84 VF700 Question

I just got this bike about a week ago, and I'm amazed at how comfortable it is. I can ride for hours with no back/butt pain. My question is, what's a good rpm for steady cruising? This bike has the Dave Dodge oil pump add-on to lube the cams, but I remember reading somewhere about cruising at around 5000 rpm so that everything stays lubed properly. Any comments or past experience would be appreciated.

 

I just got my '85 700 on the road this weekend after lots of work over the winter. I picked it up for $800 and then, after a bit of research, I happened across the dreaded cam pitting discussion, the cause of which is supposedly the low oil flow to the cams. This weekend, I pulled my rocker covers for a valve adjustment, (which, BTW, I could not get the rear rocker cover out of the frame!) and I inspected my cams. With 22k miles on the clock, my cams looked perfect! Whew! I would remove your rocker covers and inspect your cams, if they look Ok, don't worry about cruising RPM or anything else! JMO.
As I cruised around this weekend, your target of 5000 RPM seems to be right on target anyway as that is where the motor is happy to be.

 

Thanks for the info

I'll check the cams. My bike has about 22000 miles also. Strange that such a comfortable bike would only have 22000 miles on it since 1984. BTW- the dave dodge oil upgrade looks like it is really easy to install and is supposed to completely fix the cam oil problem. Thanks for the advice.

 

There are some other (cheaper) things that you can do besides the DD oil mod, such as boring out the banjo bolt that is used to connect the line that feeds the cams. The factory steadily improved this design from '83 to '87 (?) which I read on somebody's site. I forgot where I saw it, but there are diagram comparisons of the bolt on the site. I do not want to spend the money for the kit on a bike that only cost <$1000. I do not intend to hammer on my bike, and so, by the looks of things, I should be ok for a while to come.

 

the DD mod is just an oil "sandwich" adaptor, with 2 oil lines running to the heads.....Im sure you could make one for $50

 

I agree that you could probably make one cheap, but I have seen the kit on E-Bay for around $300, and that is just too much for a sub $1k bike.

 

I'd suggest doing something. It's not IF but WHEN.

Also, the problem is not cam pitting but rather has to do with the rocker arms. If you looked at just the cam lobes you did not inspect the actual source of the problem. My experience is that the lobes do not start to show damage until the rockers are already worn considerably. The difficult part is that the cams need to be removed to inspect the rocker arm faces.

The problem has two parts - insufficient rocker face hardening and poor oil supply. The oiling system mods are intended to fix one, that is enough to allow the engine to operate without any future problems from the rockers.

 

Holy Crap! I didnt pay that much for mine. Make sure it's not a rip off trying to pose as DD.