Valve Grinding

In the Shed
1

Hi All,

I’m wondering if anyone has had any experience with getting Honda valves faced?

Honda say this is a no no and you should buy new valves, The guys who are doing up my heads say the valves are pitted and either need to be faced or replaced with new, they believe that they could face them successfully, but they won’t give a warranty for this.

A new set will cost me $700 AUD, but if some one has done this before with no dramas I will go for the facing option.

Thanks
Planty

2

Not sure if Honda are just wanting sales of spares when they want us to replace pitted valves,we have had the valves faced on Petes FE when we rebuilt it back in 03 with no issues.We also opted to reface rather than replace the 24 little beggars on my CBX again no issues.
The guys at the engine shop will know their stuff,whats the worst that could happen?
Regards BIF

3

Thanks Bif, Just what I wanted to hear, the guys in the engine shop said the same thing but I just wondered if anyone else had done it.
Cheers

4

Whe you say refacing the valves, do you mean lapping them in with grinding paste or some sort of recut of the valve seats?

5

If the valve contact face and the valve seat is in good condition, no pitting etc, then lapping them in by hand with paste is fine, checking with ‘bearing’ or ‘prussian blue’ to make sure you have good contact.

If they are pitted or the valve seat is burnt then the valve face can be re ground and then the seat re cut, this is done on a machine.

If the exhaust valves are not getting good contact when closed you can get ‘blow by’ which will eventually burn out the valve/seat.

Mine were a bit borderline, so had to be re faced and the seat re cut, the exhaust valve guides were also replaced as they were worn. I had this done at a local engine rebuild shop

6

Then I must be a little bit luckier, my valves just need some lapping by hand and my guides are within the measures given in the manual.
I think my engine is not so bad after all it´s just 25 years old but it seems in good condition.
Does anyone here know how long the oil pump chain should be? I know it should be a bit to long but I want to measure it to be sure it is OK.

Best to all
Gunnar Mar
Iceland

7

hi iam the new boy on the bloke i guess, I live in goulbourn N.S.W.Australia and am the proud owner of a 1985 vf1000ff. I would like to know if any one has had the spy glass in the front brake resevrvoir leak and if it can be fixed or do i have to replace the whole thing. I look forward to your response and will post some p ic,s of my baby as soon as i work out how

8

I got my spy glass on the clutch leaking last summer I took a bit of stiff plastic and glued it over the other temporary of course until I got another, but it is still there and doesn’t leak.So maybe I should think of buying a new one.

Gunnar

9

might try that what kind of glue did you use

10

I used Silicon rubber gasket glue.

11

yes have had the problem 10years ago on my first vf 1000 and turned up a piece of plastic on the lathe so it was an interferance fit (tight fit)then pollish them so you can see through them found an o ring that fitted and pressed them in and no leaks have done the same trick on my new one about 2 years ago and still no leaks will now repaint the fairing as if has fried paint due to the leaks while in storage for 6 years if you need more info get in touch an i will send the dimesions and o ring size,

12

Could you pm me the details of your fix manicvfman? Like what type of plastic did you use, did you remove the old lens first and make a copy etc. Can you add pics ?

13

I removed the original plastic lens and replaced it with glass lens, which I ordered from Billy C in US forum. Fixed it with black Loctite RTV, no leaks in two years. Still, the O-ring method sounds better, so I a also eager to hear about manicvfman’s solution.