torquing the head

[KA1J]

Wrangled the head on this evening & have the nuts ready to torque.

Looked at the service manual and it still shows pictures of the "Cam chain cavity seal" like the initial XS11s had. No sign of it on the exploded diagram though.

But, I'm reading this on 3-45 of the XJ1100 Service manual: "Place the upper cylinder head nuts in place. Follow the illustration for the proper tightening sequence. Torque all nuts in two stages and final torque the upper nuts to the specification." (25 ft pounds)

So it sounds like you have to tighten it three times?

first to say 14 pounds. 2nd to 25 pounds and 3rd to re-torque to be sure it's still at 25 pounds?

Also the smaller nuts on the front (& the YICS tightening nuts) are torqued to 14 pounds so do I tighten them to like 7 pounds the first time, 14, the 2nd time & recheck to see they're still at 14 a 3rd time?

Or do I torque them to 14 the first time and just keep checking to see they are still at 14?

Details... details...

Closer...

[bikerphil]

Cam cavity gasket is no longer needed, do not use.

Yes, torque all bolts in order the first time to the lower spec, then do it again in order to the higher spec. The third tightening sequence is for after the motor has been brought up to operating temp. If it doesn't mention anything about the secondary nuts that need torquing, I wouldn't worry too much.

[KA1J]

Yeah, the only thing it says in the book is "Don't forget the nuts on the front and rear of the cylinder head. Torque to the specification."

Since they don't even mention the YICS tightening bolts and they mention the cam chain cavity gasket, I'm guessing they pretty much just copied from the original 1978 XS1100 service manual when it came to this part of the engine rebuild. Other than the ignition, vacuum advance & this YICS thing, I think the XJ11 & XS11 engines are the same construction with cam & valve nuances depending on year. Still, I'd have expected them to have updated mechanical changes since they embossed YICS all over the engine...

Also interesting is they don't list a torque value for the exhaust studs. They didn't in the original XS11 manual nor in the XJ11 manual. They did not show the cam chain cavity gasket though in the XJ11 exploded diagram so they didn't simply copy everything from one service manual to the other.

I will do the two stage torque & then when I get the bike actually running hopefully by next weekend, I'll retorque again to be sure it's at 25 foot pounds after cycling through the temp range.

Thanks for the clarification.