Hello from a TOTAL newbie...

[twelfthman]

Hello all,

I've been browsing the forums here for help and am now seriously into my first ever project, so I thought I'd better stop 'lurking' and join up.

I always loved bikes but was late to riding.  I then sold my bike a couple of years ago to pay the mortgage while I set up working for myself. I've been wanting to get another ever since but found it hard to justify the cash when there's kids that need clothing and feeding . Eventually it got too much for me, I've always loved Cafe Racers and had been reading up on CB750s. So, I went for a '78 F2 on ebay, unseen, 24k miles on the clock, for

[Andy1976]

Welcome to the site mate, enjoyed reading that.
Loads of help and info on here, also check out the US site www.SOHC4.net
Also worth looking at is http://oldmanhonda.com/MC/MC.html
This was posted recently by forum member oliver1George, spent hours looking through it last night.
Good luck with the bike
Andy

[MIKE550/4]

looks new compared to the one i chose to restore 

taken me 6 months to de grease

keep the pics up and yes mate good bunch of guys on here

keep us informed 

mike

[pae]

Great story, welcome to the site.

Phil

[rhos1355]

Is that a big dent in the oil reservoir??

[twelfthman]

Thanks all for the welcome. I'll keep up to date with the pics and progress, few parts on order now just to get it running and OTR. It's going to be a bit of a 'make do' for the summer because I just want to get riding the thing. Then I'll look at it properly in the winter...

@Andy1976, thanks very much for the link, I'll work my way through it, it's a great resource.

@rhos1355 I'm pleased to say that its a trick of the light  , oil reservoir looks to be in ok condition.

[Bryanj]

I dont want to be a bearer of ill tidings but if it blue smokes at all dont ride it till you have sorted it as some mechanical parts are very difficult to get like:-

Pistons
Rings
Valves
cam (Of the proper profile)
cam bearings (different from earlier ones)

[twelfthman]

Well, I'd much rather have ill tidings now than a dead bike with difficult to obtain parts. 

I rode it for about 150 miles before I started to work on it. No sign of blue smoke. Was it something in my description that made you think it might? And what could that signify? Like I said, I am totally new to this wrenching on 30 yr olds bikes lark, so my knowledge is hovering somewhere around the zero mark... any help is much appreciated.

[Bryanj]

Nothing you said at all, just that F2/3  black engines are notorious for wearing out exhaust valve guides as the incuded valve ange was changed to fit in bigger valves and it overloaded the guides, especially on the exhaust side.

1sy symptom only about 350 miles to a pint of oil and light smoke on overrun

Followed by 150 miles to pint and heavy smoke on overrun followed by bonfire like clouds on opening throttle, enough to raise cheers from the crowds as i left the plod in such a cloud on the IOM back in the 70's where the sunday one way went back into 2 way at the R Hander at the pub i cant remember the name of

[twelfthman]

Ha, I see! 

Thanks. I had read something about problems caused by the larger valves on the F2, but now I know what to look out for. When I get the bike up and running I'll keep a close eye on the oil consumption...and cross my fingers.