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Re-building a GS1000 motor.

Suzuki Mad

Suzuki Mad

Forum Mentor
Past Site Supporter
Its been a few years since I had a 'small' oil leak from the cam chain tunnel on the GS and put her off the road. (2011) With work, family, life, lack of funds she has been lurking in the back of the garage while I used another bike to ride around on.

Well, its finally happening. I'm going to pull the lump apart and replace the head gasket.....

....for the life of me I cant remember if I should have the head skimmed or if it can just go straight back on with a new gasket/gaskets in place.

Anybody advise who has recently rebuilt one.

Engines done 46,000 miles from new, doesnt smoke, pulls well, just leaks oil everywhere.

Cheers
Suzuki Mad.
 
Suzuki Mad said:
Its been a few years since I had a 'small' oil leak from the cam chain tunnel on the GS and put her off the road. (2011) With work, family, life, lack of funds she has been lurking in the back of the garage while I used another bike to ride around on.

Well, its finally happening. I'm going to pull the lump apart and replace the head gasket.....

....for the life of me I cant remember if I should have the head skimmed or if it can just go straight back on with a new gasket/gaskets in place.

Anybody advise who has recently rebuilt one.

Engines done 46,000 miles from new, doesnt smoke, pulls well, just leaks oil everywhere.

Cheers
Suzuki Mad.
Click to expand...
Unless you think your head is warped or you want to increase the compression, you should be good just making sure the surfaces are nice and clean.
 
I am in the process of replacing gaskets on my son's 1000G. After taking the head of, I found the gasket was pretty much embedded in the aluminum. Knowing that I lack the proper equipment to safely remove that much gasket build-up, so I took it to a machine shop, along with the cylinder block. The block only had 0.0015" taken off to make it look good, the head took a bit more. The first pass was at 0.003", but there were still several low spots, so he took off another 0.002" for a total of 0.005". The end result was this:

F380C5EB-C7DB-41E5-88F9-48B355F703A0_zpsh0mjhu8w.jpg


In the process now of cleaning up the rest of the engine so we can start putting it all back together.

.
 
Nice looking finish on that.

I dont know if its warped, just re planning to see if I need a 'machine shop' to skim it before pulling the top off. Will only find out when I put a straight edge on it once its off.
 
Just have to sort out a head gasket and a couple of exhaust gaskets and all the bits are here.
 
I just did my 850. I had a light skim done also. Are you replacing the base gasket as well? It will likely get distirbed when you pull the head, so it's highly recommended.
 
Agree on replacing the base gasket. And the valve stem seals. Better do everything while the top end is apart or you may have to do it twice.
 
Yes second all that, I did my 850 a year or so ago I had the head and barrels skimmed head was only .002 out from outer side to cam chain tunnel was same on both sides but I was going to use Oem gaskets and for the 850 it is now a muti layered steel gasket and really should have a fine finish on head and barrels (some agree and some not) but at ?100 in uk for the head gasket I was not going to take the risk.
Another thing is if you do use an Oem MLS head gasket you do not need to use the cam chain tunnel oring
 
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I wasnt planning on lifting the barrels at all. Just popping the head off, a clean up of the face and whacking the head down with a new gasket in place. Job done.

She didnt smoke, use oil, compression was good so I see no need to start tinkering. Swapping valve seals, pulling the valves out will mean a re-shim and I dont have shims here.
If the barrels come off then I'd be going for new rings and thats ?500 in UK money for a full OEM set and that kills the project.
 
Suzuki Mad said:
I wasnt planning on lifting the barrels at all. Just popping the head off, a clean up of the face and whacking the head down with a new gasket in place. Job done.
Click to expand...
Good luck with that. :encouragement:

Many have tried, FEW have actually succeeded. It's particularly irritating to get 100 miles or so down the road and find that the base gasket is leaking, and realize that you now have the opportunity to do it over.

I was part of a team interviewing a candidate for a job opening we have. When asked about his work practices, he replied that he grew up knowing that there are two ways to do the job: right and over.


Cipher said:
if you machine the head wont you need to re shim regardless?
Click to expand...
No. Machining the head will move the head closer to the pistons and retard valve timing ever so slightly, but will not affect valve clearances at all, unless your machining of the head also included cutting new valve seats.

.
 
When I did mine I took the cylinders, new rings, disassembled head and valves (which were marked as to location) to a local engine builder to do his magic. He hot tanked the cylinders and head which removed all the old gasket residue, honed the cylinders, checked everything for being true and it was, checked and adjusted the ring gap as required and did a little touching up of the valve seats for about $100.00 if I remember correctly. Money well spent.
 
Steve said:
Good luck with that. :encouragement:

Many have tried, FEW have actually succeeded. It's particularly irritating to get 100 miles or so down the road and find that the base gasket is leaking, and realize that you now have the opportunity to do it over.

I was part of a team interviewing a candidate for a job opening we have. When asked about his work practices, he replied that he grew up knowing that there are two ways to do the job: right and over.



No. Machining the head will move the head closer to the pistons and retard valve timing ever so slightly, but will not affect valve clearances at all, unless your machining of the head also included cutting new valve seats.

.
Click to expand...

That's the issue I have. Once you start to play with removing valves and digging deeper into an engine the more expense you fork out.

So lets play here for a minute.

Parts:-

Base gasket ?17.10
'O' rings ?17 (?4.15 ea)
Head gasket ?103 oem
Cam Chain seal ?29 oem
Rocker gasket ?35 oem
Half moons ?32 oem (?6.72 ea)
Valve seals ?54 oem (?7 ea)
Exhaust seals ?21 oem (5.29 ea)

Machine work.

Head skimmed ?35 approx.
Valves reseated ?3 per seat
Valves machine ?3 per valve

Rebuild:-

Re shimming Nobody does shims at garages anymore for these old girls..... (Hunt the local bike bits shop for shims....)

Total outlay (less my time) at UK cost prices.... ?391 without oil and filter plus anything else that may or may not go wrong with the job.

It's all very well saying to this and do that but it's why a lot of these old girls just aren't on the road as people say 'its too expensive to repair it.' This old girl will be kept and saved for my life time. Its also why she hasnt been done to date as the OEM parts cost is so high.
 
Last edited:
"Buy once, cry once."

Yes, parts are not cheap, no doubt about that. However, with the very high likelihood of damaging the base gasket in the act of removing the head, how many times can you afford to buy a new head gasket? Looks like you will be spending another 103 Pounds because you tried to save 17 Pounds. And you will have to spend the 17 anyway.

.
 
It's a 1980 head gasket thats in it so I have no idea.

I like having all the parts here before works starts and I also like covering all the bases so that I have plans for everything before starting any work.

Thanks for the stem seals suggestions.
 
Last edited:
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