Greetings,
I’m brand new to this site and a rookie on the Honda V4s. Most of my work/experience is with the air-cooled breaker-points ignition stuff. I’m 72 and have a small low-key shop, just north of Asheville NC/USA, ministering to the special needs of geriatric Japanese motorcycles; '60s/'70s.
But an 84 year-old friend has prevailed upon me to revive his '84 VF1000F from 20+ years of imperfect storage. All is going quite well - valve clearances corrected, new fuel pump and relay, carbs stripped to the bare castings, rebuilt and bench-synced, brake and clutch systems stripped and rebuilt with new internals, and it’s up and running for a few minutes on the lift - but before I take it out for a test hop, I need to know if there’s a problem with the coolant flow to the front two cyls - or not. Since this is my first water-cooled Honda V4, I don’t know if what I am seeing is normal or a problem.
When I first drained the coolant, I noticed that just a few dribbles came out of the drain ports on the front of the two front cyls - and, when I forgot to screw in the plugs - that only a few more dribbles came out when I filled the system with fresh coolant.
Is this okay or is there an internal blockage?
I have not run it long enough on the lift to be able to detect a coolant flow problem from the outside with an infrared thermometer.
Thank you,
Chris Finlayson
Existential Motorcycles
Alexander NC 28701
Excited States of America