I pressed the starter button, fully prepared for a mechanical catastrophe, but it just fired right up and began to purr like a kitten.

Oh, how I had missed the sound of the GS.

So what started as my first valve clearance adjust, quickly turned into bent valves when I put the cams back on out of time. Why? Because I had no idea what I was doing. So now, 3 months later I actually know how an internal combustion engine works and a little bit about how to work on one. Put in a "new" head and deglazed/installed a newer set of cylinders while I was at it. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, and had a lot of other things going on, thats why it took so long. But it is actually running. I'm not ashamed to say that I am proud of myself.

The funny part is, even after replacing the entire top end it was still cheaper than having the dealer do the valve clearance check.

I set the valve clearances to GSJack's specifications and the bike seems much happier. Warm up times were 15 minutes before, probably 45 seconds now 
Thats awesome, because I really dislike long warm up times.

Here is a video of it starting up in the entry way of my Fraternity.
http://youtu.be/D1l2KyPrtjI?hd=1

I couldn't have resurrected the GS from all my mistakes if it wasn't for GStwin.com, so thanks everyone who helped me out along the way!

Excellent job man. Really glad to hear that everything has worked in your favor in the end. It's sounding great. I really love the color scheme of your bike!

Whereabouts were these valve clearances picked up from? I've been thinking about setting my valves sometime soon.

See reply #6 in this thread:

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=58991.msg672287#msg672287


GSJack says:

"I went to the wider gaps on exhaust, chose .003-.005" (.08 - .13 mm) which was about the same as spec was for my 82 CB750 Honda that I put 80k miles on."

This crap is such a common occurrence it seems lately this year.
Crap as in upper engine problems.
Hmm 3rd or 4th person in the past few months.
Including myself!!!

Mine was due to being an idiot and cranking the engine with a stuck valve bucket which broke the exhaust valve and dinged up the piston and cylinder head.
thought it was an electrical problem ><

Mines also been fairly cheap so far thanks to Cbr.
Except the cost of gaskets and other tools I needed

my baby started right up as well when I had everything set back into place.

Now im getting an even 90 compression from each cylinder tho.
Most likely from tight valves as I read, which new shims came yesterday to fix that 
As it sounds actually Better then it did all season long last year when it was running fine.

Glad you got it sorted out tho and fixed 

Now its my turn! hahaha

Blue I know that feeling too. When Flick started up  I'm soo happy to be back riding! We should make the top end club LOL!

Congrats on getting your ride back!

Mary

You are now wiser, you know how an engine works, you have knowledge of how to rebuild and put together an engine properly.

You will never have to pay for that service again.

Welcome to the club!

Nice job. 
I have a couple spare engines that reportedly have low compression (I haven't run them yet). Stop over and let's fix them! 

That's a super satisfying feeling! I like working on engines, but the one thing I hate is that you have no idea how it's going to work when you're done. You could spend months rebuilding a motor, and until you hit that starter(or sit there kicking it over and over until your leg goes numb like my yz) you won't know if it's gonna fire up and run, if it's gonna be making an awful noise, or if it's just not gonna start at all. Too much suspense!