Head gasket time

[Suzuki mad]

Well its time for the GS1000E to under go major surgery and have her head gasket done as its leaking badly now just at the start to the summer here in the UK.

I've priced up parts from my local UK dealer and online in the states and there's about £6 difference in prices.

I'm hoping to get away without pulling the barrels off and replacing the rings at £66 piston so how do I get the head off a 29 year old bike without disturbing the barrels and base gasket.

[Skateguy50]

I asked the same thing last summer and was given the advice to just admit defeate before I even tried that path and go down to the base gasket and work back up from that. It was not as bad as I thought and I just kept the repair book close and took my time.

If you try to get away without doing the base and that leaks you have to repeate everything you just did and do the base anyways.

Plan ahead get both the gaskets read as much as you can and set a weekend of not riding aside for it. Took me a full day but did not break into that job expecting to be riding on Sunday.

Oh and sounds like you are worried about replacing the rings... hope I wasnt supposed to do that lol. I checked it all out but only thing I replaced was the gaskets and made a wooden tool to help line the pistons up getting the bottom on. Took some work to get the rings lined up right and compress as they set. I have about 3k miles on the bike since I did that and no issues so far.

[Suzuki mad]

I'm only worried at the cost of rings. £65 a piston ($97) so thats £260 ($388) just for them. Makes changing a head gasket about £500 ($748) a lot of money.

[tkent02]

Don't replace them unless they are worn out, or very high mileage. How is the compression now? Does it smoke or burn a lot of oil? Some folks like to re hone the cylinder, reuse the old rings if they are within limits, and break the engine in again, others just slap it all back together and go.

Either way seems to work.

If I happened to get the head off without breaking the seal on the base gasket, I'd leave it all alone, as long as it's not leaking already. Taking it apart increases the odds of a leak, even with a new gasket. If the cylinder moves even a little bit when you remove the head, or of it has been ooozing a little bit, do it all.

[Agemax]

dont compromise, if you pull the head then good chance you may break the seal on the base gasket.
its not worth the time and grief to have to strip the top end again if it leaks. buy a top end gasket set and do it properly, first time.
you may not need new rings, just a good clean up and maybe a hone on the bores but if they do need replacing then do it.
£65 per piston for just the rings is not right, you must be able to get them cheaper than that. shop around in the uk mate, a big bore with forged pistons is not much more than that

[Nessism]

It's not worth the risk, just do the base gasket and O-rings while you are there. Regarding the rings, those prices are crazy. I'll bet Z1 Enterprises can get them for you and post them for way less than that.

[SqDancerLynn1]

No one can say for certain you will have to replace the rings as there are a lot of variables. How many miles on the motor ?? Does it use oil ?

[Skateguy50]

Yea, for me I just did gaskets but the engine had 25k on it and the leak started when I didnt torque the head bolts down after pulling the valve cover off for the first time I think ever around 22k miles. Needless to say that was long overdue for adjusting the shims.

Anyways Im not the best for giving advice but I took the word of others here and did all the gaskets from the base up and it all worked out well for me.

[hampshirehog]

If the head hasn't been off for years it'll be stuck - sure as eggs is eggs. It'll need a fair bit of (careful) yanking and you'll almost certainly disturb the base gasket. It'll certainly need checking very carefully. If you have disturbed it your next challenge is to pull the cylinders - if your bike has seen a few winters, even before you got it, it could be one monumental stuggle; road crud and salt welds them down.

That ring price is about right for the UK (yes - it's right, this is rip off UK).

43 Euros here: http://www.cmsnl.com/suzuki-gs1000-1...st/FIG-08.html

Which is getting closer - was ok(ish) when the £ was worth more than Toy Town paper. I always have a low punt at rings on Ebay when they come up and got a set of 4 for £20 last year as I never know when I'm going to use them. They don't come up often though so don't wait.

Alternatively Fiat use the same (identical in every respect) rings in one of their cars (old Punto or Uno? - whatever car they make that has a 70mm bore). Your local Fiat dealer might be able to advise. I bet they're much cheaper.

Like the others said though, check the rings and bores as per the manual and if they're well in spec you won't need them.

[1_v8_merc]

It looks like I have an upper head leak too......im not sure, because im replacing the valve gaskets right now, which were leaking all over the place, and it's possible that they leaked around the head gasket area, just giving the appearance of leaking head gaskets.....

Im just going to do a complete engine rebuild if I need new head gaskets.
I'd rather just do EVERYTHING at once, knowing for sure it's fixed, because if I ever blow a Piston Ring, or have a problem, then I gotta do it all over again!

-----

Did you ever consider getting a new engine?

It could be easier to just drop in another engine, while you slowly fix the one you had in before.....that way you can take your time, and slowly buy the parts, instead of taking a $500 hit to the bank account all at once!

Im not sure if it would be easier to just drop in a new engine.....but I've heard of people on here doing that before.....Sometimes it's cheaper to just score a new engine from a junkyard or donor bike, rather than fix the current engine,lol.

[Footy.]

Well its time for the GS1000E to under go major surgery and have her head gasket done as its leaking badly now just at the start to the summer here in the UK.

I've priced up parts from my local UK dealer and online in the states and there's about £6 difference in prices.

I'm hoping to get away without pulling the barrels off and replacing the rings at £66 piston so how do I get the head off a 29 year old bike without disturbing the barrels and base gasket.

I should point out that i ordered parts from a US dealer, and got stung by customs and excise here in the UK. I got a letter from them saying they were holding a package for me, and i owed them £70 import tax and VAT before it would be released. It's based on a percentage of the total value, i forget what this was.

Something to consider when comparing prices on the net.

Footy.

[Suzuki_Don]

Remove the head first and see what happens. As said before some of the cylinders seem like they are cemented onto the crankcase and very difficult to remove. If this is the case and the cylinders are not disturbed from the crankcase I would just change the head gasket and put it back together.

[Matchless]

Rings on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FOUR-...Q5fAccessories

Also a Fiat Uno uses the exact same rings and mucho cheaper! The sizes are in the manual and your favourite engine parts supplier should be able to help you if you give him the sizes.
Edit: I see Hamp already mentioned the Fiat rings!

[gggGary]

Having recently torn down an 1100 top end I recommend you pressure wash the engine before you start the tear down. Pay special attention to the front inner cylinder studs there can be a lot of crp in there that will want to fall inside the engine. Wish someone had told ME that! Good luck.

[noel]

Gs1000 head rebuild

If the head hasn't been off for years it'll be stuck - sure as eggs is eggs. It'll need a fair bit of (careful) yanking and you'll almost certainly disturb the base gasket. It'll certainly need checking very carefully. If you have disturbed it your next challenge is to pull the cylinders - if your bike has seen a few winters, even before you got it, it could be one monumental stuggle; road crud and salt welds them down.

That ring price is about right for the UK (yes - it's right, this is rip off UK).

43 Euros here: http://www.cmsnl.com/suzuki-gs1000-1...st/FIG-08.html

Which is getting closer - was ok(ish) when the £ was worth more than Toy Town paper. I always have a low punt at rings on Ebay when they come up and got a set of 4 for £20 last year as I never know when I'm going to use them. They don't come up often though so don't wait.

Alternatively Fiat use the same (identical in every respect) rings in one of their cars (old Punto or Uno? - whatever car they make that has a 70mm bore). Your local Fiat dealer might be able to advise. I bet they're much cheaper.

Like the others said though, check the rings and bores as per the manual and if they're well in spec you won't need them.

H I live in Coventry and had a bbb of a job separating the head and barrel I used a splitter tool from side to side it has two blades that expand as the screw is turned. I had wellseal on the barrel to crankcase joint it took hours to clean off.
I am skimming the head to get a clean fix, do you know how much I can take off? it looks somewhere near so should be a light job.
Good luck Noel