Need piston rings for 1982 gs 400 e (gsx-400)

[John Park]

Curiosity got the better of me, so I set upon a 'resting' donor motor to see if it has cracks. It's got about 35k miles on it and hasn't had fastidious ownership by the look of it. I got it along with a seat and side panels I wanted; $100 whether I took the whole bike or not.

If you look at the heel of the exhaust cam you can see that it has been run with zero clearance at some point. The motor is in reasonable shape generally, but the head is cracked between the spark plug and the seat. Four cracks, one going halfway up the spark plug hole. Obviously it was still running anyway, but eventually…..

I have some thoughts on how to repair these, but will need to consult my aluminum welding guru and see what he says.

This being a piston ring thread, I'll leave it at that.

[GregT]

I've seen the repair done. All valve seats out, grind out the plug hole and cracked area. Weld it all up. Remachine for seats - and a 10mm plug rather than the larger oe size...Refit seats, recut seats...Swallow hard when given the bill...
The guy who did it here is a very good engineer but admitted afterwards it wasn't economic for his customer.

I see there were heads listed on that dealers list posted earlier...