I wouldnt mod the air-box at all, with stock carbs the air-box runs really well.

Snice your thousands of miles away, I can only guess and speculate but heres the first theory (perhaps massivly wrong!)

Perhaps you over-leaned it out by drilling holes in the airbox, this caused the vavles to burn out at high temperature.

Take the rocker-box covers off the cylinder heads (only 4 bots in each one and have a look at the cams and the valves)

Are all the shims there, are all the valves in properly and not dropped out? Best place to start

Thanks . I will do that now. I have no idea how it should look but i will take pics.

And for the cover. its only a few holes in front of the filter . I doubt it really made a big difference . But we shall see.

The previous owner might have fiddled with the carbs but That i will see when i clean them

Ok so i got the one head off fast and got the carbs off but i Don't have a 10 spanner to loosen the throttle cables so i can't get the carbs off today. I took a video of the one side. It all looks fine to me but your welcome to take a look and see if you see anything.


Click to see the Video
http://s124.beta.photobucket.com/user/F ... 1.mp4.html

Do you not have a better image of the valves and camshafts, it comes up really small.

You dont have a 10mm spanner, sacriledge out of all my spanners i own a 10mm is the one i have the most of.

@porndoguk click on the link above the pic the video is big. When I have both heads off I will Take some proper 21 mega pixel pics.

As for the spanner I'm sure there is one deep inside the belly of my garage. But my garage is a dangerous place at the moment hehe. Darn let me stop being lazy on a Sunday and go look for one.

you need to check that you can see the valve stem inside each valve spring for all 16 valves.

while the heads are off, remove the timing cover on the clutch casing and rotate the engine by hand with the appropriate sized socket on a ratched.. I think 14mm perhaps.

Watch the cams go around and feel for any difficulty turning the engine.

Ah I wanted to ask what i can do to get the engine to turn. I will do that now. For now here are pics of the springs and cams (some open some closed).

http://s124.beta.photobucket.com/user/F ... ibrary/VFR

But I’m starting to think its not the problem. I drained the oil just to see how much is in there and I only about got 1L out. Is this way to low and is it possible that the engine seized?

I always checked my oil so its strange that I did not pick that up. Going to hit myself over the head.

I never rode with the temps above normal

Seeing as you put 2.4 litres of oil back in for a change without replacing the filter then yeah I guess there wasn't enough oil in there.

Franna, what neck of the "woods" are you in? I could come and take a look to help maybe. I dont have any 400 experience(many on this forum will know 100 times more than me about the VFR) but I am not new to bike engines..
Neo, you must think we are a bunch of clowns in South Africa!!haha...
But let me give you a short background...Most of our "400 stock" here is sourced in container loads from who knows where. We have guys here(dodgy bikeshop owners often) going "overseas" to source stock. They get the cheapest/most bikes for their Rand. So bikes are far from handpicked stock and honestly what comes out those containers are frightening.(and thats what everyone in SA has got to choose from...) I can tell you we probably have more broken 400's standing in sheds here than bikes running. Dont get me wrong as being negative,just the reality here. On a positive side after seeing the VFR cult on this forum I am so excited to get mine running!!!

Hey Geoffro. I'm From PTA. If i remember correctly I read that you are from Durban. It would be a Very long drive for you hehe. But Thanks.

Ok so on a bit of a better note. I did not have a 14 socket so I used a 14 spanner and another one for leverage but I could turn the engine without any problems what so ever. So I'm leaning towards the thing not being seized up.

Am I correct in assuming that I would not have been able to turn it if the had engine seized???

I could not check the valves now because its getting dark and the lighting there sucks.

Thanks again for the help guys