January 8, 2004 {

This is actually a big combination of what went on between Jan 6 and 8. So my bike was still acting up. I decided that the best thing to do was to systematically eliminate variables. First thing first, I completely bypassed the fuel cutoff valve and hooked up the carb sync tool to my bike. Since I did a complete carb sync less than 200 miles ago, the readings should be perfect... At ice cold, cylinder 1 is about 2in-hg above the other cylinders. After about 20 seconds of warming up, it settles with cylinders 1 and 3 about 1.5in-hg higher than cylinders 2 and 4, and it stays that way throughout the test. After revving the bike to a smooth 2500rpm during the test and letting back off, I notice a pretty constant (and high) level of smoke coming from the two bottom pipes. I've also been mildly concerned about an increase in ticking that sounds like it's been coming from the rear cylinders primarily. So I shut off the bike, unhooked the sync stuff and decided to readjust the valves. Side note: The mercury has always "jumped" considerably (2in-hg of variance) inbetween pulses on my bike and is a little troubling. I get the feeling that I shouldn't have that much of a jump. Maybe the default butterfly seating on the cylinder 1 carb isn't right, or my carb-to-intake boots have bit the dust? So I readjust the valves. I decided to err on the tight side, with pretty firm friction in between the valve stem and the feeler gauge. After each one is tightened, I rock the lifter up and down to make sure that there is a little bit of gap so those valves can shut. Naturally I checked out the cam lobes while in there. 45,000 miles on the motor and 6 out of 8 cams are absolutely perfect. The other two (3-intake and 1-intake, at the very top of the motor) have very minor pitting and can easily go another 3-5 years before I give them another thought. All in all I was amazed at the condition of the cams. After a debacle of putting the rear valve cover on backwards, taking it off and putting it on once more (making a real mess out of the gasket compound), the bike gets put back together. I let the gasket compound sit for an hour or two and then start up the bike. It REALLY doesn't want to idle... then I keep it in neutral and smoothly let it rev up to about 4000 RPM. I get this weird popping like I've never heard before! Really freakish. Then I look back and notice that the bottom two pipes are smoking like a chimney. White smoke. I turn the bike around and park it for the night. The next day I start thinking about the popping... It wasn't backfiring out the intake, and it wasn't shooting fire out of the exhaust... and it definitely wasn't the normal sound of detonating. I wonder about the cleanliness of the fuel and decide to buy an inline fuel filter. With the help of a dremel and some zip-ties, I mount the fuel filter inside the left-side faux airbox where the California emissions shit is supposed to go. Awesome. While installing it I look down and realize that I never plugged the vacuum line going from the fuel shutoff valve to cylinder 2!! Off to the store for an M5 screw. The original screws are M5-8, but all the hardware store has is M5-10, so I buy 'em and hope that the extra length doesn't screw with the fuel delivery. New screw installed, I start the bike. It idles much better than it did the time before. It's still vibrating and running rough, not the way it ran before my wreck in September. Oh it used to run like glass! SO smooth... Anyways, I progressively rev the bike up in neutral, all the way to 6 grand. None of that popping that I had the day before! As I get past 3 grand, the exhaust note changes- it has that growling sound, like the engine is fighting itself. Then I smell burning oil and look down to see the bottom two exhaust pipes blowing white smoke like crazy. I yell a few random obscenities and shut the bike off. 15 minutes later I check the oil level. It's low- like off-the-dipstick low. And I just put brand new oil in 250 miles ago!! I stand up the bike and peer down into the oil filler hole and I don't see oil. "Oh shit," I think, "Have I been running this motor dry?" No, I was just down a full quart of oil in just 250 miles. There's definitely something wrong. So how can a bike burn a TON of oil, make weird growling noise, and overall just not run the way it should after new oil, new filter, rebuilt carbs, a total of 3 carb syncs within 500 miles, fresh filtered gas, a full valve adjustment and an awful lot of TLC? The only thing that fits the bill is that a head gasket is blown on the rear cylinders. Even rotten valve stem seals wouldn't cause this much smoke... and blown piston rings should smoke ALL the time, not just when above idle. It doesn't seem to be eating any measurable amount of coolant, at least. So tomorrow I'm going to do a compression test on all cylinders. If all cylinders come up good on compression, I'm going to be fairly puzzled but still expect a head gasket is at least partially eaten up. I might as well replace both head gaskets, given the age, mileage and the fact that one is almost certainly wasted. While doing that, I might as well pull the valves, check the seats and springs and replace the stem seals. If there's a huge compression difference, I have to debate if I should also check the piston rings. If I go that deep into the motor, I might as well check the bore, re-hone the jugs and replace all the piston rings. And while I'm in there, why not rebuild the transmission? It'd take care of the less-than-perfect shifting into 2nd and 3rd... If I have to do anything, why not go all out? And how much can I really do myself? Who could I trust to do the work? And with how long all that work will take, I may want to buy another bike to ride in the meantime. A lot of tough questions... and no easy answers.