[foo_dog]

Finally back in the garage tinkering after a long hiatus. Really aiming to get this bike on the road now that spring is almost upon us...

To recap - bike sat in a garage for years mostly unused, I think. I picked it up late last year and trailered it home. Previous owner was a very occasional rider. Overall in good shape for a 2002 model, 11K miles.

Just changed out the oil and coolant. I'm not good at seeing colors so wanted to get your guys' opinions on this. (And apologies in advance for the picture quality, my old motorcycle damaged the autofocus on my camera with all the shaking.)

Do you see any green in the oil? Before draining the old oil I tossed a shot of SeaFoam in the crankcase and ran the motor for a few minutes. Oil was a little frothy when immediately drained but settled down into a mostly solid color, can't really tell if mocha or green. Coolant was slightly dark but looked okay, didn't see any specs or bubbles of oil or rust or anything.

Worst case scenario if there is indeed coolant in the oil - blown head gasket? I'm guessing both cylinders have coolant passages so could be either? Is this something you can live with, just more frequent oil changes? I'm not keen to drop the motor for a bike that I haven't yet even gotten to ride.

Also a big thank you to CFG - all of this was made possible following along to your great videos.

Old Oil:

Old Coolant:

 

[foo_dog]

Spockster - thank you as always for your prompt and informative reply. Its reassuring to hear. I can go back into the garage today with a clear conscience.

And thank you DirtTrack for the picture of that old oil. As I recall mine looked about the same, I wish now I had used a better camera to document everything. I've also had my eye on some Craigslist Goldwings. There always seems to be one around $1000 in fairly good shape. And the VW carb conversion looks like it'd be a fun project.

O'Darkness - I used one of these goldplugs in my truck: Gold Plug LLC - Magnetic Drain Plugs They seem to work well enough. Also used one on an old 125CC motorcycle I had, it really did build up little shavings especially on the break-in period. So I think the $20 or so for the plug is well worth it for the piece of mind.

These goldplugs though are regular bolts with a magnet on them. For the VN750 its an odd drain plug on the left side of the bike, with a spring and a mesh behind it. I think we'd need to DIY something. Maybe superglue a strong magnet somehow inside the drain plug? Would it be safe to just have it jammed/floating in the filter instead?