Head gasket replacement time?

[Dave8338]

Breathing life back into an old neglected bike, starts with a valve set and carbs.

Just saying...

[1_v8_merc]

Valve cover = piece of cake

You take off the gas tank.
Take off breather hose on Top of the valve cover.
Then disconnect the Tach cable up front.
Then start yankin bolts out!

Oh yeah, pop off the spark boots, and tie em up out of the way too!
(pretty obvious)

Make sure you buy the valve gasket AND breather gasket.
The breather gasket might "look" fine, but once you unbolt it...usually the gasket is mooshed up!
(just take a look to be sure)

[Dogma]

Konnick, you asked how long it should take. I can have the cam cover off of my '80 850L in 10-15 minutes, back on in maybe 30-40. It's going to take you a while longer, since you'll probably have to spend an hour or two getting the old gasket off.

To save you some frustration, I'll tell you you'll need to go ahead and take off the horns and crankcase breather cover before the cam cover can be raised high enough to cover the engine internals. That's a unique headache for the GL models.

Please do get some feeler gages and check the valves. It won't add much time to the job for the first time having the cover off.

Oh, and get a cheap torque wrench from Harbor Freight and use it until you get used to proper torque of the screws in the aluminum. This will be a critical tool in your project. You'll use an impact driver more, but that's for the other engine covers and carbs.

[mike_of_bbg]

Don't forget to lightly grease or WD-40 one or both sides of the gasket (unless you got a Real Gasket) so it might come off clean the next time...

[Konnick]

Wow. That's alot of info. Thanks a ton guys. I'm getting everything I need ready for Saturday morning.


I'll be back with more annoying questions later!