Re-building a GS1000 motor.

[Suzuki Mad]

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.



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.

.

That's the issue I have. Once you start to play with removing valves and digging deeper into an engine the more expense you fork out.

So lets play here for a minute.

Parts:-

Base gasket £17.10
'O' rings £17 (£4.15 ea)
Head gasket £103 oem
Cam Chain seal £29 oem
Rocker gasket £35 oem
Half moons £32 oem (£6.72 ea)
Valve seals £54 oem (£7 ea)
Exhaust seals £21 oem (5.29 ea)

Machine work.

Head skimmed £35 approx.
Valves reseated £3 per seat
Valves machine £3 per valve

Rebuild:-

Re shimming Nobody does shims at garages anymore for these old girls..... (Hunt the local bike bits shop for shims....)

Total outlay (less my time) at UK cost prices.... £391 without oil and filter plus anything else that may or may not go wrong with the job.

It's all very well saying to this and do that but it's why a lot of these old girls just aren't on the road as people say 'its too expensive to repair it.' This old girl will be kept and saved for my life time. Its also why she hasnt been done to date as the OEM parts cost is so high.

[Steve]

"Buy once, cry once."

Yes, parts are not cheap, no doubt about that. However, with the very high likelihood of damaging the base gasket in the act of removing the head, how many times can you afford to buy a new head gasket? Looks like you will be spending another 103 Pounds because you tried to save 17 Pounds. And you will have to spend the 17 anyway.

.

[fastbysuzuki]

If the head gasket is multi layered steel ( suspect it is) then you do not need a cam tunnel oring
viton valve stem seals ( better than Oem) https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F362257426435

[Suzuki Mad]

It's a 1980 head gasket thats in it so I have no idea.

I like having all the parts here before works starts and I also like covering all the bases so that I have plans for everything before starting any work.

Thanks for the stem seals suggestions.

[fastbysuzuki]

It's a 1980 head gasket thats in it so I have no idea.

A multi layered steel one has 3 separate stainless steel layers so it is easy to spot against the old composite type if you have the latter then you would use the cam tunnel oring.
i have used the viton valve seals with no issues.
cam tunnel oring https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F400958655565
Good luck with whatever you chose to do.

[Suzuki Mad]

I would always go with OEM that aftermarket but thats me.

Somebody suggested a OEM MLS head gasket, I've no idea what one is and haven't found one either.

Also I've not heard of these 'Viton' valve seals you talk about.

Vesrah were about the only make of head gasket I knew. So looks like I will be going OEM parts. I might well shop at CSMNL https://www.cmsnl.com/ as the Euro prices work out a little cheaper than in the UK.

So parts....
11141-490002 (1), 11241-49000 (1), 09289-07002 (8), 09280-74002 (4), 09280-21007(2), 14181-11010 (4)

Alpha sport USA $273 without shipping (£198.11)
CSMNL NL Euro 228.61 with post (£201.59)
Fowlers Suzuki UK £221.23 without post (£221.23)

Its only £20 I know but trying to save money here to get her done and running again.

Anybody else know where I can get parts cheaper for same quality doing this job?

[Fjbj40]

Cometic makes head gaskets and most others for the 1000. Personally I only use Suzuki for the lower barrel gasket though. The Cometic head gasket on my 1085 is holding up just fine under hard abuse. It's the same gasket Wiseco sells with their big bore kits.