1984 Venture Royale Head replacement

[Southernlightning]

Hey guys.. Getting an 84 venture running for my son. I am looking to pull the front head off. I am getting blow back through the vacuum port and carburetor on the number 2 cylinder. It looks like a intake valve has failed, broken cam or valve spring.. Something is wrong. I just wanted to know if anyone has pulled the front head without pulling the motor and whether it is too much of a pain and should just pull the motor. I am looking at getting it out and just picking up a low mileage head. What do you think guys? I have the service manual and can do the work. Is there an article on here about doing this? I couldn't find one with the search tool.

 

Chuck

[Flyinfool]

Welcome to the funny farm................

 

I seem to remember someone on here replacing head gaskets on a 1st gen and not pulling the motor.

 

If you are going head shopping and swapping, I would look for a set of V-Max heads. By the time you get the front head off you are not far from getting the other one off.

[Southernlightning]

Great idea... What else do I need to change to make the VMAX heads work on the Venturr? I know they are the same motor but will the everything else work for it. Thanks for the reply. Going to start tearing it down now.

[Flyinfool]

If you do the Vmax heads you may not want to give this one to your son, you might want it for yourself.................

 

I was able to find a post about removing the rear head with engine in bike, but not one for the front. If it can be done I am sure someone on here has done it. I am not sure what all parts if any would have to be replaced to use the max heads.

[van avery]

Just had the same problem on a 88 royale. Pulled the front head and had to lap both intake valves and one of the exhaust valves. Follow the manual, it is a little confusing but works. I did not unbolt the cam gears as the book describes. Note the cam location marks before you disassemble and be at the correct t2 marking.

Yes. engine was left in the bike.

[Trader]

I've found v-max heads on eBay...but none I saw had the cams in.

I would assume the cams are different (more aggressive) than the stock venture?

[Flyinfool]

You assume correctly.

[bongobobny]

Yup!! Valves are bigger and cam is more aggressive! Chances are the cams went into a Venture, even just changing the cams to the VMax cams makes a difference...

[Flyinfool]

I would think that even the bigger valves with the Venture cam would also be an improvement.

[Yammer Dan]

I think if I ever get into that I would want to change the heads and cams. Had dreams about that just no time.

[Southernlightning]

Thanks for all the input guys. I am in the process of pulling the head off now. I looked too and couldn't find what I needed to make the swap to V-MAX heads. I am going to just go with a Venture head if I need to. I read through the service manual and it is a bit confusing. I am going to go by what you said in the previous post. I am going to pull it apart and see what the problem is. If I need to there are some low mileage heads on e-bay. Already ordered the head gaskets. I will post pictures of what I find. I may throw together a post on doing the front head removal. Might as well go through the carbs while they are off. Had it running before this happened.

[bongobobny]

For the VMax heads you don't need anything more than with the Venture heads...

 

EDIT: Oh, never mind, figured out you meant you couldn't find a set of VMax heads! Duh!

[Southernlightning]

Well guys. You can take the front head off in the bike with the engine in. I got it off and just replaced the head. Ordered one off Ebay and it was low miles. This forum and technical library are amazing. I cleaned the carbs while I had them off, new tires, changed the brakes, dumped the final drive oil and changed it, changed the oil. synch'd the carbs, cleaned out the gas tank, new fuel filter, moved the TCI, fixed all the broken plastic, polished the windshield and buffed out the paint. Can't thank you guys enough for all the help to get this going.It runs awesome.. These are great bikes and I made a good choice after seeing all the stuff on here. He is riding it now and I am very comfortable with it being a good choice for him. Thank you very much. Best $12 bucks I ever spent!!!

[Prairiehammer]

Were you able to ascertain the problem with the original head?

[Southernlightning]

It looks like at some point the PO dropped a screw or pin or something into the intake and it made its way down to the valve and somehow part of it got into the cylinder. It beat the crap out of the seat for the #2 intake and part of it got into the cylinder and bounced around in there as well. We never had any of it apart so I know it wasn't us. I just wonder how long that had been in there before we bought it.The piston and cylinder were okay. I could have tried to fix it but, for 40 bucks I got a head on EBAY with 10K less miles than the bike has on it. It looked perfect when we got it. Now I have everything I need to replace anything else that may happen. It really wasn't that tough to do this exercise either. Removal was easy once I got everything else off. Carbs, radiator and YICS chamber. Checked the compression when I was all done and they were all within spec. The bike was running when we looked at it but not very well.

[van avery]

Glad you got it back together. Nice looking ride. Hope he enjoys it for many smiles.

[Yammer Dan]

That's a good looking 1st Gen. Good Luck!!

[Southernlightning]

Thanks guys for all the help!! He loves the bike!!

[Patch]

That by the way is a nice looking 84!

 

I have a little different perspective regarding the VMax heads over the stock ones; I went through this with two other bikes that I still own and decided that the one we used for touring needs more economy then whiplash. Of course we can unleash the horses through "lift and duration" add port size to the mixe tune velocity exedra, but- nothing is for nothing, right, higher consumption is inevitable, piston loading of course takes longer to show up but it will..

 

Just looking at it from a touring perspective

 

Patch's