Cylinder head scratches to the sealing faces

[Anonymous]

Hi,
My first time posting onto this site so hello to you all
Im in Cannock in the UK.

I bought a GS850GT (1980) UK spec a couple of weeks ago with a leaking cylinder head.

After stripping the cylinder head it appears that some in a previous strip down instead of using a bit of TLC to clean up the faces as engraved quite deep scratches into the faces of the cylinder head.

My question is does anyone have any tips that I can use that may help to seal these scratches rather then rely purely on the head gasket to make the seal.

Also

The bike appears to have US spec front shocks on it. Does anyone know if this is ok to put on a UK spec bike?

Thanks for your help

Mark

[Anonymous]

You could have the face of the head resurfaced. It only costs about 40$CDN where I'm at. Your only problem is that you don't know if it has been done before. I redid my cavalier's head and the car pinged for the rest of its life which tells me I was probably the second person to have it done.

Steve

[argonsagas]

Take Steve's advice and get it resurfaced. Since the head is already off, do it properly, once, instead of taking a chance on having to do it again.

Unless the scratch is deep you will likely lose only about .020 inch, which will only slightly increase your compression ratio.

If you should experience pinging afterwards (and there was none before) , you can switch from the usual 87 octane fuel up to 89, and that will take care of the pinging.

[Anonymous]

Thanks

Thanks for replys, looks like ill have to go get it skimmed.

[cbxchris]

It is good to have both the cylnder and head done at the same time. I would recommend it be ground and not flycut in a mill. If you do decide not to surface it go to a toyota dealer and get thier head gasket sealant....that stuff is magic. You wouldn`t believe what it will seal on a water pumper gsxr. Depending on how deep the imperfections are I have had heads and cylinders sufaced by grinding taking as little as 2 thousandths. Also make sure if you surface that your dowel pins are short enough. Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

It is good to have both the cylnder and head done at the same time. I would recommend it be ground and not flycut in a mill. If you do decide not to surface it go to a toyota dealer and get thier head gasket sealant....that stuff is magic. You wouldn`t believe what it will seal on a water pumper gsxr. Depending on how deep the imperfections are I have had heads and cylinders sufaced by grinding taking as little as 2 thousandths. Also make sure if you surface that your dowel pins are short enough. Good Luck!

If you're really stretched you can try a 50/50 mix of Gasket Goo(1) and SilverFrost(2) as a sealant. It's an old technique my father used for years as a diesel mechanic when shaving or similar wasn't an option. Apparently it worked best if allowed to cure for a few days.

(1) Brand name gasket paste that was widely available here in OZ from the likes of Repco. I guess it or an alternaive would still be available.

(2) SilverFrost (or SilverFros) was a bright silver metallic paint for metal surfaces. Again I haven't looked for years and don't know what is sold elsewhere.

regards

[mcycle-nut]

(2) SilverFrost (or SilverFros) was a bright silver metallic paint for metal surfaces. Again I haven't looked for years and don't know what is sold elsewhere.

regards

Sounds like Never Seize. It's an assembly compound we use when we put together boilers. Seems everbody makes their own stuff. We use a Loctite,(Loc*t*i*te) brand as well, but it is black.