Ric, here is the story, I also posted it
to the news group.  Jim

Thought that you might be interested in a problem that I had with 
my 94 VFR750F.  Let me give you a little background.  Bought
the bike used a couple of years ago.  It was in near 
perfect condition (900 miles) and I was thrilled with 
price.  Even had about 3 months left on the warranty.

Love the bike and have ridden it about 8000 miles since.

This summer I am on an afternoon trip and I hear this 
"poof" sound.  Bike is down on power for just the length
of the poof.  Hot day and I don't think about it to much.
Bike is running good and I am thinking, maybe pressure
relief valve in the radiator or something like that.  I visually 
check the bike when I get back and everything seems to 
be okay.  I ride probably a couple of hundred more miles in the next week
and "poof" again.  This time coming up to a stop sign and the
bike quits.  I am a little nervous now and get off and
look the bike over and nothing seems to be out of place, etc.
Bike fires right up and sounds good, no warning lights (yeah
I realize these only come on after catastrophe).  Ride back
home and when I am pulling up  to the garage "poof" again and 
oil starts coming out of the front of the motor.  

It seems like gallons of oil coming out onto the 
garage floor.  I am thinking that worst. Anyway, I get the plastic off 
and it appears that I have a blown valve cover gasket.  Needless to say 
I am a little stunned that it is the valve cover gasket.  Shouldn't
be much pressure under the valve cover.  

I check the oil level and it turns out that I only lost
about a 1/4 of a quart of oil.  Whew!!  Shouldn't be any
damage to the motor.  Anyway, I order a replacement gasket 
and change it.  Not really a bad task.  Took about 4 hours
of being very careful, etc.  Actually the shop manual is pretty
good compared to several I have tried to follow in the past.

I take the bike out for a shake down run and I 
am not gone for more that 5 minutes, and "poof".  Needless to
say I am pissed.  I end up trailering the bike back home, and
sure enough, the same thing.

I call two Honda dealers that we have in Central Iowa and both
mechanics I talk to have no clue as to why it is blowing out.  Give
me the same old thing, make sure you install it correctly, check
for clogged hoses, etc, etc.  Well I followed all of the steps, and 
torque wrench to get the torque right).  This time I decide to 
torque the cover down w/o the gasket.  I find that the cover torqued
down doesn't go metal to metal (those Honda engineers have everything
figured out).  Anyway, I can see a noticeable difference in the gap at
the front of the cover right where the gasket blew out.  I get the 
feeler gauge and decide to measure the gap all the way around where
I can get to it.  Here is what I found.....
                        ____
                       /    \
         --------------      --------------
 0.051  /                                  \  0.056
        |                                   |
        |                                   |
 0.051  |                                   | 0.056
        |                                   |
        |                                   |
        \                                  /
 0.054   --------------      --------------   0.058
                       \____/
                       
                       0.084
                    -Gasket blew here
                    -Front of bike
                    -values in inches
                    

I was quite surprised by this.  I took the cover off and when I
laid it onto a table top, very obviously not flat.  I measured the
depth of a new gasket and found it to be 0.090 inches.  No wonder 
the gasket blew, only 0.006 inches of compression on the gasket 
where it blew out.  

I am very surprised that the gasket didn't blow much sooner than it
did.  The cover had to have been this way when I bought the bike.  The
guy I bought it from said that he had had the valves adjusted at the 
600 mile checkup, so something either happened to the cover then or 
it was a bad part from the factory.  I am guessing it was a bad part
from the factory.  Don't ask me how it got past Honda's quality control,
but.....somehow it did.

Anyway, I bought a new cover, and needless to say, the gap is about 
the same all the way around the cover and the bike seems to run good 
now.  The cover cost me $134 and the two gaskets that I had to by were
$28 total.  I figure that I saved at least a couple of hundred bucks doing
it myself, since the dealers that I talked to said that they would have 
just changed the gasket the first time just like I did.  

Anyway, I just thought that someone on the list might find this interesting.

On a side note, when applying the gasket, Hondalube (a 'liquid' gasket) is 
used in conjunction with the actual gasket.  I am convinced that this is
what resealed after the first "poof"  that I heard.  I never had any oil on
my garage floor after the first incident and I am quite certain that the 
Hondalube is what kept it that way.  

I have had 5 Hondas since I was 5 and I have never had a quality control 
problem due to Honda.  This is the first.  Needless to say, I am still happy
with Honda and I love my VFR, but this will make me take a harder look at the
competitors when I decide to add to my stable.
James W Gruening
(honyamda@iastate.edu)