Plugging air injection system ports.

[proctorls]

I removed the air injection system on my '84 R65LS.  All was well until a couple nights ago when I shed the right-head plug.  I thought I had split a header pipe, but after I got the bike into a parking lot and up on the center stand, with the help of a flashlight I soon found the hole.  I had stopped as soon as I heard the racket, so I walked back and found the plug a few yards up the street.  I picked up a new crush washer at a local shop that serves airhead riders.  Now the question:
How much should I torque the plug so it doesn't fall out.  I assume that because of the temperature, Loc-Tite won't help.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

How hot do our heads get?

This high-temp Loctite is good up to 400 degrees F.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/jcwhitney/product.jcw?nval=1101024324&statenval=1101024324&productId=2019803&skuId=521966&shopid=100001&pageid=13&TID=8014524F&utm_source=Google_Product_Search&utm_medium=CSE&utm_content=product-446551&zmam=73771597&zmas=21&zmac=122&zmap=446551

[nhmaf]

Being that it is near the exhaust pipe, the metal in that area (or the end of the bolt screwed into it and exposed to exhaust stream)  I think will go over 400 degrees.

Personally, I don't think that you want this to be super-stuck in there.   But over torquing can strip the threads and basically make it non-removable - or at least. non-re-installable if removed after being stripped.  Some folks are happy to make them a "semi-permanent" installation, though.   I'd put a little schmeer of high temp anti-seize and re-install, snugging it up just a bit more than you did before and see how it goes.

[Dizerens5]

Well now, after 50 years and more driving motorcycles (cars too) this is the first time I've heard of a spark plug falling out. Have I led a sheltered life? Or am I now going to learn something new? My own experience is that spark plugs don't need to be done up particularly tight at all. And a bit of copper grease on the thread helps removal.
Until recently I had a Ural twin which had alloy heads but (surprisingly) used short-reach plugs - even those never fell out.
It's true that on the R65 I bought 6 months ago, the spark plugs seemed to have been screwed down by a gorilla plus the threads were dry. I got quite worried for my cylinders heads but the plugs moved in the end. Does it mean airheads are unusually likely to lose spark plugs? Did the gorilla know more than I do?  My old R 60/5 had plenty of problems but lost spark plugs were not one of them.

[Dizerens5]

Hey hey I just re-read Steve's posting, I think I made a mistake....he didn't mean spark plugs but something on an air injection system, something I'm not familiar with at all. Is it one of those "secondary air" things which don't reduce the polluting gases, just dilute them in the exhaust - their only purpose is to get a vehicle through the type-approval emissions test.

[Lucky_Lou]

Hey hey I just re-read Steve's posting, I think I made a mistake....he didn't mean spark plugs but something on an air injection system, something I'm not familiar with at all. Is it one of those "secondary air" things which don't reduce the polluting gases, just dilute them in the exhaust - their only purpose is to get a vehicle through the type-approval emissions test.

Thats something BM did to apease the flower pickers in America not something found on UK bikes we like Hydrocarbons in the morning smells like..... Victory
Lou

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

A picture for those not familiar:



This is the right-hand cylinder, seen from the front, below.

[montmil]

Thats something BM did to apease the flower pickers in America not something found on UK bikes we like Hydrocarbons in the morning smells like..... Victory Lou

IIRC, Lou, the BMW "air injection" system was added to primarily appease the California pickers -flowers, nose, butt... whatever.

Rather than building fences along the USA's southern border, we're more concerned with putting up a fence around California. They done liberalized and socialized themselves into bankruptcy so we gotta watch out for them Californicators disguising themselves as Mexicans as they try to slip into the lower 47... Current CA R65.org members excluded, of course.

Monte

[Lucky_Lou]

Nice one Monte...Califoricators ive learned a new word are these the same Flower Pickers who buried the electric car in favour of subsidized Hummers ??
Lou
Please accept my apologise to the NPFAA(Not Picking Flowers in America Association) especially the Texas Delegates i didnt mean to imply that all Americans pick flowers.

[Ed Miller]

I look at flowers but I don't pick them, until they're ripe apples or such.

Anybody who's ever experienced the misfortune of driving in southern California and seen the sheer number of vehicles on the road would understand the need to make sure those rigs burn as cleanly as possible.  The air injection system doesn't just dilute the exhaust, but the oxygen in it helps burn up any residual hydrocarbons left in the exhaust.

I can just imagine the smog if all those cars and trucks down there had the same kind of emissions as my '58 Chevy pickup.  On the other hand, so many people would die from it that the numbers of vehicles on the road would drop.  Maybe it would be OK.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I would rather hug trees than pick flowers.

[montmil]

...On the other hand, so many people would die from it that the numbers of vehicles on the road would drop.  Maybe it would be OK.

Cousin Ed, I believe you just may be onto something there.

LA and Phoenix are both situated in geographical bowls surrounded by mountains that trap the air and prevent it from moving out of the toilet bowl of Southern CA. Phoenix used to be know as the Valley of the Sun. Nowadays, you can't often get a clear view of the sun for all the smog. Riding or flying into Denver's northern approach is little better.

And yes, my fair village suffers poor air quality on occasion due to the metromess of DFW just 30-odd mikes to our south. That's why my bride and I are building a new home and a proper Man Cave northwest of this airborne crap.

Monte

[Lucky_Lou]

[/quote]
And yes, my fair village suffers poor air quality on occasion due to the metromess of DFW just 30-odd mikes to our south. That's why my bride and I are building a new home and a proper Man Cave northwest of this airborne crap.

Monte
[/quote]
You moving to Alaska??
Lou

[montmil]

You moving to Alaska?? Lou

Not quite, Lou. I absolutely hate cold weather. Wife, too. Besides, I wouldn't live anywhere north of the Red River.

No, just about 60 miles northwest which will get us out of the usual southerly air stream that moves the crappy air up from Dallas and Fort Worth to my house.

Our cars have to undergo the annual emissions checks due to the Dallas air. Move DFW away and we would not be subject to this additional tax.

[MrRiden]

To answer the original question.
Torque is about 20-25 foot pounds. Provided the threads in the head have not been galled. Tightening while the head is warm is recommended as well as using Red loctite.
rich
who runs the complete air system in perfect working order on his bike 'cus he likes flowers, trees, breathing and such so acts accordingly.