things to do with head off

Is there anything I should consider doing while I have the head off?

I'm leaning towards just leaving well enough alone and getting things back together with the minimum fuss, but if it's worth trying to gently polish the ports or anything similar I might consider it.

I've always been an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" sort of guy and haven't done any performance work, so please forgive my dumb questions.

Personally, I'd just lap the valves and adjust the valve lash. If you are going to mess with the ports then you need to spend some time studying so you can make them flow better and not worse.

Chet, agree with Steell. However, you must ask yourself; how was it running before? How long since the head has been off?

Don't worry about port 'n polish, just a de-coke.
You may as well fit new valve seals as well as Steell's suggested work. Also, if you were down on compression, new rings will give her a lift, just by removing the barrels.

Regardz

what they said,as long as youre down that far you might as well throw some rings and base gasket under it!

Chet! Gasket kits cost money... DISASSEMBLE THE HEAD! REPEAT.... DISASSEMBLE THE HEAD!!!!!

FIRST, get yourself a home made valve spring compressor. You can easily make one from a 9" C clamp and weld a nut onto the end so it can reach around and hold a valve in place. You will need an adapter. If you send my buddy, roy-b-boy-b a note and promise him a couple bucks, he can make one out of an old bucket. This will allow you to compress the valve when it is off the bike and remove the split keepers that hold all the other stuff in place.

SECOND... ok, you have the valve train out. Put the pieces in an egg crate or baggies to be able to put it back where it came from. Now the first step is to take a wire brush wheel and clean all the combustion out of the chamber. Use a dremmel with some sort of an attachment to clean the ports up... (wire brush again). Once it is clean and the gasket mating surface is clean, run a thread chase down the plug holes and if there is any questionable thread, install a TimeSert or other thread repair so you won't drop shavings down into your engine later.

THIRD, replace the valve stem oil seals. Clean up the valves using a wire brush to remove deposits then lap the.

LAST.... before installing, stick the valves in the guides and wiggle them around. Any seem loose? Might want to get some new guides and a valve job in a machine shop that specializes on bike stuff. Most likely everything will be fine and this won't be needed but I like to check. Then measure stem height. If the stems are out of spec, new seats and a valve job is needed but the stem height can be used to calculate which shims will be required when you reassemble and LAST measure your springs. Sagging valve springs will allow the valves to float at higher rpm... that is hang open a tad... and you will lose power and might just end up bending one.

By disassembling and going through these basic steps you will just plumb feel better about yourself and it will make you feel like you did what you could to make your bike run right. If you don't, you will get the nagging feeling that you missed something. The next item on your list of questions should be about the cam chain and tensioning bits bwhahahaha REDO REDO

If trying to leave well enough alone. Matching intake tract to carb manifold with a small die grinder or something similiar is good idea. I would go far enough to lab valves and put new valve seals in. Clean carbon from piston top and combustion chamber too.