New Member - Hello!

Hi all!

Just joined the forum, hoping to get a question or two answered. But first, a little background: I bought my first motorcycle last May, an '86 VF500F that was in need of a little TLC. (I absolutely love the 80's look she has!) Over the summer, I had a head gasket blow, so I had to tear her apart. While the engine was out of the frame, I had the frame, headers, collector, and mufflers sand-blasted. I then repainted them; used cans of spray paint, but it really turned out well. While the engine was apart, I was also able to clean and lap the valves and adjust valve clearances. Also replaced all the gaskets that came in a gasket kit I found online. After everything went back together, she sounded great! I believe I read somewhere once that a well-tuned V4 sounds like a sewing machine, and that's exactly what she sounds like. (Also did new chain and sprockets, flushed brake and clutch fluid, new battery and generally cleaned things up.)

Ok, a few weeks after I got the bike back together and running well, I started noticing 2 things that were different than from before:

1.) The engine tends to run a little bit warmer than it did before. Average day outside, I would be at about 1/3 on the temp gauge, whereas now, it's about middle. It seemed to me that the holes for coolant in the new head gaskets were just slightly smaller than the old gasket. Is it feasible to assume that when the gasket got sandwiched down, the holes actually got a little bit smaller, and thus are partially restricting flow of coolant through the block? Should I have cut the holes to fit the coolant channels exactly? Was also wondering if it was possible that my thermostat is now damaged from the over-pressurization of the cooling system when the head gasket blew (it started leaking immediately at the hose connections)?

2.) I have noticed an engine vibration that occurs between 4 - 5K RPMs that was definitely not there before. I really feel like the vibration is coming from the internals of the engine; haven't noticed any of the fairings loose or causing issues. It also seems like it's coming from the front of the engine, although I can't say for sure. Furthermore, if you ride it, you can just feel that it's a vibration from within the bike. Is this a sign that my cam chain and/or chain tensioner needs replaced? I pulled the front valve cover one day to poke around with the tensioner... basically released tension, then reapplied it. Seemed like the issue went away for a few days, then was back again.

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated! If this isn't posted in the right spot, I apologize. If so, I'll move it the appropriate place/forum. Thanks in advance!

 

Nice avatar, have the same sticker on the back of my dirt bike helmet.

 

Thanks, I've always been fond of Calvin & Hobbes!

 

Ok, no one replied, but I will still update this with what I've determined thus far:

Thermostat seems to be fine, although I ordered a new one from Billy Carr anyways. I think the biggest difference in operating temperature before the head gasket debacle and now was that then, the fan was on at all times (wired to be always on, the thermal fan switch did not work). This meant that as soon as 180 F water entered the radiator, it was immediately being cooled by the fan. I have since found the following thread < http://vfrworld.com/forums/1st-2nd-generation-1983-1989/32601-vf500f-vs-vf500c-fan-switch.html > where Jamie Daugherty listed possible alternatives for the thermal fan switch. Thanks to him!

In terms of the engine vibration at 5K RPM... I feel like it is not abnormal. From what I've been reading, almost all of these bikes have a slight engine vibration in that operating range. I'm not concerned about it since the vibration disappears as soon as 5K is passed.

 

If I could ask, did you use OEM or aftermarket gaskets? Thx.

 

The gaskets I used were from a complete gasket kit from PartsNMore < Honda VF500F Parts & Accessories - Parts N More - Japanese Vintage Motorcycle Parts >. I actually have another set of Cometic gaskets that I bought used from someone.... I know I know, used head gaskets?? The guy I bought them from (Jim) was a former President of the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club; I met him at Mid Ohio last summer looking for parts. He had a set of head gaskets from Cometic that were used to assemble an engine. He said they were only on for 3 days, long enough for him to realize that engine itself was shot. He then disassembled the engine to part out what he could, including the "new" head gaskets. I opted for using the gaskets from the PartsNMore kit as they were new and unused. On one of the gaskets from Jim, there was some visible tearing between a coolant channel and a bolt hole. I figured I'd rather only replace head gaskets once and use the new ones that had no visible wear.

So in short, not OEM.

 

Thanks for the post.

It is a bit of a long thread but more info on the different gasket patterns across the three years can be found here:

Scan 'em if you got 'em - VF500F Head Gasket Patterns

Was the gasket kit you received manufactured by Athena?

 

Thanks! I will read through it sometime this week when I have more time. I can also scan and add to the set my old blown gaskets, presumably OEM, as well as the Cometic set. I know I have decent pictures of the underside of both the front and rear heads when it was apart. I can add those later too, if needed.

 

:welcome: fishman, I too am a fan of C&H. I strongly reccomend not using the "used" head gaskets for anything other than something to hang on the wall. Once head gaskets (and most other gaskets for that matter) are installed and torqued down they "seat" into their mating parts and will never go back to where they were new again, especially with different parts. Just my two cents, wouldn't want you to put an engine together with them only to have to tear it right back apart after the first ride.

 

I am not sure if you have the Athena set (these are the 'early' pattern), more info can be found here (post no. 79) in the Scan 'em if you got 'em thread:

http://vfrworld.com/forums/1st-2nd-generation-1983-1989/31074-scan-em-if-you-got-em-vf500f-head-gasket-patterns-3.html#post276619

On a side note, what material are the Cometic gaskets made from?

 

Metallican525: I was thinking the same thing, hence why I opted to buy new ones. Had they looked better, I probably would have been tempted to try them, but fortunately there was some visible tearing on the surface of one and I am rather particular about stuff like that. Not sure what I'll use them for now... coasters maybe?

invisible cities: I have the Athena set, the packaging from post #79 looks familiar. As for the Cometic gaskets, I would have to pull them out and look at them again, but they seem to be made in the same fashion as the Athena set. A metal layer sandwiched between fibrous layers. The surface of the Cometic gaskets feel more rubbery to me than I remember the Athena set feeling, but there's no guarantee my memory serves me correctly on that fact. I wish I had taken more pictures of the project, especially once I had cleaned the pistons, valves, and valve stems. I uploaded some pictures in the Scan 'em thread, post #96: < http://vfrworld.com/forums/1st-2nd-...vf500f-head-gasket-patterns-4.html#post309385 >. I will have two more scans to add later this evening sometime.

 

Ok guys, it's been a while, but I have some interesting information about my original two questions above.

The first, and not as interesting, I ended up replacing the thermostat with the new one from Billy Carr along with a replacement fan switch. The bike always makes it halfway up the temp gauge, then the fan kicks on and the gauge drops a bit. So my perception of the bike running cooler before was definitely associated with the fact that the fan was always on and therefore it reached a lower equilibrium temperature at the cost of drawing more power to run the fan all the time. Now everything runs correctly, and I even installed a manual override switch & indicator light so I know when the fan is on and I can turn it on when coming into stop and go traffic.

Alright, now the more interesting part: the engine vibration bothered me enough that I ordered a used set of tensioners from eBay for about $30. I tore into my bike and pulled both tensioners to find that mine had stronger springs (by a lot) than the ones I ordered. I was contemplating either searching for tougher springs or shifting one of the mounting points for the spring as seen here: < Cam Chain tensioner removal/service on V45 motors - VFR Discussion > . Well, once the tensioners were out, I realized that they were binding up and not closing smoothly for some reason. I looked for the telltale wear marks on the slider as invisible cities mentioned in one of his threads (can't seem to find it now for some reason...), and there really wasn't any wear. What I noticed was that the sheathing over the spring was causing the binding at either end of the tensioner. A couple of quick slices with a knife, and voila... no more binding! Plus, as an added bonus I found that the tensioner overall had more travel without the bunched up sheathing. Installed the original tensioners, fired it up......... and the vibrations are completely gone!!!

I've included some pictures so you can see exactly how I modified the sheathing, and can see the difference in overall travel of the tensioner.





Also, invisible cities: I recently found that my bike had an engine swap at some point. The engine in my bike is from an '85 Magna, so using the Athena gasket set should be just fine on this engine, as the gaskets were designed for the 84-85 year range (from reading through your gasket thread).