Topic: I Blew It

[mwvachon]

I'm finally calm enough to jot down a few notes about this past week's experience at Americade with the K1 750. The good news is that I managed to place 2nd in the vintage judging with my restoration. I lost out to a 1976 Goldwing-Bicentenial Edition, which was absolutely gorgeous. I'd never seen one 'in the flesh'. I also beat out a 1942 HD, and a 50's-something custom Triumph, both also looked very sharp. Now the bad news: Shortly after the judging, while tooling out of Lake George, I began to hear a strange sound coming out of the top-end. A closer examination revealed a compression leak between the middle two cylinders on the exhaust side of the engine. Probably a blown head gasket. I was steamed! The rebuild has just under 2K miles on it! I had the head reworked by a very good local machine shop. I measured all the bores and checked both the cylinders and the head for flatness prior to assembly. Head was properly torqued, in correct sequence, when assembled. The bike seemed to run flawlessly up until this point - except for the carbs running a bit rich. I've yet to do any post-mortum, I'm in the middle of replacing my garage [currently no building!] My suspicions are: The gasket set I used was from an aftermarket dealer and was produced by an outfit named 'Athena'. During assembly I managed to tear the valve cover gasket while dry-fitting the parts to check the assembly. I replaced that with an OEM gasket and noted the OEM part was much more substantial than the Athena supplied gasket. So I'm wondering if the head gasket was also just as marginal? Also, because the bike was running rich, I wonder if that contributed to this failure? Interested in any enlightened comments for those with experience on this.
I plan to replace any gaskets with OEM once I start rebuilding the engine. Also at this point looking for reccomendations on a good source/supplier for carb kits for this same bike? I have a spare set of carbs and can at least start rebuilding those while waiting to finish the 750's new home. *SIGH*

[KB02]

Damn. Now I wish I had been up to see the judging in that Class. Would have been nice to see your bike in person.

As for the gasket, I know there has been a lot of talk lately (at least in the threads I have been reading) about using OEM gaskets due to the questionable quality of some of the aftermarket sets.

That really sucks that it blew on you.

[dusterdude]

sorry to hear about your problems,that does suck.while you are looking at a honda head gasket,check out cometic too.about your carbs,ask bob wessner if he would take a whack at em,sorry bob,didnt  mean to put on the spot.

[andy750]

Sorry to hear about the possibility of a blown head gasket and Ive been there before (post-rebuild and still leaks!). Ive used Vesrah gaskets in the past mostly with success but now have Cometic gaskets in my recently rebuilt head (K4) - work was done by Mike Rieck and he uses cometic gaskets on his rebuilds and he does a lot of rebuilds for a lot of people so decide for yourself. Good luck in any case in getting it done.

cheers
Andy

[gtyler5]

I used the "athena" gasket set too and will not buy another one    and would not reccomend it to anyone.
at least you had some good news, this probably would have happened to me on a bad week   
good luck
gt

[oldfordguy]

Sorry to hear about the blown gasket on your fresh rebuild, and congrats on the 2nd place trophy!  I also used the Athena gaskets once, and would not recommend them either.  Fit is lousy, half of the gaskets were the wrong ones, and many gaskets missing in what was supposed to be a "complete" kit.  I didn't use the head gasket in this particular kit (top end was in good order,) and was very glad after seeing the quality of the rest of the gaskets.
Matt

[bryanj]

Never used Athena so I cant comment but i have used NP or Noboru Packing ( i think0 and never had a problem

[Lumbee]

...I've used Athena a few times, and can't say I have complaints, though on this post and others I've heard people complain about then.     Of 3 rebuilds I had one with a leaky head within 1000 miles.  Never heard any complains on vesrah, so that may be the way to go for the complete kit.  I think contech only makes the head gasket, not the complete kit..

[mwvachon]

Thanks for the input on the gaskets. Thinking I'll still probably try OEM replacement. Still looking for input on carb rebuild kits/parts sources/mfgs. Can anyone contribute/comment on this part of my post?

BTW - Americade bases trophy offerings [which place finishers actually get a trophy] on the previous year's participation. I was there last year also, and it was miserable weather-wise. So, when the Americade official made note of that policy, I knew I probably wasn't getting anything for my troubles. Even for 2nd place, all I got was a pretty piece of paper. However, if anyone is interested for next year - turnout at this year's event was about 15 bikes. I did get an invite to participate in a special exhibition with my K1 on that Friday, however, the blown gasket made that impossible.

[andy750]

For carb rebuild kits you cant beat Tas Motorsports for carb gaskets - very cheap and fast service. not sure if they have complete kits or not but if not try partsnmore - usual k&l kits which I recently used for my K2. Good price.

good luck,
Andy

[KB02]

This isn't your bike, is it? This is one that I saw lined up for the parade:

[mwvachon]

Nope - check out the link in my signature pictures of our family heirloom... I did see that one there also. Talked to the owner last year, prior to my finishing my own restoration.

[mazingerzeca]

I didn't installed it yet, but I bought a set of gaskets from David Silver Spares. The brand is "Goldwing". They told me that they didn't have OEM complete sets, so I let them choose the aftermarket brand. Reading the problems with brands like Athena and others, I can not imagine what could happen with my "Goldwing" set. Anyone tried these?

[Bob Wessner]

mwvachon,

Clicked the link in your sig to peek at the bike and noticed you had replaced the gauge faces. Pic text says they are still available.. through Honda?? Do you know if they have the earlier K0 faces? Mine aren't bad, the usual red-line faded to Halloween orange.

[mwvachon]

Bob,
I actually got mine from a guy over in Spain (I believe). He used to advertise them on eBay. Not sure if he's still peddling these. I'll look through my stuff and see if I can find any info on him. Question for you - Earlier in this tread, someone thought you might be a good resource to check with on the carb rebuild part sources. Any info or suggestions? I don't like the kits I used last time [Keystone, I believe] and the bike ended up running too rich - thinking they supplied the wrong size jets. Ideally, I'd like to replace all the floats, jets, needles and seal/gaskets. I also need to figure out a good way to get the carb bodies looking spiffy again - it think it's the one weak point on my restoration. Thanks.
Mike V.
 

[Bob Wessner]

Mike,

Thanks, I'd appreciate any info you find on the gauge faces. As for the kits, when I started resurrecting my 750, it had been stored in the corner of the garage for 22 years. I sort of "assumed" the carbs needed rebuild kits. I purchased some Keyster kits. However, I found a couple of things about them I didn't like. The needle taper was off, too fast a taper towards the tip (i.e., rich)compared to the stock needles. It might not have made too much difference since I don't spend a lot of time at that end of the throttle. I also found the float valve springs to be noticeably stiffer than the stock springs. To tell you the truth, in the end I used all the original hard parts, after a thorough cleaning and new float bowl gaskets. If your hard parts aren't obviously damaged, etc. You probably don't need them either, but I will let you be the judge. That's my only experience with them. Hope it helps.

[mazingerzeca]

I think that the gauges came from this guy in Italy.
http://cgi.ebay.it/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190117602315#ebayphotohosting