Head Condition

[Guest]

Here's a picture of the head. It looks like I've all types of mixes in the carbs.

#1 - Tan; #2 - Black; #3 - Blackish tan; #4 - Grayish



Here's one of the #2 Intake Valve. All the others look fairly similar.



Should I pull apart the valve and clean them too? I've already cleaned and rebuilt the carbs and have new O-rings for the boots. Thanks Cycleorings! for all the carb rings.

[tkent02]

If the compression is good and it doesn't smoke, no point opening a bigger can of worms.

[psyguy]

yes, if you are that far, why not take the valves out and clean the cylinder domes and the valves
especially if the valves could use a little lapping - which is likely the case
replace the valve seals and measure the springs

[rapidray]

If the head is already off & looks like that it would be a waste to not strip it, CLEAN the crap out of it, & replace valve seals MINIMUM! If it were mine, I would put bronze guides in it & do a radius valve job also. Ray.

[Matchless]

Sorry to hijack your thread here, but what type of bike is that and did you have a rectangualr o-ring under the gasket around the cam chain opening?

[Riding Again]

It's from a 1980 GS 850 GL. Yes, I did have the rectangular o-ring around the cam chain.

[Nessism]

Another vote for tearing it down. At minimum, replace the valve stem seals.

[Matchless]

It's from a 1980 GS 850 GL. Yes, I did have the rectangular o-ring around the cam chain.

Thanks, could you confirm if the rectangular gasket touched metal on both sides, head and cylinder side or does the gasket cover it?

You gasket seems to have the centre rectangular hole the same size as the cam chain hole in the picture and this is similar to a head gasket I have that is not supposed (?) to use the rectangular gasket. Older types had the gasket hole larger than the rubber gasket.
Thanks.

[Riding Again]

Here's a picture of the head gasket. I traced the o-ring path with red.



The gasket hole is larger than the o-ring. The o-ring is not covered by the gasket. The o-ring touches metal on both sides. This is a 1980 engine.

[Matchless]

Thanks for replying on that. I am looking for people who have used the gasket bthat does not require the 0-ring and the hole is the same size as the cam chain hole.
Thanks again.