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mooseheadm5 wrote:Good job. It was Whiskerfish's helpful invoice, though, not mine.

Thanks MH. Fixed it.

I think you just found out why I was taught to do both heads if you are going in. I've seen folks get away with one gasket on stuff all the way up to Diesels
but I'd get nailed myself.
If I ever catch up from traveling for several weeks I might just change yellow's head gaskets this winter to be sure.

another diagnosis method.

i work on cars but am getting into bikes

im not sure if it would work on bikes(unless you had an adapter), you can use a coolant pressure tester, add about 5lbs to it. disconnect spark or fuel so the engine will just crank. then see if the needle bounces at all. if it bounces, the cylinder pressure is making its way into the water jackets. it can narrow it down to blown head gaskets or cracked head.


Jonah

That will work if it is fairly bad Jonah. The killers are the one that only leak while hot, then seal up as they cool down.

good point

jonah_cfh wrote:another diagnosis method.

i work on cars but am getting into bikes

im not sure if it would work on bikes(unless you had an adapter), you can use a coolant pressure tester, add about 5lbs to it. disconnect spark or fuel so the engine will just crank. then see if the needle bounces at all. if it bounces, the cylinder pressure is making its way into the water jackets. it can narrow it down to blown head gaskets or cracked head.


Jonah

Another way I just learned is put the recovery hose in a separate clear container, warm up the engine while watching the end of the hose. Coolant will expand and enter the container normally.
Now when the engine is warm, goose the throttle. If a head gasket is leaking you'll get a blast of coolant out the hose, careful it's HOT.

sounds like the way to go if you dont have the tooling. nice



Jonah

That would be a good way to find those leaks that don't happen until full hot and high speed. Those sort of tend to do that for you as they suddenly dump the coolant out when you get on the freeway. Then they will go around town with no seeming issues. When they get bad enough they are easy to find.
I've had a couple that really annoyed me though.

I just had the same thing happen to my 77 1000. It seems the right head is always jinxed . Head gaskets , timing belts . I got the dennis kirk kit and was satisfied . The 2 day shipping was nice too . I am glad I discovered this room and went with the NAPA belts instead of DK .
I was debating if I should do the left gasket too , since it was not smoking .
Boy am I glad I did ! took off the left head to discover a pool of water , and a rusty spot on the cyl wall . And this was the 'good' head .
First thing I would do is to pull the plugs and crank it a few seconds .
Mine shot a 10 ft stream of water out the plug hole. squirt some oil in there and crank it over , do a compression test too ... ASAP !
As long as the heads are off , might as well do a valve lap . I just used a big C clamp and tack welded a piece of 1" water pipe that I cut a 1/2" wide slot on one side to remove the keepers with a magnet .
Try to describe a lapping stick to the auto store guys was a waste of time .
(my old one fell apart 20 yrs ago ) . But an older customer told me to paste up the valve , put it back in the head , and chuck a cordless drill to the shank , then spin it in . Hey ! I think that was a pretty neat trick .
Bob

441Victor wrote: But an older customer told me to paste up the valve , put it back in the head , and chuck a cordless drill to the shank , then spin it in . Hey ! I think that was a pretty neat trick .
Bob

That is how I do mine but be cautious as it can easily be over done. The valves and seats have a stellite (sp?) coating that once gone will allow them to get burnt and fail prematurely.

I chose to do mine by hand because I thought the objective is only to smooth the surface for an airtight seal, not to grind.
I know I'd go too far with a drill.

dan filipi wrote:I chose to do mine by hand because I thought the objective is only to smooth the surface for an airtight seal, not to grind.
I know I'd go too far with a drill.

I put the valve in. The put a piece of rubber fuel line that will fit snugly over the stem. Make it long enough that you can use both hands to spin it back and forth while at the same time applying pressure to the seat. You can't really get to carried away because if you pull up to hard the line will slip off. We have used this method for years on the race motors.

Hi Does it only smoke at start up or all the time as my GL 1100 smokes me out when i start it and when the motor is hot the smoke disapears?

jonny first of all welcome to the forums!

All Goldwings smoke a little on startup sometimes. The difference here is Roady had sweet smelling white smoke which indicates a coolant leak. Most Goldwings puff a little blue smoke without the sweet smell. That is oil entering the combustion chamber usually from old valve seals letting some oil leak past the valve stems and pool a drop or two. Check your oil and I doubt that you'll see much comsumption.

I have a 1983 GL 1100, I have a small water leak from the hole along the exhaust port. What is the fix for the leak?