cylinder head removal

[MIKE550/4]

78 550/4 k 3

Hi Guys

trying to do a top end rebuild, have taken rocker cover off, cam chain , ( hooked to stop falling into tunnel ) cam is out of bike, i have the haynes manual ( yeah i know ) , says this is clamped by 12 nuts, am i missing something here , i can only see 6, probably a noobie mistake

once these nuts are off i can imagine its going to be a job to release the head any tips ?

cheers mike

[Seamus]

Download  from here:  http://www.sohc4.net/files/HSMCB500550.pdf

A good start. I did a 550 head a few years ago, and the head came off fairly easily. Have a look in the (downloaded) manual and you will find a diagram of the head bolt positions. I think you may have to remove the cam mounts to find some of the fixings. Note also that there are two fixings (front and back) that have to be removed from under the head (I mean from the cylinder barrel side)

Hope this helps

Good luck

Seamus

[matthewmosse]

there are six rubber bungs to lift out plus 2x6 mil bolts front and rear of camchain tunnel. If the nuts are really badly mullered then you can in fact either weld a old sockett onto the nut using a stick welder or cut the bolts thru the cooling fins, I've only had to do this once, never going back to that breakers, there were lots of issues and they were the last ones to have that motor in bits..................
 Normally fairly easy to do

[Bryanj]

There are def 12 and its beter to pull the cylinders as well or the base gasket will leak later

[MIKE550/4]

right head and barrels are off 

realise its a clean up and rebuild with new gaskets , but have a couple of questions

how do you know condition of pistons, barrells,cylinder head etc

what do you guys do about barrels and the head to make it look good going back on, heard about bead blasting ?
really want to do this properly

also valve stem seals , would i have to strip out these before they would bead blast

right off to buy valve spring compressor,

let me know if i am the mark here guys

[matthewmosse]

Use a g cramp and a tube of right diameter with sides cut out, a bit slower than a valve compressor tool but worth the saving. Also lots of valve spring compressors on the market are desighned for cars and won't fit round a cb head and do the job so be caeful which models you buy. Wear wise the camshaft bearing in the head tend to be the first thing to give grief (look for scoring), I've had a 100 000 mile cb500 motor appart and the ring end gap was still in speck so I'd not be surprised if the bore and pistons were fine to reuse. Look for carbon deposits on sides of pistons, below the piston rings, if they are fairly clean I tend to trust they are ok, just check the piston ring gap as it's very easy to pop new rings in at this stage. Any futher examinations I personally would want to pass onto someone with a bit more knowledge and a good set of very good measureing kit.

[MIKE550/4]

this might help, as for the valve compresor, seen a kit on e bay ,what size adaptor would i need ?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRAND-NEW-7PCE-VALVE-SPRING-COMPRESSOR-KIT-car-van-bike_W0QQitemZ140303817723QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Measuring_Tools_Levels?hash=item140303817723&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1689%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

[matthewmosse]

That tool looks like it will do the job, I cann't recall exactly why the proper tool's I'd tried wouldn't fit onto the head, problems were the depth of the recess of the valves in the head and the width of the cooling fins.