i bought the bike in 2008 w/ 7,xxx miles. put 3,500 miles on it when the head gasket blew. I had a friend that worked in the parts dept at the local honda dealership who replaced the head gasket for me. he re installed the motor and said the timing was off so took the motor back out, bought the service manual and set the timing to what he thought was right. at this point it had been about 6 months since dropping it off w/ him so i was tired of waiting. i picked the bike up along with the motor (not put together). I was in college at the time and didnt have the time to mess with it or the money to take it somewhere so the bike sat with the motor beside it on the shop floor for the next year. i finally graduated and started working on her. had the carbs rebuilt, installed the motor. When i first got the motor installed (a few weeks ago) it was definately not making the clicking noise. once i got the carbs back last week installed them which is when i tried cranking it, noticed the noise and thought that it was timing (spark plug firing w/ the valves open. played around w/ the timing several times and just couldnt get it right. had a guy who does timing at a local motorcycle shop come by and set the timing so that is dead on now. That was this past friday. still clicking and wont crank or run on gas but will fire and run ROUGH on starter fluid. FML

 

Yes that is exactly the timing I'm referring to. I was able to borrow a compression tester that would fit and the results are 0, 79, 60, 72. (1,2,3,4) <insert 4 letter word here> time to drop the motor AGAIN!!!! I'm thinking I bent a valve when the timing was off. Anybody have any other thoughts??

 

pretty sure he did, will find out for sure once i get the head off, hopefully tomorrow but you are right the other 3 are quite a bit low as well. manual says compression should be 185-191 psi <several consecutive 4 letter words>. i'll perform a wet compression test as well to check the piston rings however i doubt all of them would be worn as to cause a drop in compression in such an equal proportion (except cylinder #1). Any thoughts on what could be causing this if its not the head gasket? i got the cams out tonight and one of the exhaust valves on #1 is stuck open so thats where my odd sound is coming from. i'll report my findings once i know more.