81 GS550 Leaking here and there.. engine is also dirty not sure where to start [pics]

[Guest]

plz delete

[cowboyup3371]

You pretty much have the information you need to start with - clean it up, spray some foot powder in the areas where it is leaking the heaviest and see where it's coming from. What maintenance have you done already (i.e. oil change, valve adjustment, etc?) If you haven't done your valve adjustment yet, than do that when you clean things up. You might find that most of your issue goes away since changing that gasket and rubber plugs plus properly torqueing the screws will fix most of your issues.

You can do most all of the work with the bike sitting on the center stand - no lift is necessary although it makes some jobs easier. Just remember to support the front end if you end up taking the front wheel off for any reason

[dorkburger]

You're on the right track. Clean it up then watch where the leaks come from. Just another note. A properly tuned GS should not need 3-4 minutes on choke at startup. As Cowboy noted, the valve clearance may need adjusted, along with various other items. Assume no maintenance was done, and check it item by item.

[Brendan W]

The degreaser can be brushed on and then let sit and flushed off with a hose. No real need for high pressure. With my optimistic hat on I would lean to cowboy and hope that the majority of the problem is the cam cover gasket. Get the tank off and see what's happening in around the join at the cam chain tunnel and above the spark plugs. A leak in there can find it's way out over the exhaust ports and down the front of the block.

[GSXR7ED]

Oh, the ol "where is this leak coming from" conundrum. Thanks for the pics...enjoy cleaning your bike.


Ed

[850 Combat]

I usually remove the engine and crate it up for shipment to the factory in Hamamatsu just before I find an oil leak so that the factory can fix it prior to it causing a mess..

Actually, the most common leaks for me have been the valve cover, the tach drive, and the head gasket. Tour "spray" may be the breather from the valve cover which was originally routed to the airbox, which you no longer have. Under the breather, there are some pieces of a foam like material that is supposed to collect the oil mist from the breather and let it drip back into the engine.

Sometimes those pieces are missing. Sometimes the drain plug leaks. Sometimes the cylinder base gasket leaks.

Heat cycles from running and cooling the engine wear out the gaskets over time.

Hopefully, yours aren't the cylinder head and cylinder base gasket. Those are a lot of work to repair.

You will need some soft bristle brushes and rags as well as the engine cleaner.You should be able to control the foam sufficiently to keep it off of the air filters. You will need to remove the tank to inspect the breather.

[SunsetTwist]

Nice looking 550! I got an 81 550 myself about three months back.

+1 on the valve adjustment and gasket change. I had a decent leak coming off of my deteriorated gasket on the valve cover as well as the cam tensioner gasket (that i still need to get to). Bright side is these little bikes are a lot of fun and are pretty easy to access and work on.

Hope the other leak isn't the head gasket (kinda looks like it could be but hopefully the baby powder reveals a smaller problem) but in the event that it is just take it one step at a time and take lots of photos and video along the way.

Btw are those the stock Mikuni BS32 carbs on there with pods?!?! I'm kinda tempted to run pods at some point to clean up that airbox taking up so much space but didn't want to step into all the tuning that comes with pods on CV carbs just yet. Just curious if the bike came with the pods or if you changed them up and what kind of a difference they made.

Anyhow hope you get it running right and make a trip up to SF someday!

[LordWasr]

Hi Cowboy thanks for tips. The only maintenace done was an oil change, & carb rebuild. I had the bike at a garage mechanics place and he said he checked the clearances for the valves and said they were okay but then again he really mickey moused the bike lol. I had to take her somewhere else after leaving it with him for 3months. My bike doesnt have a center stand lol but I have a rear bike stand and can get a front one if needed. Is there a good spot where I can read up on the the 81 GS550 maintenance schedules and how to change the gasket? I asked a buddy of mine and he said it might be the cylinder base gasket. He said that one's a pain to do and takes time.

[LordWasr]

Dorkburger , I timed my cold start yesterday in the morning and it was 1minute 4seconds lols . I will for sure go down the list and see what needs to be done but not sure where to start lol. My first first thing is to do the oil change myself then from there slowly figure her out.

[LordWasr]

Hi Brendan, thanks for the tip on the degreaser.

[LordWasr]

Hi 850 Combat, thanks for the list of things to check . I'll definitely search that up on the forum and see if I can find a tutorial. My buddy said it might be the cylinder base gasket haha .

[LordWasr]

Hey SunsetTwist, I had a mechanic put the Uni Pods on there with the Stage 3 Dynojet Kit and she runs great ! I bought the bike in pretty bad shape, it wouldnt even go over 25 MPH when I tried to ride it lol. It would just bog down and not rev above 2k so I couldnt tell you how big of a difference. So far, I'm loving the GS550 with the Kit / Pods though.

[cowboyup3371]

Go to Basscliff's site - http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff and get everything you need to include the service manual. If the page doesn't open correctly for you and you are using IE11, be sure to add it to your compatibility view settings. Please don't try to take your bike to any mechanic other than yourself as they won't truly do the work for you. Most are younger than your bike and don't understand how to do things without using a computer to tell them or are too afraid to get heavily involved with it due to possible problems.

Here's the link specifically to the valve adjustment. The article is written for an 850 but the process is the same for all of the 8V bikes like yours.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/images/gs850valve_adjust.pdf