GS1000 1978 Cylinder Head removal

[Guest]

Any advice will be appreciated Gents!

My mechanic tells me my cylinder head needs to come off as an internal thread has been stripped , that down on one of the camshaft covers/guides (see photo). I have a few questions...

1) My mechanic tells me to get the head off, the cylinder block also need to come off, is this correct?
2) Whist cylinder head is off (and maybe block), is there anything I should also check/replace?
3) Bike previously suffered noisy tapy cams/shims.. anything I can do to fix this now head is off?
4) Please see photo, is there a special torque setting for the screws, that hold down the covers/guides?

Any advise will be greatly appreciated.... Thank you!

gs head.jpg

[uk gs nut]

Hi, Petehero, and welcome. Those cam cap bolts are a common problem, due to being over tightened. I just repaired a stripped one on my gs750 recently, without removing cylinder head. I used a helocoil kit. I removed the cam and refitted the cap with stripped bolt left out, the drill in the restored kit fits thru the cap without removing materiel from cap. Drip down slowly to remove damaged treads. Pack rags or paper towels to stop any swarf going into engine. Now remove cap and tap the hole with tap from kit and clean up any swarf in and around hole. Use a hoover or compressed air. Fit the helicoil and job done, time the cams and set the cam chain tensioner. You may find it difficult to get a drill in but you could hire an angle drill or a 90 degree adaptor. Hope this info helps.

[azr]

1) yes, when taking the head off the cylinder gets disturbed meaning you need to replace the cylinder base gasket as well, meaning you need to take the cylinder off.

2) while the top end is off you should check the cylinder and make sure it's in spec and good condition, hone the cylinder and put in new OEM rings. While the head is off you should check the 'valve wobble' and put in new valve seals.

3) noisy/tappy cams could have easily been that the shims just needed to be adjusted. Too late now.....

4)yes there is a special torque setting and a special way of taking the bolts our and putting them in, hopefully your mechanic knew this.

#5 , the most important item) are you sure your mechanic knows what he is doing? you can read thread after thread after thread on this site about 'mechanics' buggering up someones bike and then charging them thru the nose for it. There's not a lot of mechanics around that know how to work on these old bikes any more and even fewer reliable ones. If your mechanic is any good he should know everything that could possibly need doing, measuring etc.... Also, this is a fairly costly job, expect a large bill. And don't buy anything but OEM parts for this job, there are lots of aftermarket companies selling gaskets but they have been tried and were found wanting.