Cracked heads

[Zorakz]

Bought a barn find 1981 gl1100
Guy said calipers, carbs, starter should be all I would need to get this thing rolling
I got it running and my oil turned to coffee creamer
I know that water is getting in the crankcase
So I removed the valve covers and around a few of the bolts are spiderweb cracks, hairline fractures
I could use some expert advice on whether or not I bought a trash bike
Long time lurker
First time posting
Any help would be appreciated
Cheers

[MattMcCoy]

I would check the water pump. Oil and coolant will mix when it or its seals fail. If the impeller has side-to-side play or is made of Bakelite, it needs replaced along with all the front end gaskets. After that, I would then perform a leak-down test to see if you have a bad head gasket.

[Zorakz]

i wound up swapping out the water pump seals and the head gaskets. seems like its not making milkshakes anymore but im concerned abot the cracks in the heads them selves

[Rambozo]

Sometimes aluminum castings can get surface defects like that from the casting process. You need to grind off the surface and do a dye penetrant test to see if those are real cracks. They don't look like they are in the typical high stress areas, but not something you can diagnose from a photo.

[Zorakz]

Thanks rambozo! I’m going to look into the dye test. What it looks like to me is the heads got over torqued. The cracks look like they spiderweb out from the bolt holes. The top right bolt holding on the valve cover seems like won’t torque down all the way, makes me think it got stripped out by the previous owner. Based on that I feel like it might be a possibility PO was torquing into next week.

[indianakid]

You are correct that what you are seeing are indications of cracks........ however they are not cracks in your parts they are reflections of cracks in the casting dies that made your parts. They in no way affect the performance of the part just the appearance.