[thumper64]

With it taking just over 4 gallons when I fill up, and premium being about 30 cents more a gallon, another $1.30 or so to fill it isn't a big deal to me. My car and other bike both take premium also. Whether I were to put an ex500 engine on or ride my other bike, I'm still going to pay more for fuel. If you expect to make more power off a motor, you're generally going to be upping compression and timing, and sometimes that means needing a little higher octane to prevent preignition. It's generally been a good bike, but I have a tick from the left cylinder that won't go away with adjusting valves or the cam chain tensioner, so I'm digging in farther and pulling the head off. While I have it off, I just figure I'll just go through another head to throw on and while I'm at it, why not just clean up the ports a bit and see if there's any free power to be gained?

I'm not expecting giant gains, but in essence it should accomplish the same end goal as putting a higher lift cam in. It'll shift the power band up a bit, but with 1st gear being as low as it is, I'm not really concerned. I'm doing this to practice a little before attempting a head for my car. If I ruin a head or two for this bike, they're $30-50 shipped for a used one off eBay and if it's a total failure of an idea then I'll have a stock head to toss back on. Hopefully I can learn a little and make my mistakes on this rather than my car's cylinder head that costs 10x as much.