Topic: Normal Maintenance and Rebuilding

[timtowtdi]

Hi,

I am new here and am looking at buying a 78 cb550.  It has about 26k miles on it and supposedly needs a head gasket.  I have worked on older BMWs for a while but never a sohc bike motor.  Is this pretty common at this mileage and age?  How often do the primary chains need to be changed?  How about the valves?  I don't want to get too deep  money wise into this because I am trying to keep the cost way down, sort of a personal challenge thing.  I will be doing all the work myself but don't mind splitting the motor if necessary.  I have a pretty good stash of tools. 

Thanks,
Dave. 

[Stev-o]

Welcome!
 
It is quite common for these 550's to have a slight oil leak near the head, it is not always the gasket. [mine has very minor leak]

If taken care of, these bikes can easily hit 50K miles with no rebuild, sometimes more.

Go check the bike out, ride it for 20 min, that will tell you a lot.

Good Luck.