Broken cylinder head - an update

[SP-Dee]

Thanks for everyone's advice in my previous topic about the valve cover for my bike. Like I posted there, it was the cylinder head that was damaged.

I've decided to take this as an opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of my bike and with the help of a mechanic friend we are replacing the entire cylinder head. we trailered the bike to his garage and I was over there yesterday and we took off everything to get to the cylinder head. i have to say, it was learning experience and it certainly wasn't easy. There was some gentle "tapping" with a rubber mallet. Really, how gentle can one be with a mallet?? Fortunately he's got all the tools needed, in fact even I envy his garage and tool selection.

We also pulled the entire exhaust off and the oil pan. There was quite a bit of metal bits in the bottom of the pan. I need to pick up a few new little parts and we are also going to replace all the brake lines with steel braided lines. I'm taking off the chain oiler because I don't really need or want it. I think it's great for long distance riding but my short trips around the city, rather useless and I'm a bit of a clean freak so having oil flung off onto the bike constantly annoys me.

Again, thanks for everyone's help and keep your fingers crossed for a smooth fix!!
Deanna

[Red01]

So, did you take this opportunity to replace the head with a better one (say, old school GSXR750), or just another Bandit head?

[SP-Dee]

I bought a Bandit OEM head because I don't know enough about what can be fitted between bikes to start messing around with it. At this point I want to be back on the road because all I see are these beautiful fall days and my helmet getting dust on it.

[SP-Dee]

After almost 2 months of tinkering my Bandit is back on the road!

Didn't replace the cylinder head after all, found a welder who also machines aluminum parts. Re-built the cam cover cap that was busted. Removed the pro-oiler (I haven't forgotten about those who asked about it). Plug welded and retapped the oil pan drain. Previous owner stripped out and used a heli-coil but the whole thing fell apart. It was my understanding that heli-coils are suppsoed to be permament and not fall out. Gave bike one heck of a cleaning. The sludge left by an badly adjusted chain oiler was ridiculous.

Couldn't believe the number of stripped threads on the bike, whoever worked on it before really reefed on some of those bolts. Left those for now and will address them if I start getting leaks. Fairings were held together underneath with duct tape and electrical tape because the bits that clip together were busted off. I'll look into replacing those next year.

ANyways, total cost was under $500. Hell of a lot better than the $4000 the dealership quoted me.

[mademiriam]

glad to hear you're back on the road and for a decent price too!
Stripped threads are such a pain, yet I've stripped some myself...so can't complain I guess...

[Red01]

 

So, when the machinist rebuilt the cam cap, did he do something like what I mentioned in the earlier topic?
If he did something else, it would be good info for the board.

[SP-Dee]

I didn't get any pics of the cap after it was rebuilt but essentially the welder filled the entire bolt hole and side, with an over size aluminum weld. He then machined it down and retapped it. we gave him a matching cap with a bolt to follow. The sides where the bolt goes into was a little over-sized after the work but the bolt hole was the correct size and it lined up perfectly.

Actually , he ended up doing two of them because we were retapping one of them because it was super stiff. Could barely turn the tapping tool. Anyways, the tap broke off in the cover and had to get that one rebuilt too. That fell under the category of "oops"