Attn. Guru's and Advice givers.. THANK YOU

[saamiam]

Before I start, I want to extend my deepest gratitude and thanks to all of you Old Schoolers.. Those of you who have, over the years torn these magnificiant beasts apart, fixed, restored, rebuilt, analyzed and beautified them so much that you know these machines like you know your own names.. Your experience is vast, wisdom near godlike. What makes you fine fine gents so special is that you willingly sacrafice the one commodity that can not be replaced and knowing you will not get it back, you give it freely and with pure sincerity. Time. You take your personal time to help as best you can people like me. Tool hacks, shade tree apprentice level DIYers.
I'm sure I speak for all those like me when I say that without good kind folks like you, we would be ****, broke and broke down. From the site admin who ran my post in the monthly news letter "How was my '85 even running" to the super mega guru that spent no less than a couple hours im sure articulating a masterful reply that not only guided me to a great and proper fix, but made it easy.
I stand at full Marine Corps attention and salute you with the crispest and most respectful salute a Marine can muster!! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You and God Bless you.

Now for the latest "awe ****!!" I blew a head gasket!! This is new territory for me as ive never pulled a head before. But after reading a thousand posts I pulled it without much trouble. As soon as i got the head off (cylinders 1&3) I took pictures in hopes you fine gents would look them over and tell me what you see.. It was cylinder 3 where the gasket failed and flooded the cylinder with so much water my exhaust pipe turned into a pressure washer nozzel!!

Looking forward to gaing more wisdom from your analysis of the pics.

Semper Fidelis,
Jeff "The Road Couch guy" Paquin

[nwkwinger]

I'm far from an expert on these bikes, but, to me, there appears to be a break in the fire ring of your head gasket on cylinder #3. The fire ring is the round, metal part that goes directly around your cylinder to (you guessed it) keep the "fire" from your cylinder fining inside the cylinder. In your first picture, if you draw an imaginary line horizontal across the area where your valves would both "touch" that line, over to the left, I can see what appears to ba a horizontal break in the fire ring. It's slightly below the imaginary line. My advice would be to clean the head up, take it to a machine shop, and have them check it for flatness. If it's within specs there, I'd assume that it was a failure form old age (we all know what that feels like) and just put a new gasket back in, put it back together, and run it to see what it does. If I'm wrong on this, I hope some one will correct me quickly.

[DenverWinger]

Looks like it failed "Right There" (blue circles)

Screenshot

If you do what nwkwinger said, you should be good to go.

Clean out the bolt holes real good with brake cleaner, and don't forget the moly paste on the bolt threads and the flat surface under the bolt head.

You might need new o-rings for the coolant tube. Your local ACE hardware will have a suitable replacement, just take the coolant tube with you and find some that "fit" right. A little lube on the o-rings helps the tubes slide back into the fittings.

After reassembly warm the engine up good, let it cool overnight and then re-torque the bolts in sequence (loosen half-turn, then reset to torque).

[Rednaxs60]

Your first picture of the head shows a carbon build up under the exhaust valve, not a lot from what I can see. Carbon build up under the exhaust valve(s) is a primary source of low compression and will get worse overt time. I would recommend taking the other head off while you are at this, take them in and have a machine shop to dish them up. Seems when one is done, the other generally follows. Pick up a set of valve seals as well. Have followed your progress, in for a penny - in for a pound. Just a thought. Cheers