Did it on 10th May. Went to Donongton for the masters racing (fantastic meeting - love seeing classic racing machines from my youth being thrashed around the track as though any bits that might break are still available off the shelf at your local motor factors)
On the way there giving it a lung full and the noise from the back suddenly increased about 20 dB. Stopped in the next laybye and my second silencer had come adrift (joining pipe not quite long enough - no. 21 on the list of things to do). After waiting for about 20 mins for it all to cool down a bit it was easy enough to put back together and tighten the clamp up a bit more to stop it coming apart again. So off we go again but taking it a bit steadier now, get to Donington no problems apart from missing the first race.
On the way back take it fairly easy as well but coming through Stoke temp guage quickly rises to about 109C and steam coming out the back! Pull off onto a side road to investigate sharpish. After it cooled down I filled it up with about 3 litres of water but no sign of any leaks. So off we go again keeping a close eye on the temp guage. Rock steady at 84C until we get just the other side of Nantwich when it starts climbing rapidly. Pull over sharpish and let it cool down again. Takes about 3 litres of water again (kindly donated by some sheep in a field from thier drinking trough) but still no signs of any leaks. This time we just got onto the drive at home when the temp started to rocket again plus the engine felt as though it was missing on one cylinder as well. So suspect head gasket failure.
Checked the oil in the morning and there was a lot more of it than when we set out the day before plus there was milky crap around the breather filters, so pretty sure one of the head gaskets had given up and at least some of the water was ending up in the sump.
Well no big deal, I had never opened the engine up before I bolted it in the back so the gaskets were probably the originals, 15 or 16 years old and left standing for best part of a year then subjected to 12 psi of boost they never expected (and maybe a big boost spike when the exhaust came apart) so just replace them. Well Honda could get the left hand one in 2 days from Belgium but the right hand one was on back order from Japan, expected mid July! Plus they were £54 each after discount! Nobody in the UK does any aftermarket gaskets either.
Ebay to the rescue. Supplier in the states with no name gaskets $25 for a pair of head gaskets, $45 for a full top end set and $49 express international carriage, total price £74 for 2 pairs of gaskets and all the rest of the top end bits and pieces. Ordered last friday and they arrived tuesday, bloody brilliant service, just hope the gaskets last till at least July.
Bit of investigation today revealed one plug very oily but compression on all 6 cylinders is spot on, very strange. Hope to do the gasket swap this weekend so should find out more then.
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