Head bolt re-tensioning

[mike-s]

I replaced the head gasket & the studs in my gsx250 a while back as two of the studs had stretched to the point of snapping on 2 of the bolts, But i'm not sure sure if i bothered diving back in there to re-tension the nuts around 1500-2000km later like i should have. So upon arriving at work today, i noticed a light film of oil on the fins on the left side that is certainly coming from the gasket. is it viable to believe that providing the tension hasn't slackened off too much, that re-tensioning the nuts may suffice in rectifying this issue? or am i more likely going to need to replace the head gasket (again)?

I'm consider cracking the rocker cover open on it tomorrow and adjusting the tension and taking her for a spin immediately afterwards & seeing how it goes. If i don't have any luck with it, i'll then be ordering a new gasket that afternoon anyway.

Thoughts? should i just save my time and strip her down and re-replace the gasket and be done with it? (and then have to re-remember in 1500 km's to re-tighten the bolts correctly again)

[Blurr]

cant imagine u would have damaged the gasket at all so retensioning should be fine.

[mike-s]

Cool bananas, will have a crack at it tomorrow morning.

[mike-s]

I thought to hell with dicking about with re-using the head gasket and just went and ordered another one. I think this gasket has always been a bit dodgy thanks to me removing the head once or twice after having compressed the gasket while chasing a shitty little problem (which i know your not "supposed" to do). So I was probably doing myself a favour by just ordering a new one.

For thoise that (may not) care, I looked into the part numbers and it seems I bought the current one as part of a "new old stock"buy on ebay and the part has long since been superceeded by a new part number, which is what I will end up recieving. So maybe there was a problem with the original gasket's design after all?

[Glen]

Strange you should mention that Mike. Back when I were a lad I bought myself a brand spanking new GSX250 just like yours when they were released. Hard to believe now but back then they were the king of the four stroke 250's.

Mine did exactly the same thing when it was a couple of months old and they retensioned them and all was cool

[Gosling1]

good idea to use a new head gasket Mike - re-using old ones is not a good idea, unless you don't mind a bit of oil weepage.....

Glenno - you know that the bigger brother to the GSX250 back in those days - the GSX450 ? That motor is effectively identical to the current GS500 motor, slightly larger bore, but most of the internals etc - same as they were back in the mid-80's.

[Glen]

good idea to use a new head gasket Mike - re-using old ones is not a good idea, unless you don't mind a bit of oil weepage.....

Glenno - you know that the bigger brother to the GSX250 back in those days - the GSX450 ? That motor is effectively identical to the current GS500 motor, slightly larger bore, but most of the internals etc - same as they were back in the mid-80's.

Yeah a mate of mine had a 450 with 250 sidecovers on it so the cops wouldn't pick it as a 450......ahhh the good old days. I used to love my little GSX until I ploughed it into an EH holden.......memories...........then I did the only sensible thing and bought a Katana

[Gosling1]

Have you got any photos of the Kat mate ?? PC is a Kat-fanboi from wayback.......

[mike-s]

Oh dear, im glad i wasn't drinking anything while reading the GSX vs EH comment, otherwise i'd be cussing while cleaning my monitors.

Picked up the new gasket today. Also regarding retensioning, if I reused the old gasket again and it happens again it's not just an oil leak, but the oil getting driven OUT by the cylinder loosing compression, thusly loosing power like it is right now. Which would go a long way to explaining why it's having a bit more of a hard a time keeping at anything over 115km/h or 8,500rpm (whichever is the greater) when it was previously happy humming along at 125~ish with more umph to go (i didn't want to push my luck too much, given it takes a lot more time/distance to build up the speed than the 900 does). The construction of the new gasket is vastly different to that of the old (part numbers being superceeded and all that). The old was predominantly a single metal sheet with a thin layer of a soft gaskety material either side, the new one is two sheets of metal with a thin layer of the soft stuff between them, Hopefully this new construction helps it in the long term.

<side story>I took the 900 out to pick the new gasket up today, amongst other things i had to do today. Got to the bikeshop (name omitted), obtained the gasket, got on the bike to go home. Tried to start it, and would you believe that the f*ing thing lost ALL power on me and just wouldn't work. No blown fuses (i today discovered an extra fuse i had no idea it had previously) and all the help that the service manager would give me was load testing my battery to make sure it hadn't dropped a cell or something equally arse-achish (i would have gone and bought one there if it was). His other suggestion was "book it in for a service" as he walked away, great, thanks buddy. At this point ego and determination to not let this (or the f'wit service manager) get the better of me crept in and prevailed. For Christ sake i wasn't expecting them to fix it for me there and then, but perhaps giving me a couple of suggestions would have been nice.

Thank god i had the (crappy) toolkit that the bike came with, Went as far as taking the tank off, and 1/3 the plastics and reseating every single connector to make sure it wasn't the source of my lack of electrons. Fast forward an hour and a half and i found it was the freaking high amperage cable from the battery through to the distribution point/relay that had upped and shat itself and only worked when it was laid out in a certain way and wouldn't even consider wirking if it was angled in any other manner. Got her started, crept home and threw her in the garage as something else to waste my time on tomorrow.</sidestory>

Yet another reason to add to the list why i only buy oem parts, riding gear/accessories from these guys & don't bother going near the service centre.

[Slow and wobbly]

Fire.
Thats the answer.
Build a big one and the rest will take care of itself.

[Slow and wobbly]

But dont despair because there may be hope for the 900

[mike-s]

Ahh, i think i'll be right with it as it is (minus the current electrical gremlin). Had a P-plater who was quite nice to talk to while fixing it throw out one last comment that "it's had it, buy a new one" as soon as i mentioned the odo is about to zero out at 100kkm ...... Righty-oh

[mike-s]

Fire.
Thats the answer.
Build a big one and the rest will take care of itself.

Like physiotherapy and physics it's all in the application that makes the difference.

[mike-s]

Replaced the sketchy wiring tonight and everything seems good. Have also taken the head off the GSX, my i forgot how much crap has to come off to do it though, took about 2 and a bit hours to strip it right down, with me knowing exactly what i had to do to take it apart!
Old gasket for all intents appears a-ok, however we know that isn't the case. Have cleaned things up a bit and taken some photos which i will upload tomorrow sometime, perhaps after i clean the mating surfaces up and start putting the wee beastie back together.

[mike-s]

Top end is back on, have been wrestling with refiting them with the mufflers/headers still on as the mufflers are a prick to take off/refit on the header. Took a look underneath the mufflers and there's a hole i can fit my middle finger through in there . Freaking shitty rust-prone soft steel. Next step is muffker outty followed by bandaging the hole, then purdy up the headers and high-temp clearcoat them. Followed by starting to hunt for a more long-term solution, perhaps a 2:1 if i can find one cheap on fleabay.

*sigh*