VTR1000.ORG

cybercarl wrote:No need for complete engine only a front cylinder head you know is good. It's very easy to do a quick swap then, and only costs some time, new head gasket and coolant. It's a mornings work with Tea and fag breaks included. Lets hope you front exhaust header pipe flange is easy to remove and the nuts are not rusted and seized in place as this is where it can get expensive if things go drastically wrong. Nut splitter and heat are you friend here. The biggest problem is finding a good used front cylinder head which then only leaves removing the old head, replacing valves etc which in the end can work out more expensive and time consuming, especially if you need to purchase a valve spring compressor, but at least you know its all good then. As you will be removing the exhaust you may want to consider new exhaust gaskets and get a tube of hi temp silicone sealant too. While you at it fit some MCCT's or do the Stopper mod and also front vacuum take off for carb balancing. Oh yeh make sure that you can easily remove the centre generator cover cap at the crank as this will need replacing too if you end up having to take a centre punch and hammer to it.

Ok sounds straight forward enough, I already have valve spring compressors so that is all ok along with valve grinding paste etc if required. Is there any guides on here from when somebody else has done this?

Thanks for your help,

Please excuse the rants against Ade Whitmarsh, he probably means well but comes across as a greedy parasite.

I used to be a greedy parasite but I've now run out of spare front heads and exhaust valves...

So, you'll need to take the front head off.

Use a nut splitter on the front exhaust studs, because M7 nuts are cheap and the studs break easily.
But don't worry if you break a stud- they're easy to drill out when the head is off the engine.

Remove fairing and tank, airbox and carbs, then the heat shield under the carb. (occasionally it's missing- no biggie, but I have spares if you don't have one).
Drain coolant, (lower hose is easiest) and remove the LH side rad. You can leave the RH one in place, or remove both if you prefer.

If it's the front one, undo the oil cooler bracket from the frame (the bracket needs to be left on the cooler) and lower the cooler onto the front mudguard, place a rag to stop it scratching the paint.

Remove the CCT after you have put the engine into the correct position- as Carl said, the larger of the two inspection covers in the alternator cover (LH side) can be difficult.
If you muller it, don't panic, I have plenty of spares. New ones aren't expensive.

Now you can remove the cam cover.
This allows you to rotate the engine to the correct front tdc- the one where the cams point upwards a bit and away from each other.

Now remove the cct, and undo the head- two 10mm bolts recessed in the cam chain tunnel, and six big bolts holding it down.

Head comes off.

You will have bent the two exhaust valves, and sometimes the two inlets as well.
Remove the valves, and inspect the valve guides- they normally survive, but if they're damaged or cracked they have to be replaced.

Obtain new valves, or strip some from a (cheaper) rear head that you will find easier than a front head....

Fit and lap in the new or 2nd hand valves, rebuild head.

Refit head with a new head gasket, refit cams, fit CCT (manual or stopper, you choose) and refit cam cover, rads, refill with coolant.
Change engine oil and filter- coolant falls into the engine, so this is necessary....

Put all back together, start engine, ride.
It's a day's work if you work methodically, two if you aren't used to pulling engines apart.

However:
Changing the engine means removing the engine to frame bolts. Quite often the main one in the centre seizes. After all, they will have been in place and exposed to water, salt and heat for more than ten years....
This can mean cutting the old engine out, and to further complicate things the rear swingarm pivot on these is on the back of the engine, and so you can't remove the engine and leave a rolling chassis.

Much easier to fix yours, unless it's been using lots of oil or there are other problems.
Have fun!

r53bertyboo wrote:Thanks guys for the warm welcome,

Originally I class myself as a Wiganer, but now I live in Herefordshire amongst the cider apples

That sounds good

A very nice looking bike you have there



Chris.

Ok so i have take the head off the front cylinder. Unfortunately I could get the timing marks too line up because upon removing the cam cover the chain had jumped and wasn't turning the cams when turning the crank. So as I knew that valves were bent and that the suspected cause was the CCT, I remove the CCT and remove the cams from the head first before continuing to remove the remaining parts so the head would come off.

Luckily everything came apart very with not to much drama, and below you will see the results.



Both inlet valves are bent, I checked the exhaust valves and they are both fine. But unfortunately:



Both inlet valve guides are cracked.

So unless anybody knows where I can get the valve guides sorted, I'll be looking for a replacement front cylinder head.

The piston had a couple of small marks, but nothing to worry about.



Could have been a lot worse ;)

So list of parts:

Cylinder Head
Gaskets
Sealer
Manual CCT x 2
Coolant
Oil & Filter
Exhaust Gasket

lovely looking bike by the way and good to see another storm being saved from the breakers yard..

fabiostar wrote:lovely looking bike by the way and good to see another storm being saved from the breakers yard..

Thanks, it's definitely worth it ;)

So far I've only found 1 2nd hand front cylinder head, but it seemed expensive so I didn't bother with that. A local bike engine builder has too much work on so can't help me at the moment and David Silver's want close to £200 for parts to repair my head if I can find somebody who can replace the guides for me.

r53bertyboo wrote:So far I've only found 1 2nd hand front cylinder head, but it seemed expensive so I didn't bother with that. A local bike engine builder has too much work on so can't help me at the moment and David Silver's want close to £200 for parts to repair my head if I can find somebody who can replace the guides for me.

Strip them from this? - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HONDA-VTR1000 ... SwYlJW6Zal

Mav617 wrote:

r53bertyboo wrote:So far I've only found 1 2nd hand front cylinder head, but it seemed expensive so I didn't bother with that. A local bike engine builder has too much work on so can't help me at the moment and David Silver's want close to £200 for parts to repair my head if I can find somebody who can replace the guides for me.

Strip them from this? - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HONDA-VTR1000 ... SwYlJW6Zal

Thanks if I could do them myself I would just buy the guides from David Silver's and fit them along with new valves. But I have never replaced guides before, so would be a little nervous and wouldn't want to ruin the head.

You need a suitable drift and a lot of heat, so if you haven't done this before any engine builder will do the job.
Where are you?
I can recommend a few local to Sarf Lund'n or Norf Kent.

Cheers Bert and welcome!

Ok I've managed to get myself sorted with a replacement. Just gotta wait for it to arrive along with gaskets etc.

Now who is the best for manual CCT's?

Krieger, APE, Bazza and Ade Whitmarsh's CCT's > http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 31&t=22720

adewhitmarsh wrote:Hi, welcome to the form.if you need any help with manual ccts,just give me a shout.cheers Ade.

I can't pm you Ade, so can you tell me what you charge for your MCCTs posted please?

Thanks,

Well I have ordered the replacement gaskets and seals etc that I need to complete the job, but whilst I am awaiting for them to arrive I've been reading more about the CCT failures and what people have done over the years regarding Manual CCT's, stopper mod etc.

I disassembled the tensioner that came of my bike to have a look, and found that it had gone all the way back in as mentioned in various posts. And that the spring is either missing part of itself or it has just become weak because there is a spring there and it is in one piece however is very corroded and has no tension to it at all. So after having a look at the parts and cleaning them up etc, I wondered if I could do something with the standard ones as some people had mentioned putting a bolt up the end of it etc.

So can somebody correct if me my thought train is incorrect please? What I think I could do is this:

Reuse the original tensioner as it is with the 8mm bolt removed from the end, using a small flat blade screw driver wind the screw so that I set the tension of the cam chain as it should be, then using a long bolt with some nuts and spring washer; wind the bolt in until it stops against the screw and then lock it using the nut against the out CCT case and again lock that using the spring washer and another nut as per pictures below. Would this work? To me I see this basically doing the same job as the manual CCT's but allows me to re-use what I have to do the same job with some bolts and nuts that I already have in the shed.

I hope this makes sense, if I am wrong then I will just have to wait for one of the guys on here who offer the manual CCT's to pm me so that I can order some.

Thanks in advance