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2000 VFR800 Resurrection


perrymike15

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Hey Guys,

 

Hopefully I don't scare you away with the length of this post. TL;DR (too long; didn't read) at bottom of post.

 

Last week I picked up a '00 VFR800FI, and I am currently on the path to getting it running again. The bike came in pieces, with the tank off, airbox off, all the plastics off and the dash taken off as well. The bike was right on the chopping block to be parted out when the previous owner decided he didn't have time to sell all the parts and that he'd rather just sell the whole lot. It was advertised with 18,500 miles at a price of $1200. I went out to check it out and it was a 2+ hour drive just to get there. It looked like it did in pictures, all taken apart and everything. I didn't bring my truck out there the first time so I looked at as much as I could in the unlighted shop and headed on my way. A week later after a seller for a different bike backed out I decided just to buy this VFR. I contacted the seller again asking if he could hook up the dash and verify the mileage for me and he said he hooked up a jump box and couldn't get the dash to power on. I decided to take a bit of a risk and offer him $900 because he couldn't verify the mileage (really should have trusted my gut here...). Anyway I go pick the bike up, get it home and start tearing on it. The first thing I did was hook up the dash and check all the fuses and try to see the mileage on the bike. Well, I hooked a battery up, plugged in the cluster, and there it was. Turned the key and in the most tense moment of my life I waited the full second while the dash did the display self check and then it showed the mileage. 39,666 miles. Shit. 

 

So at this point I am sorta feeling committed to my project and I am feeling very assured by some of the high mileage examples on this site, citing that 40k is just broken in on the bottom end for these. So I press on and try to figure out the next variable, is the motor good. I do an oil change, change the plugs, and start getting the tank hooked up. I also noticed that the tank has some rust in it. It was dry when I got it with the pump not bolted in. After shaking the loose rust out of it and flushing the tank, I am looking in it and noticed that at some point somebody put some fuel tank sealer in there *eye-roll* great, hopefully the tank isn't rotted out so bad that it is leaking. At this point I decide I need to know the state of the motor to decide if I should go further with this project. So after a quick and dirty tank clean I threw the stock pump and filter back in it and bolted it down. Hooked it up to the bike after getting the airbox temporarily situated and tried to start. after realizing the angle of attack sensor needs to be upright for the EFI to run, I got the pump to prime and verified fuel is coming out of the return. I cleared the one IAT sensor code, and now it is cranking strong but wont start. No codes have came back, making me think all the sensors are working as intended. It should also be noted that the bike came with an additional cam sensor, and I have a peak-voltage adapter for my multimeter coming tomorrow, to test the cam sensor. That being said, I am thinking that the fuel injectors are clogged after sitting all these years, considering that a new cam sensor didn't solve the problem for the last guy that tried to fix this. At this point, I am looking to get some clean injectors in there and while I'm in there I'll replace the vacuum hoses because installing that air box the first time was not fun. After cross referencing the part number for the injectors I noticed that these are the same injectors for a CR-V (thanks Honda). So this brings me to my question:

 

I want to make this bike nice but without knowing if the motor is even good I am hesitant to put that much money into the project yet. Am I better off pulling the factory injectors and rigging a carb clean hose up to them, or does a set of eBay/Amazon injectors for $40 sound like a better idea. Keep in mind this is still extremely budget minded until I know the engine and rest of the bike are worth putting money into.

 

TL;DR: Bought $900 VFR800 in pieces, tank is rusty but not really dented, came with extra cam sensor, presumably the one that was originally installed in the bike. No codes came back after reassembly and code clearing. Do I clean the factory injectors or buy fleebay injectors for $40?

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Dive in, it will be a good project.... signs of life, nice!  Why not spend $100 on an injector cleaning service and get a flow report with them.......

 

Did you read this thread?

 

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Good job so far. Have you confirmed you are getting a spark from the plugs?

Another good sign is you are not seeing any other EFI fault codes.

Personally I'd probably stick with having the OEM injectors professionally serviced.

Also make sure all vacuum hoses are in a good state, no leaks, cracks, kinks, and properly connected.

Good luck.

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I like having injectors cleaned at https://mrinjector.us . No way I can back-flush injectors and swap screens along with before & after flow-tests for low cost they charge.

 

Also make sure ECM is actually triggering injectors to fire.

1. Verify power at injector connector with key On

2. Verify ECM sends grounding pulses when cranking. Check with noid-light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FEN84M

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Thanks for the timely response! Much appreciated. raYzerman I did see that thread just before I wrote this one, I thought I was having Deja Vu! Except his is a little nicer than mine 😞

Anyway, Grum I did check spark this afternoon when I was wrenching and it did have strong spark on #1 (the only one I checked). Honestly I am beginning to lean towards just sending them out to mri injector, just so I know it is right and that completely eliminates that variable. At that point I'll have to get a new filter put in as well, which sucks because I still don't know if it will run!!

Also, DannoXYZ, thanks for the tip on the noid lite. I have not heard of those before, but turns out O'Reilly's right near me has one for rental so I'll do that before any of this.

 

Thanks a lot for your guys' help! I'll keep you updated on the progress. 

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Congrats on picking up a nice VFR project, and welcome to the forum!  🙂

 

Sorry I can't help you with any of the bike's problems, but I can tell you for sure 40k miles is absolutely fine on a VFR.  It has tons of life left in it.  My 6th gen. was running just as well at 101k miles when I sold it as it was at 10k miles.

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19 hours ago, DannoXYZ said:

I like having injectors cleaned at https://mrinjector.us . No way I can back-flush injectors and swap screens along with before & after flow-tests for low cost they charge.

 

Also make sure ECM is actually triggering injectors to fire.

1. Verify power at injector connector with key On

2. Verify ECM sends grounding pulses when cranking. Check with noid-light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FEN84M

Just for comparison, my local option in SoCal quoted me $200 for four VFR injectors.  I'm going to pull mine some time in the near future and I will be going to MRI as well now!

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Is this bike yellow by any chance, I think this is the bike that sat on FB marketplace for weeks and weeks. Your description fits the bill; in pieces in a shop.

 

Can't remember the ad, but does this bike have a title?

 

Anyway, good luck on your new project.

 

Where abouts in Chicago are you located. I'm in the SW burbs myself. Let me know if I can be of any help....

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On 1/25/2022 at 2:17 PM, ShipFixer said:

Just for comparison, my local option in SoCal quoted me $200 for four VFR injectors.  I'm going to pull mine some time in the near future and I will be going to MRI as well now!

 

That's pretty high. RC Fuel Injection in Torrance does them for $25 per. I have used them since the 80s for my cars and now my bikes as well

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5 hours ago, DesertKyorugi said:

 

That's pretty high. RC Fuel Injection in Torrance does them for $25 per. I have used them since the 80s for my cars and now my bikes as well

I'm further South 😄  Just not as many options here, or at least none I found quickly.  

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4 hours ago, bmart said:

Friends use the MotionPro tool for them. 

I don't think there's one for our model fuel injector, unless it's not listed in their catalog?  Checked several times but it's been months.

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3 minutes ago, ShipFixer said:

I'm further South 😄  Just not as many options here, or at least none I found quickly.  

I am in the desert furthest east. RC Fuel Injection has a 24 hours turnaround most of the time. I ship them out and usually get them back in 3 to 4 days. Still less than $140 with round trip shipping

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On 1/27/2022 at 4:04 PM, davenay67 said:

Is this bike yellow by any chance, I think this is the bike that sat on FB marketplace for weeks and weeks. Your description fits the bill; in pieces in a shop.

 

Can't remember the ad, but does this bike have a title?

 

Anyway, good luck on your new project.

 

Where abouts in Chicago are you located. I'm in the SW burbs myself. Let me know if I can be of any help....

That's the one, Dave! Seller got it in a bulk parts deal and he didn't get a title with it. I bought it with the intention of doing the Vermont deal. I'm in NW Burbs, I will definitely keep that in mind, thanks man!

 

 

As for the injector conversation, my buddy's dyno shop up in Antioch, IL has one of the injector cleaning kits. I've already got the TB assy off, just gotta pull the injectors out and bring them up to him. He said he'll do it for free, but I think that means it'll take a few weeks to get them done. That is not the end of the world, given that it is currently 15 degrees F here. 

 

While I wait for him to flush those injectors for me, I think I will tackle some other maintenance items. While I have the TB apart I'm probably gonna replace the vacuum lines with silicone ones, and if I'm feeling ambitious I might even check the valve clearance. 

 

Keep in mind this is all without knowing if this damn thing has a good motor or not. It's probably a good idea for me to do a compression test on this bad boy before I get too ahead doing things like valve clearance and vacuum lines. Buuuuuut at the same time, it did come with that extra cam sensor, which leads me to believe it wasn't a big mechanical fault that parked this thing.

 

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There’s a sensor for ign that takes its pulses from the start clutch, if it fails pretty likely to be only when hot. PIA to track/“diagnose”. Guess the cam sensor might do the same but have only seen the lower one quit intermittently so far. However, my failure was a much older bike’(86). Miserable experience!

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My VFR has 121k kilometers and "breaks the clouds" 😂☁️☁️, I heard that some VFRs have 160k, 200k and work as well as before. maintenance is done on time and done correctly you don't have to worry about this engine.

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Just now, bmart said:

Compression and leakdown are probably worth doing. 

I think you're probably right. I guess I somehow lost the adapter for my compression tester for these size plugs, harbor freight here I come...might as well get a leakdown tester too.

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Update:

Ran to harbor freight and bought a new compression tester and leakdown tester. The results were....not good. But all hope is not lost yet. Both the compression tester and leakdown tester only threaded into the head about 3 threads, if that. So I'm going to look around to try to find a different leakdown tester with a longer m10 adapter, and see where that gets us. If the results from a different tester are as bad as they were from my initial tests, the previous owner may have been right to send this ol' girl out to pasture.

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On 1/28/2022 at 2:56 PM, DesertKyorugi said:

I am in the desert furthest east. RC Fuel Injection has a 24 hours turnaround most of the time. I ship them out and usually get them back in 3 to 4 days. Still less than $140 with round trip shipping

 By "local," I mean near me.  Not "somewhere else in California that I would have to ship to, or slog up the 5 and 405 for two or three hours to get to" 😉

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IMG_20220130_181751.thumb.jpg.e089695fff3b35bff32284e90273f2be.jpg

As you can see, the spark plug is much longer than this tester adapter. And, you can see the oil on the spark plug threads but only towards the bottom, indicating that there is a considerable amount of threads towards the top of the plug that don't even thread with the head before the mating surface of the spark plug engages the head (bottoming out, tightening up). What I'm trying to say is that the threads appear to be sunk into the head 1/4" or so, meaning this short adapter cant get many threads into the head before it bottoms out.

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Picture of an ngk cr9eh-9 will clarify any possible confusion here..the heads are missing quite a few threads from factory for some reason

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