I have a 1986 gs450 with low compression so i have bought a 1989 gs500 jug and pistons each with low wear/miles. Stock standard new rings. Gs500 head gasket and o-rings. I saw a thread talking about 1983 gr650 cams and i bought a set. I know i need to swap to GS450 cam gears. Beyond that do i set them just the same? Any other parts i need? (Springs?) i did get the 500 cam chain tensioner as well. its an adventurebike application so torque and slow speed woods with occasional street riding. I'm all ears for any advice. I'm a newby so don't skip the details..... thanks very much!!

OMFG ... if you get it to work, let us all know all the details.
I just stuffed a stocj GR650 motor in the GS frame and called it a day. Yea not running yet.
Cool.
Buddha..

Quote from: The Buddha on December 26, 2020, 05:38:02 PM
I just stuffed a stocj GR650 motor in the GS frame and called it a day. Yea not running yet.

Just 10 more years and I'm sure you will have it running.

Cylinder arrived today. I WILL have it running within the next 2 weeks. Im waiting on all the other parts. Not sure if im gonna run the gr650 cams. We will see.

The GS500E pistons and cylinder makes sense.

What are the GR650 cam specs?

Quote from: Bluesmudge on December 27, 2020, 12:16:07 PM

Quote from: The Buddha on December 26, 2020, 05:38:02 PM
I just stuffed a stocj GR650 motor in the GS frame and called it a day. Yea not running yet.

Just 10 more years and I'm sure you will have it running.

Hey, I resemble that remark ...

Wait, make it 15 yrs. Cos its been almost that long since I stuffed them in ... I have 2, and a GR I hacked the tail off but had a base gasket leak ... which is a chronic problem on the GR, I think I need to fix the stock one, find out what works cos its a chronic issue that typically doesn't get fixed at first try. There's excellent equipment to do head and cyl mating faces, but base mating faces are basically SOL. That + the exhaust ports on the GR->GS run smack into the frame.

Cool.
Buddha.

Update: it lives!! I fired it up last weekend and have ridden it an hour or so. I did NOT install the GR650 cams yet. I will later down the line. I know the jetting on my brand new Mikuni VM30 carbs are off a little. Before i mess with that, im adding "Ultimate Flow Optimizers" to the slides. Suppose to add explosive throttle response and 1 HP per 100cc. I will review and update  that claim later.

Great news! I run 2001 GS500 cams and carbs in my 82 GS450 and I suspect the cylinders are quite worn now as compression is down. It's done nearly 100k kms since I rebuilt it when it already had 96k kms on it, and all I did was a quick hone and fresh rings so no suprises if it needs some attention now, so I've contemplated the GS500 cylinder swap although I'd be tempted to go a little larger than stock as well.

What was your final combination of gaskets etc? Did you use the GS450 or GS500 base and head gaskets?

I used a gs500 base gasket and gs450 head gasket.

Awesome, thank you kindly!