GS850GL engine year identification

[mrbrndn]

Long time lurker, first time poster...

Is there a way to tell which year the engine that I have is from? The bike itself is a 1982 GS850G and decades ago, I replaced it with a GS850GL after catastrophic failure. I'm starting to restore the bike after years of neglect and I'm finding differences in parts from one year to the next. The engine is marked by the oil fill port as GS850-154403.

Thanks!

[Nessism]

The '82 has a different ignition system, compared to the earlier 850's. And at some point, not sure exactly when, Suzuki changed the head/valve cover bolt pattern. Most other aspects are the same. What "differences in parts" have you seen?

[mrbrndn]

So far, I've only looked at bolt kits to replace the pan head Philips bolts on the engine with Allen heads. The 1980-81 kits have more bolts than the 1982-83 kits. It was enough to give me pause and wonder if there's a way to find out which year engine I've got since I can't recall.

[Burque73]

So far, I've only looked at bolt kits to replace the pan head Philips bolts on the engine with Allen heads. The 1980-81 kits have more bolts than the 1982-83 kits. It was enough to give me pause and wonder if there's a way to find out which year engine I've got since I can't recall.

Some differences I've seen in the 850's I've had are:

(As mentioned) the additional bolt near the center of the head cover

Engine painted black

Slightly different oil filter covers

cam chain tensioner knob changed from metal to plastic

tachometer drive sleeve design went from two piece to one

I think a clutch cable holder was added to an intake boot on the head

And those JIS (Phillips looking) screw heads changed to hex head bolts

Unfortunately I didn't take note of when these changes happened. Of course you may find a model made late in the year that already had changes, or one made early in the year and the factory was still trying to use up the previous year's parts.

Post a few pics of what you have so we can all argue about....I mean help you figure out what you've got.