Valve replacement???

[Breyno]

Hi all,

On a recent ride a mate told me I needed to change the valves out on any 93 GL1500. He said he could hear it backfiring as I was coming off the gas, and there was a small puff of smoke around the same time. I can't say I have seen the smoke, but I have heard some small backfire type noise which hasn't really bothered me until he said that.

Otherwise the old girl runs like a dream. I'm not concerned(or should I be).

[Rodzim]

Backfires on deceleration is not a symptom of a bad valve, more than likely your idle air mixture is a tad rich. The backfiring you are hearing is raw gas hitting a smoldering hot exhaust manifold.
A bad valve will give you a misfire all the time and low power.

[WingAdmin]

If you really want to know, you can do a wet/dry compression/leakdown test that will tell you for sure if you've got valve issues. But I agree, this is far more likely due to fuel/air mixture and valve problems. GL1500's rarely have issues with their valves.