Hey guys, new to the forum and would be getting my first bike. I found this on Craigslist, the guy says it has 13,900 miles on it, however he says that there is a small leak from the head gasket. is that normal?? and would it be expensive to fix? heres the link to the CL posting. any help would be greatly appreciated.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/mcy/1718451906.html

btw i offered him $800 and he says if he doesnt get any other offers by the end of the week he'll take my offer. good deal?

Looks like it's missing bar ends and some rust on exhaust.

$800 seems like a good deal if it's in good mechanical condition.

I think 800 would be an awesome deal for that bike. It looks like it's pretty clean. I'm not sure that's the original paint, but it's not that uncommon for GSs to be painted. It's also not uncommon at all for exhausts to rust. I'm in the habit of recoating mine with hi-temp spray paint once a year, so don't even worry about that, as long as it doesn't look like it's serious. Surface rust is ok.

The head gasket probably didn't get put on right after the valves were checked. It's easy to replace, so at most you'd just have to get a new one. If you're lucky you might be able to pull off the head, which is an easy job, put some gasket sealer on it, and put it back on.

Hope it works out for you!

Head gasket and valve cover gasket are two very different things.  If it's the head, it is not common, and would be some trouble to fix.  Not impossible, but not a 1 hour job.   If it is the valve cover gasket, it's easy.  But if the sellers are "no strangers to maintaining bikes" and they said "head gasket", it's the harder of the two.

Quote from: Paulcet on April 30, 2010, 07:37:04 PM
Head gasket and valve cover gasket are two very different things.  If it's the head, it is not common, and would be some trouble to fix.  Not impossible, but not a 1 hour job.   If it is the valve cover gasket, it's easy.  But if the sellers are "no strangers to maintaining bikes" and they said "head gasket", it's the harder of the two.

very true. make sure which one it is before purchasing. honestly, im not sure how different it is for motorcycles compared to cars, but on cars it's usually best to get the head resurfaced before torquing the head back onto the crank case with a new head gasket.  if the head gasket is leaking, it could mean a warped head which wont be easily fixed, without getting it machined again.
800 sounds pretty good though. valve cover gasket is a cheap 30 dollar, half hour change. a bit more if you do valve clearances since the head's off anyways. =D

good luck friend.

head gasket is ~ $40 i paid 36 for mine. still have it saved though. mine was leaking too but i just pulled it off, sanded the head, sanded the cylinders and sanded the gasket. all with 400 grit, put it back together ran fine. all in all taking it apart sanding, and reinstalling took me about an hour and a half to 2 hours.

Well he didn't respond back to me, i shot him another email with a little better offer. hopefully he hasn't sold it and is still comtemplating my offer.

I'm not *Sure* it's the right one.. but Bike Bandit has a "gasket kit" to rebuild an engine for $150.  P/N 477272-001.  It shows they have the cylinder head gasket for $23. Cylinder Gasket for $28.  Cylinder Gasket for $7.   So it kind of depends WHICH gasket it is "leaking" and why it's leaking.. Warped heads would be bad news.  Clutch gasket $14.. magneto gasket $9..  So I guess it just kind of depends how mechanically inclined you are and how many gaskets you want to replace to chase the problem down.  

I would get the bike checked out by a professional before buying. but is checking that stuff routine when taking it to a mechanic?

In my experience a motorcycle is not like a car when you buy it used.  You never really say, "Hey, I want to take it to my mechanic to check it out".  You can I guess, heck, maybe we all should.

If that guy sells that bike for $800 that is a steal!!!

Really? How else would i check if it is a warped head?

Really the only way to find out if the head is warped is to take it all apart and check it against a surface you KNOW is flat (e.g. a Machinists Lathe, etc.)  I think it runs ~$100 to have a head machined.. and then you get into issues of changing your compression etc if they take off too much surface.. It's not exactly common to have a warped head.. but it does happen.  Sometimes you can get away with using a high temp rtv silicone and it will hold for a while...  Not trying to scare you away from that bike.. just trying to give you a heads up for "Potential" problems.  Worst case scenario I think you can get a used gs500 engine for like $300-400?  Correct me if I'm wrong guys!

Here's the email i got from the guy,

QuoteHi Dru!

I got quite a bit of traffic with my original 1,000$ price, and then again when I reposted at 1,200.
So now, I've re-posted up to 1400, but haven't had any calls.

It looks like I'm going to wait till tomorrow, and then re-post at 1,200.

If you're interested at the 1200 price point, you can have first dibs on the bike before I repost.
Otherwise, I'll eventually drop it back to 1,000 if nobody takes it by the end of the week.


cheers,
/Eric.

I told him that i was offering $1000. We'll have to wait and see.

Still, a thousand isn't bad either.  I paid  $1500 for my '92, lol.  Impulse but it had 10,000 with full vance and hines exhaust, k and n, rejet, new(er) tires, etc.

I paid $400 for my 92 with 9600 miles on it but the bike wasn't running when I got it.  Needed to clean the tank and carbs and she really needs new tires since they have a slow leak, I think it sat for like 5 yrs or something.  The tank was leaking so I had to seal the tank too!  For a bike that old I would inquire about the condition on the tank just so you are aware.  I would say 800 to 1000 is where you want to be!  

Thanks for all your guys' input, Ill keep you posted on the purchase situation! 

You offered him $800 and he said he's wait to the end of the week. Now you offer him a grand and still it's a week?

He's dicking you around. Either he's trying to get you up even higher - which he has done easily already once - or he sells it to someone else while you keep a hang'n on. As he said, he's had Quite A Bit Of traffic. How many others like you is he playing?

I know you don't want to lose this... but in My Eyes... he has not kept his word once already. What else is he shadey about?

My personal opinion is... buy Nothing with an oil leak and certainly nothing that's leaking from the heads. You'll be buying someone else's troubles. BUT, if you're totally after a project bike, then this could be right for you.

Michael

You know I'm beginning to think the same thing. I mean we are talking about an 18 year old bike here. And i really don't want a "project" as my first bike. I'll have enough things to worry about without having to worry about if my bike's going to break down.

my first bike was a project...

3 yrs before I took my first ride on it =/

tank had rust, forks needed rebuilding, tires were gone, carbs were gunked, signals were cracked, I was lazy..

It has been a lot of fun rebuilding it though, i've learned a lot. Well worth the effort to learn these skills.

I have to admit, $800 is a pretty good deal.  But I see GS's on craigslist all the time for about $1500-1600, that are newer, have less mileage, and don't have any "issues".