The adventures with my 83 gs1100e w/questions

[gsjordan]

Well to begin this story I will begin with the purchase of my bike. I love the big kaws and in 2009 I received a tip on an old kz dragbike for sale in my own backyard of South Dakota. I went and looked at the bike and the owner told me that hes got an old suzuki in his shed that he would sell also. The bike was an 83 gs1100e and it was the first one i had ever seen but i had knowledge of the big 16v suzukis from the forums. It looked a little odd to me at the time but i have quickly fallen in love with the styling. I picked it up for $900 as is. Here are the pictures i took the day i bought it:







Over the next couple days i had the bike up and running and immediately had a great time blasting up and down the highway. It had great power and put a grin on my face ear to ear. Over the year i made it more dependable with a new chain, tune-up, extra disc clutch(burned up old clutch), and tires. Later that year it was layed over by a buddy of mine but luckily the damage was mainly cosmetic. The ignition cover was cracked, handlebars bent, and the tank was dented badly.

After putting thousands of miles on this bike and long trips including a couple trips to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally I was ready to tear it down and make it less of an eye sore. I painted the bike myself and used a decal set from reproductiondecals.com I found a tank and side covers on craigslist for a very reasonable price. I do alot of powder coating out of my garage and did the calipers, inner discs, forks, anti-dive, headlight bucket/ears, trees, exhaust, oil cooler, and rear brake bar. The seat i wrapped with a new cover. Also if anyone knows where i can get a lockhart decal to replace the ones that were on my oil cooler let me know! Here is a picture i took after reassembly:





The bike was back together just in time to make the trip to sturgis once again and other than a few break downs from bugs i didnt have time to work out after reassembly, it made the trip effortlessly. I found one other suzuki 1100 at the buffalo chip campground and the owner offered me 3000 for my bike but i turned down the offer as ive spent soo much on this bike, and love it too much to sell it.

While at the rally i decided to put the old girl on the dyno and see what it had. The fuel in the bike was 85 octane unleaded which was the only thing available at our last fill up. They did 3 pulls and took a/f readings. The loud scream of the suzuki drew a crowd like kids running to an ice cream truck! Each pull to redline i was praying that it wasnt going to grenade, especially since i needed to ride it 9 hours home yet! The second photo is a picture of the dyno printout and although it is hard to read it made 101.78hp and 72.5tq which i didnt think was too shabby for an old worn out suzuki The lower graph is the A/F ratio chart which i found alarming as it appears to be running lean?

[gsjordan]

The suzuki has been a great bike even through all the headaches and after the last teardown and bodywork i decided the only thing left was to rebuild the 30k mile motor. I planned on a few performance parts if the budget allowed along with a good valve job, hone, rings, valvesprings, and oil pump gears. What i found during disassembly was a real treat. I removed the motor and got it down in my basement as its below zero outside.



First step was to get the valvecover off and cams out. First thing i noticed was the camshafts and the VHR 042 stamped on them. From what ive found online they are a .340 lift cam similiar to a web grind still available.





I then moved onto the head and immediately thought this looked interesting



I pulled the head off to find some engravings on the bottom fin of the head. On the corner it reads: Super Street Racer. The rest of the engravings appear to say To: J Team From: Superbike Mike Eng. 3/85







I did some research and contacted Superbike Mike based out of Florida. He was real excited to hear about my findings and was very interesting to talk to. He claims the Super Street Racer porting was good for 20hp. With the head off i did some rough measuring and at this point i was not surprised to see that it was a larger than stock bore. With the pistons out i immediately recognized the yoshimura logo on the side of each piston. The other side of the pistons say POP.Y which after researching i understand that it stands for Hideo "Pops" Yoshimura. I believe they are 1135 pistons.







At this point i am acquiring parts for my build including APE tensioner, studs, and nuts. A new timing chain, gasket set, top end oiler, gs750 oil pump gears, and an alen head bolt set. I will be sending APE my head for a valve job and new springs, along with my jugs for a hone. Any idea where I can find a set of rings for these pistons? Also when looking at timing chains i see there is a master link? Do these chains use a master link allowing a new chain to be installed without splitting the cases? I also plan on dry blocking this motor as i will be using the top end oiler. Any thoughts on not using a base gasket to bump compression?

With a fresh motor and these mods what do you think I should be doing for carbeurators? I love the flatslides but am unsure what size to get. What kind of horsepower numbers is this thing capable? I will be getting it to the track and back on the dyno this summer.

Im sure im missing a few things but im tired from typing all of this. YOUR INPUT AND ANSWERS TO MY QUESTIONS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. After the engine is back together i plan on installing a dyna 2000 ignition system and riding the hell out of it!

[posplayr]

I wonder if it was ever rejected when the PO installed the pods and pipe. Get a dynojet kit and 47.5 pilot jets and call me in the morning
Whoops I see you are still posting, nice find. Once that thing I'd jetted proper it should lift the front wheel pretty easy

[gsjordan]

I wonder if it was ever rejected when the PO installed the pods and pipe. Get a dynojet kit and 47.5 pilot jets and call me in the morning

With this you believe i will have enough carb to feed this motor? What number do you want me to call you at? Also i opened the charging system links in your signature and theres alot of great information there. I always seem to be struggling with the charging system.

[old_skool]

Talk about a diamond in the rough, you hit the jackpot! Nice bike....moral to the story, never loan your bike to a buddy without a crash deposit

[posplayr]

With this you believe i will have enough carb to feed this motor? What number do you want me to call you at? Also i opened the charging system links in your signature and theres alot of great information there. I always seem to be struggling with the charging system.

It all depends on what you are looking for an how much money you want to spend.

The standard upgrade is to put GS1150 36mm CV's (BS36) on to get a couple of Hp (1-2 hp).
Another boost (3-5 hp) from from the GSXR 36mm (BST36),

or if you want a fuel hog get some RS flatslide 36's.
(5-10 hp)

All of these Hp changes are relative based on what I have heard. Bill (Chef1366) is running BS36 on a 1229 and he has no issues for the street. I have the same at 1166. We both have cams,pods,header,head work....

Your jetting is way lean if those AFR numbers are correct. That will add a significant step up in hp to get that right. What jets are you running in the BS34 carbs and where is the needle and what is the pilot jet?


I wonder if with all of the motor work someone had some RS's on there and then to sell the bike threw some stock carbs back on to sell the RS's. The stock carbs had not been jetted? You gotta open them up to see.

[posplayr]

BTW you are running extremely lean. You should not be getting over 14:1 at anytime during the pull and closer to 12.5-13.0 would be for best power.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=164565&highlight=AFR

That is probably why your headers are so rusted near the flanges. All the paint was burned off.

I would make sure your exhaust valves are in good shape.

[gsjordan]

Thanks again for the information and i was very alarmed at the afr chart. The plugs never looked real bad and ive never opened up the carbs other than to powdercoat the bowls and tops. I think i will be looking for a good used set of rs36's. I put alot of miles on the bike like this soo i will definately have ape look at them while doing the valve job. I will be setting up my wideband lc-1 on the bike to monitor the fresh engine.

[chef1366]

That is a very cool find!!
Fantastic!
I hope you didn't damage any valves and seats with that lean condition. Jay from APE will hook you up.

[sedelen]

You've done quite a job already to that bike, I can only imagine just how great a bike it will be when your done.

[gsjordan]

You've done quite a job already to that bike, I can only imagine just how great a bike it will be when your done.

Thank you very much. I will be powdercoating all of the engine covers while the motor is apart. I have done a sportbike suspension swap on one of my kaws but i would like to keep this suzuki period correct soo i wont be doing any major exterior modifications. After looking at a few posts on the forum im convinced that i will have ape install oversized intake valves while they are doing the valve job.

[rapidray]

Give me a call & if you get my voice mail, leave a message with your # & I'll call you back. Ray.