Hello all. I'm new to this community and just want to say hi and of course ask a bunch of questions. I just brought home an '84 VF500F that hasn't been running for about 10 years. The seller warned me about #3 piston noise and other than that it looks pretty complete. The seat was not fastened properly so I threw that in the back of the car and tied the bike down on the trailer and took off. 20 miles down the road I see a shower of sparks and stop to find out I've just driven over the fuel tank with the trailer wheel! Not a very good beginning to this project. Fast forward 2 weeks and now I know that the #3 rod spun a big end bearing and I've got antifreeze throughout the engine but haven't found the source of the leak yet. Crank is shot on that throw. Both exhaust cams are looking flat at the lobe tips. I see a crank and piston/rod assemblies on ebay from an '86 550 and am wondering if they are compatible with my engine case. I need to look at the block and heads a lot closer to see if anything is cracked (#3 piston had evidence of contacting the head). This idea could end up costing a lot more than I thought. Okay, that's enough info for now. Thanks for listening. Russ
Russ, I would look into a replacement good engine. IIRC the VF500 engine from either a 500F or a 500C will interchange so you have more to choose from. Much easier than a tear down and rebuild, even if all the parts are available. You can swap out the engines in a day. Another resource for you will be this other board. It is pretty much solely about first generation Honda VF's and there is a lot of specific information over there. Good Luck!
