Day 1: (no pictures)

Removed seat. Hey, this is easy.
Removed left side cover, disconnected negative battery terminal. No problem.
Attempt to remove fuel line from petcock. Hose takes some coaxing to be removed.
Attempt to remove vacuum line from carburetor. It wont move. Eventually, pliers fix the problem.

Disconnect speedo cable, don't loose the o-ring!

OK. Time to remove the gas tank. Instructions say to slide back.
Hrm, it won't move back. Oh, that's because the petcock is busy scraping the paint off the frame.
Twist slightly left, shimmy, and a wiggle. Got it!

OK, lets get this chrome off. No problem, right?
DARN hose won't let go. Finally, remember pliers solution. Yay!

Before we get to the headcover, lets remove the white spacer.
2 hours later - 1 screw has been removed from the top of the carburetor.
1 hour later and 1 trip to the store, the screws have been removed.
Removing the white spacer was the easy part.

Carburetor is back together.

Day 2: (pictures 1-35 here)

The pictures are pretty random, in quality and content.

Timing inspection cover, dinged. Nickel, bent. Heavy duty scraper + bench grinder = world widest screwdriver and success.

Decomp cable, that was not fun. Until I read the instructions. Then it was easy.

Valve inspection covers, off!

Spark plug...NUTS. No spark plug tool in the Suzuki tool bag. That's OK, I'll just go buy a 17mm deep socket. Double NUTS. It's 18mm. That's OK, I'll just go buy a 18mm deep socket. *grumble grumble*

Now to find TDC. Hey, that's not so hard. Just keep spinning until it make sense. Did almost bind up a screwdriver in the spark plug hole. That was a bad idea.

OK, time to remove bolts. darn there's a lot of them. The ones a socket can reach, easy! Too bad my 10mm wrench is just rounding the rest of them off.  That's OK, I'll just go buy a decent wrench. *grumble grumble*

Finally, cover is off!

And starting to get cleaned!

Questions:
* Other than rubbing gently with a lint free cloth and alcohol, any suggestions on getting the old sealant off?
* How do I get the head plug out?
* There's only 2 positioning dowels? (I hope.)

Day 3:

Work and family.

Day 4: (pictures 36-39 here)

Did a little more cleaning of the old sealant.
I'm beginning to worry about engine contamination. I've kept it covered, but it's been 4 days.
Figured out all the torques I need to set.
Figured out how to put a torque wrench on the end of a combination wrench to get the cylinder head-to-cylinder nuts on the fore and aft.

Torqued! That was anticlimactic.

Tape the two bolts into the head cover and practice putting it on.
Sealant!
Put the head cover on.
CRAP! I forgot to anti-seize L70. Oh well. I'm not pulling the head cover off unless I have to.

Put the rest of the bolts in and hand tighten them down.

Head cover bolts torqued!
To get to the bolt under the intake valve timing inspection cover use an offset box wrench at the end of your torque wrench. Only took me 2 hours to figure that one out.

Upper engine mount reinstalled.

Decomp back together and adjusted to 4mm.

Tomorrow, valve clearance.

Day 5:

That was interesting.
Checking the valve clearance? Not so bad once you got the hang of it.
Torquing the lock nut without the adjuster moving? Not going to happen.

All the clearances were about 0.005", but I was curious if I could get them to 0.004". So I attempted to adjust one. Then I spent the next hour trying to get it back to 0.005". Using the torque wrench wasn't an option at all.

So I unadjusted one and left the rest as they were. Everything is bolted back up, I haven't started it yet to see if I adjust it properly. That's for tomorrow.

Day 6:

Work and family.

Day 7:

Engine sounds good.

Decomp makes a much louder clank than I remember.

Bolted everything backup. Will ride tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

-D. Dwarf

Edited:

Matt- didn't they change the plug design at some point?  Mine's an 06 and the plug was hollow rubber with a metal support ring inside.  Is that the new design?

DD, did you by chance pull the clutch cover and measure your cam chain tensioner plunger from housing to shoulder?  

I was able to pull most of my factory sealant off.  It was very thin.  For the little bit left I used a rag with some carb cleaner sprayed on it, rubbed the residue and got it off.  A razor blade will be handier the next time you remove the head cover.  Just be careful with it.  Imagine it is a part of your body that you are shaving.  No, make that your woman's body.  You'll be even more careful then! 

Use a thin bead of sealant. I squirted the sealant into a syringe with a 16ga needle.  It gave me a nice bead without being too thick.  What you see squeeze out on the outside is likely about the same about that will squeeze out but on the inside.  If it's a lot and it breaks loose then you could plug an oil pathway.  Don't do full circles of sealant around the bolt holes that are closest to the cam.  Might squeeze into the cam area.  Both a plugged oil pathway (oil starvation) and sealant in between the cam and cam journals would certainly hasten journal wear.  Use anti-seize when you reinstall the bolts.  Be sure the plug, vent screen, two metal guide dowels, left front chrome cover bolt, and head cover center bolt (the one that is in the middle right on top) are in place when you reinstall.  

One last thing, when I had adjusted my valves prior to head removal, I could only get a consistent .005 to .006.  I wanted them at .004 though.  My tools, hand size, etc., just couldn't seem to do any better.  So when I had the head cover off, I loosened each adjuster, tightened them maybe 1/16th of a turn and snugged up the bolts.  When I put the cover back on all the valves were at a nice .004.  

diamond jim wrote on 06/07/09 at 19:52:58:

That's what mine looks like.

diamond jim wrote on 06/07/09 at 19:52:58:

verslagen1 wrote on 06/07/09 at 21:19:12:

I didn't drain the oil before I started this adventure, so no. I'm due for an oil change as soon as I'm riding again. I can do it then.
Any advice for not spilling hot oil on a hot header when I do it?

diamond jim wrote on 06/07/09 at 19:52:58:

Where did you get the syringe/needle?
Can you identify the bolt holes I should be concerned about in a picture?
I was planning on following the red line that Mrs. Savage_Greg is illustrating in this thread (reply #2): http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1099227295

verslagen1 wrote on 06/07/09 at 21:19:12:

I don't have random piece of metal available. I'll try pliers first.

verslagen1 wrote on 06/07/09 at 21:19:12:

2007.
1480 miles currently. Bought it with about 700 on it.
Previous owner did an oil change at 600 and put 55 pilot, 155 main, and dyna exhaust on it.

-D. Dwarf

As for finding top dead center, you now have a tool to open the inspection plug so put a 17mm socket on the nut on the end of the crankshaft. Now bear in mind that the engine rotates forward when it is running so it would make sense to rotate it until the intake valves open then close, then line up the mark inside the hole with the mark on the sidecase. DON'T DO IT!  there is a better than 50/50 chance you will unscrew the nut. It is a real pain to torque it back on without taking the whole sidecase off.  Roll the crankshaft backwards until the exhaust valves open then close. Then when you look in the hole, the mark will be about a half turn, more or less from the three oclock position of the mark on the case. Continue rolling backwards until the marks line up. This is turning the wrench in the tightening direction and will not unscrew the nut.  When ever the marks are lined up the piston is at TDC. Just be sure that you are on the compression stroke when you make your adjustments.
If you really are a drunken dwarf, lucky you, you should have no trouble seeing the marks. I have to lay down beside the machine to see them.

Phelonius

Phelonius

DrunkenDwarf wrote on 06/08/09 at 10:02:59:

Remove all 6 nuts and oil them.  Does not mean all at once though.  The torque specified is for lubricated threads though.  Use clean, dry washers, preferably new.

The nuts fore and aft are visible from outside the cylinder about mid way up.

DrunkenDwarf wrote on 06/08/09 at 19:01:18:
Found 'em.

These are the nuts on the right-hand side of the cylinder securing it to the crankcase.

These are listed in the description, but not in the steps. Do they need to be removed and/or torqued?

-D. Dwarf

Nice pics + helpful thread, will come
in handy later this month when I plug
my leak and replace my valve seals.

Thx guys

DrunkenDwarf wrote on 06/08/09 at 08:20:07:

Lay a piece of tinfoil over that part of the header pipe, right below the oil filter plate...
turn the edges up at the end to catch the oil...
Works dandy!...