked was tight.

So I looked at the factory manual for the tensioner, and did the rotation of motor backwards while holding knurled knob a bit off of tension, then rotate it normally and let tensioner do its thing. I even rotated the motor a few more turns...at one point I observed the paint mark on knurled knob was no longer at the 12 o'clock position ... it was now at 3 o'clock.

My question is...how much noise would this make if tensioner was just a tad bit loose? I guess I will find out soon enough when I put this back together and fire it up. Has anyone else experienced this?
 
Okay...update time! I have got about 75 miles on since I put it back together. The "clatter" is diminished greatly, still have a little bit. I am thinking that it should be a tad quieter though...perhaps at the re torque and valve check.

Runs good and strong through out all gears!

No leaks noted at this time. I am figuring around 500 miles or so before I re torque. Does this sound about right?
 
I did mine this Summer and left it about 400 miles before checking and got nearly half a turn which is too much in my book.
I would check it after 5 - 10 heat cycles or 100 - 200 miles.
I expect it would depend on what gaskets you use. I didn't use oem.
 
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