Hello again. Getting ready to finish up the carbs and fire up my 84 VF1000F (USA) for the first time since owning it. The bike has been sitting for a few months, and I’m curious to see if there’s a way to prime the oiling system, more specifically, I want to get some oil on the cams.
I know a few months isn’t too long to really have to worry, but better safe than sorry. Also, I have another V4 that’s been sitting since 1995, and that one I definitely want to prime.
How long does it take oil to get up to the heads on these bikes? And are the cams/followers under enough stress during startup to have to worry about oil? The other bike is an 83 (before oil/cam revisions), and I really want to give the cams the best shot at surviving.
Just use the kill switch and wind it over on the starter for several seconds to get oil around the engine after the oil pressure light goes out, removing the spark plugs would make it eaiser on the starter. If you’re really worried about the cams & rockers etc…pop the rocker covers off and give them a good dribble of oil before running. You can also wind the engine over with the rocker covers off to see if you definitely have oil flow to the top end.
I figured it would be good to do that. My concern is how much stress they’re under while cranking. I can’t imagine it’s too much, how many rpms do you think the starter will spin the motor up to? I’ve cranked the bike that’s been sitting for a second to make sure it wasn’t seized. I’m not sure how long it takes to build pressure, my Sabre’s warning light doesn’t turn on until after the bike is running and it does its initial gauge check, so I don’t have a reference for it.
Starter is lucky to spin the engine over to ~5-600rpm. Stress will be minimal, it’s not the starter rpm which causes grief…it’s the lack of oil whilst doing it, most wear 'n tear happens during a cold start when the oil has effectively drained away, especially if the bike has been sitting for an extended period. Some bike engines use an “oil bath” under the camshafts to retain oil for this purpose…not so on the VF’s unfortunately.
On a complete rebuild I put the engine in the frame minus the clutch assembly,place on the side stand,fill with oil and run the oil pump with a cordless drill until oil starts appearing everywhere.A bit messy but effective
I was assuming something like that would be the best course of action, but for me it wouldn’t have been worth removing the clutch basket and everything. It fired up great though!