Where would I get a used BMW R-series engine?

<boggle>

You have to change the valves when you service it?
--
Champ

ZX10R | GPz750turbo | GSX-R 600 racer
My advice as your attorney is to buy a motorcycle
To email me, neal at my domain should work.

 

these 1920s-era engines aren't all that, are they?

 

I can't recall the interval but it's something like 60,000 miles. No
different to engines needing a cam belt or the like. Remember it's
incredibly easy to do on an Airhead. 90 mins a side.

 

No.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14328327@N08/1641351164/

 

I'd say it was significantly different.

<shrug> Still 3 hours, plus a couple of head gaskets etc.

Not impressed.

--
Champ

ZX10R | GPz750turbo | GSX-R 600 racer
My advice as your attorney is to buy a motorcycle
To email me, neal at my domain should work.

 

I'd agree. I've changed cambelts on the Wing. I wouldn't want to
change the valves.

Me either.

Owt that requires "head-off" mainteneance short of 100k miles is
lamentable.

If UJMs needed that level of owner interference there'd be a bloody
outcry.

 

You have *no* idea how fucking akward some cage cam belts are to change,
airhead valves are a doddle by comparison.

Perhaps a good comparison is the new VFR v-tec valve timing service. Over
£500 and a day of work. That's every 12 or 24k miles IIRC.

 

Good point; I'll not fit variable valve timing to the Boxer when I do
the valves, then.

 

What the flying **** have cage cambelts got to do with this?

Replacing engine parts at that regularity is not rendered acceptable
just because it's "easy".

 

You deliberately snipped my reference to Honda V-Tec VFR's, perhaps more
applicable.

 

And you've deliberately picked the single most expensive and
complicated Japanese bike to service.
--
Champ

ZX10R | GPz750turbo | GSX-R 600 racer
My advice as your attorney is to buy a motorcycle
To email me, neal at my domain should work.

 

Well at least the Beemers of the day were likely to get to 60,000 miles. A
whole host of jap stuff in the mid 70's to 80's never did.
Anyway like I said, it isn't a big job. What goes on behind closed doors in
a dealers workshop is no business of a respectful owner. Didn't even cost
very much.

 

I suppose it is a matter of degree. I would find it hard to defend
such an inflexible rule.

If the servicing is infrequent, relatively easy, quick, and inexpensive,
it doesn't matter to me if it's the crankshaft that needs replacing.

Is it true that changing a pair of cambelts every 6 000 or 12 000 miles
on a Ducati is acceptable, but changing 4 valves every 60 000 miles on
a BMW airhead is not? Not to mention the Duc needs shimming, the belt
tension is rather finicky, and the BMW has an easy screw-and-locknut
adjustment.

 

I was intentionally not mentioning Ducati belts, as I have one, but indeed
the BMW valve replacement compares remarkably well to the belt driven desmo
head service overhead. Damn site easier to do yourself too.

 

The UJMs of the 70s and 80s would all have got to 60k miles assuming
they weren't written off first. Every couple of years one of the bike
mags would strip an air-cooled jap four and wonder at the lack of wear
in it.

I suppose that's one thing for BMWs tho - they generally get ridden so
slowly that they don't get crashed.
--
Champ

ZX10R | GPz750turbo | GSX-R 600 racer
My advice as your attorney is to buy a motorcycle
To email me, neal at my domain should work.

 

If you have to wheel on Ducati servicing requirements to defend BMW,
then your argument really is fucked!
--
Champ

ZX10R | GPz750turbo | GSX-R 600 racer
My advice as your attorney is to buy a motorcycle
To email me, neal at my domain should work.

 

Look I said i was trying to avoid it ;o)

 

Bollocks.

Honda CJ250
Honda CB250G5

<swims away>

 

Those are not UJMs, in my understanding of the term. And comparing a
250 with a 800 hardly seems fair.

--
Champ

ZX10R | GPz750turbo | GSX-R 600 racer
My advice as your attorney is to buy a motorcycle
To email me, neal at my domain should work.

 

No. Neither are acceptable. Cambelts on properly engineered motors are
100,000 mile service items. Valves should last the lifetime of the
engine.