GS450 to 500 swap questions

[Rijko]

I also bought a Kawi Concours 1000 with fuel leak issue for a trip hopefully in the late spring, that i will sell afterwards.

Are you familiar with the Concours ?
The fuel leak issue you mentioned rings alarm bells !
The carbs on this bike do not have an overflow pipe, often causing hydrolock when fuel leaks, which can cause serious damage.

Steve Sefsick from Florida modified them for customers, adding overflow tubes, hope yours has them.
If your carbs have overflow tubes he probably did them, they will be rejetted and your airbox will likely have a piece of foam in one of the intake holes.

I have one, great bike, but they can have some issues that may spoil your trip if not addressed/checked.
Well known issues are with the Junction box (causing electrical issues), water pump leaking oil, final drive leaking, clutch star spring breaking, and carbs causing hydrolock.
Most of them easily solved.

If you are not familiar with those issues, i can help with info.

Highly recommend Concours guru Steve Sefsick's Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@steves3261/videos
And the COG forum https://forum.concours.org/index.php...t-and-tech.80/

Hope you bought yours from a COG member that performed the necessary repairs/maintenance and the bike did not hydrolock.
I will add an electronic fuel shut off valve to mine to help prevent this (my carbs do not have the overflow tubes modification)

[grcamna2]

Sorry for the late response... a lot has gone on in my life, but not a lot with the bike.

slowly, lol. I have the motor apart, the head has been machined flat with NOS valves and a 3 angle job. I have put the 500 jug and pistons on, i left th old base gasket on for thickness to be right. i have the plasticine, and i have the valves shimmed, (if i recall i need to remeasure, as i think one is borderline, and the feeler gauge kit i had at tthe time was less complete.) I have all the gaskets and hardware to put it together. the weather has not been friendly, and i have a bit of extra stuff in my shop at the moment. i had to get my GoldWing road worthy as i took a trip on it back in Oct. I also bought a Kawi Concours 1000 with fuel leak issue for a trip hopefully in the late spring, that i will sell afterwards. anyway i am now splitting time i have between the GS450 and the 79 GS1000
i am front end swapping. I came back to this thread to refresh my memory on the GS450, as i hope to put some time into it this coming weekend. Doing the plasticine test should not take more than a couple hours, if i can get a bit of a hand from someone to help me keeep things from moving aroudn too much.

You're getting it done;one thing at a time.

[GRich]

Anyone know if there is a way to add an oil cooler to the gs450 engine? Just a though I had while it is apart, and I live in the south, it gets hot here for a large part of the year.

The late GS500 (the F models) have an oil cooler from the factory.

There are some other differences between the 450 and 500 engines. The exhaust ports are the obvious ones, but the shifter is different too. There is no transmission gear indicator wiring on the 500....... I think the carb mounting boots are different? I can't remember that last one.