zacapa
Race Dog
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2012
- Messages
- 2,110
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- East Coast of Africa in the Hills
- Bike
- Honda XR650L
As luck would have it my XR650L finally broke down yesterday for the first time after 38 000km about 50 meters from home. Out the front gate - first gear - its all-right! - HONDA HONDA - second gear - and fizzle out with clanging noises coming from the motor area. Pushed her back up the drive and started stripping. One exhaust valve had thrown a wobbly and deposited parts of itself inside the combustion chamber. Damage at first look seems minimal other than the broken valve seat and some impact marks on head and piston. Head, valves and piston look to be re-usable with cleaning up and checking over before a final verdict is pronounced and more new parts are bought. So what I am looking at is to get a proper valve seat and valve job done as a minimum in prolonging the agony that my XR has suffered in my hands over the last 6 years and hoping for a few more. Notes about the bike is that she has had a hard life with regular services so the 38K km is probably like 50K km for someone that is more mechanically sympathetic to XR requirements of not riding highway miles at 130 - 160 at times. We had plenty technical off-road and cool gravel terrain in between the top-end runs so it helped to cool her down a bit at times. Upper valve train, rockers and cylinder bore all look like new thanks to the diesel oil I have been throwing in there I think.
Asking the clever XR and Air-Cooled dogs on here - Who of you have done a head refurbishment on an XR - RFVC or an air-cooled bike and what has your experience been with the refurb? The right stuff is required for a machine shop that understands this stuff. What to look out for and what has your experience been when re-building the head?
Asking the clever XR and Air-Cooled dogs on here - Who of you have done a head refurbishment on an XR - RFVC or an air-cooled bike and what has your experience been with the refurb? The right stuff is required for a machine shop that understands this stuff. What to look out for and what has your experience been when re-building the head?
