Honda Dominator head problem

Feck me looks like it was 1997 when I last posted here....maybe I didn't
google hard enough.

Anyway, I would appreciate some feedback on this.

My 1999 Honda Dominator ate a camshaft and rockers at 20,000 miles. This
is a known problem, due to the cam and rockers being at the end of the
oil supply.

Anyway. About 2-300 miles later and it's happened agin :-( How could that
happen? The oil level was OK. The oil was getting there because they
could see oil in the head.

The garage that is fixing it has recommendde swapping the oil pump;
apparently it looks OK but could be failing under pressure.

Has anybody here ever had anything like this happen. Ever had a cam go so
quickly?

Should I piss-and-moan about it to the garage (Twistgrip, Radford,
Nottingham) for getting it wrong the first time?

Any feedback mucho appreciated.

Cheers,

Mal.

 

No matey. Just give them direct access to your bank account and let
them help themselves whenever they feel like it.

Of fucking course you should gripe a bit - like telling them to fucking
do the job right this time, lend you another bike until yours is fixed
and give you ten blow-jobs per hour until you've had enough, and then,
only then, you might not sue them into medievel penury for the **** up
they have made.

 

It might not be the pump: could be a blockage or dodgy pressure relief
valve (if there is one).

Sounds like they've picked the most expensive option to look at first!

--
-Pip

TL1000R The Quietly Booming Banana
Guzzi Quota 1000: The Black Tractor
YZ250: Rough 'n' Tumble
Mongrel DT125: The Rust(ic) Garden Ornament

 

Well mine has done 58k and it's still on its original cam and rockers...

There must be a blockage.

Definitely. I very much doubt it's the oil pump.

Y'know that little cover over the oil filter housing?
It *is* on the right way, with the little notches lining up?
Because if not, the oil feed holes will not line up, and that pipe
is the oil feed to the top end...
Just a thought.

 

That was probably left there from splash effect earlier.

Utter bollocks. ither they put something in wrong, or used a cheap
pattern gasket that obscured a vital oilway, or they used loads of
gasket goo and bunged up the oil screen or an oilway.

Damn right.

 

That would be 1897 not 1997.

Quite rightly so. Write to Honda San.

MMmmm very suspicious. How log a guarantee did they give you?

Probably bollox. But of course they tested the oil pump in the fist
instance.

Old Honda's like my CX500 or VF750 used to do it quite regular.

F*cking right. One doesn't pay out to have some thing unfixed does one?

You've got it.

 

Lozzo will be along shortly, 'cos he knows these motors.
It is basically a overbored XBR500 engine.[1]

[1] Did anyone else see the glaring mistake in 'Bike' mag when
they said that the Dominator's RFVC was not special to Honda?

 

John Munro said...

I don't know enough about them to make any viable comment. I know more
about the 250RS engines, which are substantially different.

 

I had an XBR500 eat a cam lobe / follower. My fix was to take the
follower out and run it on 3 valves. I'm sure it did it because the last
owner didn't put enough oil in the oil tank.

 

They were. Never even had an oil filter, christ. ;-)