I wonder why

[Frank]

I'm heavy into repairing/replacing parts on my 85 Wing, fork seals, steering stem bearings, timing belt pulley, head gaskets.....anyway of course I've been reading and reading and reading through the steps , tips, tricks ect, any info I can find on the topics so it's set in my mind and I only have to do things once (ya, right! Huh?)

While reading through the head gasket replacement it said to NOT remove the carbon ring from the top of the cylinders or it will cause it to use oil but then it goes on to say that you can clean up the head and valves. I found this very interesting. I know that on old car motors that working over the head can bring the compression up so high that it blows out old rings. Now I know I'm dealing with a much different beast and that the rings are way durable on Honda motors so I'm not so worried about that but it is curious about not removing the carbon ring from the top of the cylinders. Hours and hours of searching and I have found nothing explaining why this is so.

Being told not to do something with the only explanation being "because I told you so" always irks me. Ha I can only assume that it has something to do with the pistons running horizontal vs vertical. I'm going to be curious to see if this carbon appears to be thicker at the top or bottom, how far down into the cylinder it extends (these are also zero clearance motors), what the tops of the pistons look like, at least one should be very clean from getting steam blasted. Since it says that it will increase oil consumption, my thinking would be that it helps to keep oil from being sucked into the cylinder? Just something else that makes me go Hmmmm

[bs175dths]

Well, I gently cleaned the very, very, VERY, small carbon ring build up when I replaced my head gaskets. (I hadn't read not to) I haven't seen an increase of oil consumption and it has been 15K miles or so. I also gently cleaned the heads. My gaskets hadn't completely broken so no one cylinder was 'steam cleaned'.
The gasket of one head had begun to weaken, water was being injected into one cylinderin very small amounts. After a 30 minute run on the freeway, a large puff of steam was produced at start up after a five minute shut down.
I would be interested in knowing the whys and what fors of not removing the carbon ring although there is nothing I can do to put mine back....

other than, ride, ride, ride -LOL

Any educators out there?
We are two eager students, YEARNING for knowledge.


Thanks in advance.

-Riding On

[Frank]

How many miles did you have on your motor when you had to replace your head gasket? I have about 175K on this motor.

Some of you guys who have done a head gasket replacement what did you do about the carbon ring?

I guess I'll just make a judgement call when I get the head off

[bs175dths]

about 124K miles

[Frank]

Thanks for the reply at least I know if I do remove it that it's not gonna start sucking like some huge amounts of oil up into the cylinder and just create a worse problem.

[bs175dths]

I would just suggest, if you do clean it off, use light abrasive.
to be honest, I was amazed at the cylinder cross hatching which was still quit evident, even after all those miles.

[Frank]

I've found I can easily remove the carbon ring with a single edge razor blade held at about a 33º angle to the cylinder, it just scrapes right off.