Re-building a GS1000 motor.

[Suzuki Mad]

Its been a few years since I had a 'small' oil leak from the cam chain tunnel on the GS and put her off the road. (2011) With work, family, life, lack of funds she has been lurking in the back of the garage while I used another bike to ride around on.

Well, its finally happening. I'm going to pull the lump apart and replace the head gasket.....

....for the life of me I cant remember if I should have the head skimmed or if it can just go straight back on with a new gasket/gaskets in place.

Anybody advise who has recently rebuilt one.

Engines done 46,000 miles from new, doesnt smoke, pulls well, just leaks oil everywhere.

Cheers
Suzuki Mad.

[gsrick]

Its been a few years since I had a 'small' oil leak from the cam chain tunnel on the GS and put her off the road. (2011) With work, family, life, lack of funds she has been lurking in the back of the garage while I used another bike to ride around on.

Well, its finally happening. I'm going to pull the lump apart and replace the head gasket.....

....for the life of me I cant remember if I should have the head skimmed or if it can just go straight back on with a new gasket/gaskets in place.

Anybody advise who has recently rebuilt one.

Engines done 46,000 miles from new, doesnt smoke, pulls well, just leaks oil everywhere.

Cheers
Suzuki Mad.

Unless you think your head is warped or you want to increase the compression, you should be good just making sure the surfaces are nice and clean.

[Suzuki Mad]

Unless you think your head is warped or you want to increase the compression, you should be good just making sure the surfaces are nice and clean.

Cheers Rick.

[Steve]

I am in the process of replacing gaskets on my son's 1000G. After taking the head of, I found the gasket was pretty much embedded in the aluminum. Knowing that I lack the proper equipment to safely remove that much gasket build-up, so I took it to a machine shop, along with the cylinder block. The block only had 0.0015" taken off to make it look good, the head took a bit more. The first pass was at 0.003", but there were still several low spots, so he took off another 0.002" for a total of 0.005". The end result was this:



In the process now of cleaning up the rest of the engine so we can start putting it all back together.

.

[Suzuki Mad]

Nice looking finish on that.

I dont know if its warped, just re planning to see if I need a 'machine shop' to skim it before pulling the top off. Will only find out when I put a straight edge on it once its off.

[Suzuki Mad]

Just have to sort out a head gasket and a couple of exhaust gaskets and all the bits are here.

[jsandidge]

I just did my 850. I had a light skim done also. Are you replacing the base gasket as well? It will likely get distirbed when you pull the head, so it's highly recommended.

[sharpy]

Just have to sort out a head gasket and a couple of exhaust gaskets and all the bits are here.

That after u brought the base gasket, o-rings, piston rings and honed the barrel?

[Nessism]

Agree on replacing the base gasket. And the valve stem seals. Better do everything while the top end is apart or you may have to do it twice.

[fastbysuzuki]

Yes second all that, I did my 850 a year or so ago I had the head and barrels skimmed head was only .002 out from outer side to cam chain tunnel was same on both sides but I was going to use Oem gaskets and for the 850 it is now a muti layered steel gasket and really should have a fine finish on head and barrels (some agree and some not) but at £100 in uk for the head gasket I was not going to take the risk.
Another thing is if you do use an Oem MLS head gasket you do not need to use the cam chain tunnel oring

[Suzuki Mad]

I wasnt planning on lifting the barrels at all. Just popping the head off, a clean up of the face and whacking the head down with a new gasket in place. Job done.

She didnt smoke, use oil, compression was good so I see no need to start tinkering. Swapping valve seals, pulling the valves out will mean a re-shim and I dont have shims here.
If the barrels come off then I'd be going for new rings and thats £500 in UK money for a full OEM set and that kills the project.

[fastbysuzuki]

Good luck, if the rings are ok I don't see a reason why you cannot use them again if you don't want to do anything else I would renew the base gasket but it's your choice "pays yer money and take your chance"
IMD sells a set of rings for about £100 http://stores.ebay.co.uk/IMD-Pistons...sid=1028788763

i have a set of theirs in my 850 no problems.

[Cipher]

if you machine the head wont you need to re shim regardless?

[Steve]

I wasnt planning on lifting the barrels at all. Just popping the head off, a clean up of the face and whacking the head down with a new gasket in place. Job done.

Good luck with that.

Many have tried, FEW have actually succeeded. It's particularly irritating to get 100 miles or so down the road and find that the base gasket is leaking, and realize that you now have the opportunity to do it over.

I was part of a team interviewing a candidate for a job opening we have. When asked about his work practices, he replied that he grew up knowing that there are two ways to do the job: right and over.

if you machine the head wont you need to re shim regardless?

No. Machining the head will move the head closer to the pistons and retard valve timing ever so slightly, but will not affect valve clearances at all, unless your machining of the head also included cutting new valve seats.

.

[Sandy]

When I did mine I took the cylinders, new rings, disassembled head and valves (which were marked as to location) to a local engine builder to do his magic. He hot tanked the cylinders and head which removed all the old gasket residue, honed the cylinders, checked everything for being true and it was, checked and adjusted the ring gap as required and did a little touching up of the valve seats for about $100.00 if I remember correctly. Money well spent.