Summer's Over For Me - Blown Head Gasket

[edbikerii]

Hi Guys,

Unfortunately, she didn't even make it halfway through this beautiful Labor Day Weekend.

So, over the past 13 months I've had occasional hot-running problems, but never really got so hot that it got into the red. Typically when running hot it got up to maybe 60%, whereas I consider 50% normal on my Interstate's analog gauge.

I started noticing this after I repaired the faulty chrome carb tops with OEM units. I was finally able to get the revs up high, so I'm sure that made the head gasket problem more obvious.

When riding around in stop-n-go traffic or lots of lights, she would run really hot, and the fan would not be able to get the temps down unless I managed to get on the highway, at which time the temp would come down to around 33%. The coolant reservoir had plenty of coolant in it, and it wasn't even hot. When I got her home and opened the radiator cap, the coolant level was pretty low. I re-filled the rad with Prestone "All makes. All models" coolant. This seemed to fix the problem, for a while, anyway.

However, one day I did a little high-speed super-slab blast and I thought I smelled the sweet smell of anti-freeze a little. The reservoir looked good, but the bike did seem to be running hotter. I rode it a few more days, and sure enough, the fan was not able to bring down the temps when idling. So, I looked in the radiator again, and it was LOW AGAIN. So, I replaced the radiator cap, the hose between the rad and the reservoir, and re-filled the rad with Prestone again. Once again, she was fine for a while.

Then today, I did another high-speed blast, and once again smelled anti-freeze. I backed off, but she did seem to be running hotter, maybe 60% on the gauge. When I arrived at Bear Mountain, I stopped the engine but left the switch in the "on" position to keep the fan running and cool off the engine off. Then I let her sit for a few minutes while I admired the view.

When I got back, I started the bike, and white smoke started coming out of the exhaust. After revving her a little bit, the smoke slowed down to just a bit, but didn't completely stop. She started running hot pretty quickly, though. The oil was clean, not milkshake, so no coolant was getting into the oil.

Since the oil wasn't contaminated, I decided to high-tail it home so I could avoid having to get towed. Whenever the temp gauge got close to the red I pulled in the clutch and shut off the kill switch, letting the air flowing over the bike and radiator cool her off again. I'd coast down every hill like this, and only start the engine when going uphill or when I was going too slow in traffic, but I never allowed the temps to get into the red.

When I finally got her home, she was still smoking at idle, that sickly sweet smell of coolant, and the smoke would rise and disappear quickly, indicating that it was steam.

So, now I'm thinking that the head gasket(s) was starting to go all along. I believe that this was where the coolant was disappearring to (into one or more combustion chambers) before the gasket finally gave way even more today.

So, I'm dying to tear into her, but I cannot find the information about how to keep the cams from turning when the timing belts come off. Luckily, I hadn't replaced the timing belts just yet. My understanding is that you must keep the cams from turning when the belt tension is loosened, and this is difficult because at TDC on #1 some open valve is working to try to rotate the camshaft.

Can someone fill me in on the technique for holding the camshafts if I don't have the Honda tool?

Anybody know the best place to buy either a Honda OEM gasket kit, or a Fel-Pro gasket set?

Is there anything else I should do at the same time? I've read about the oil passage o-rings on another thread, and I'll be replacing the timing belts, but is there anything else I should do while in there?