Got a new to me bike

Pulling valves. Intake 1 and 2 has some marks, I can actually feel where the material has worn off.
Pic shows when looking from valve side.
Not sure where they are from or what caused it, valves don't go up that high to be touching. Might have been that hose clamp, not sure.
Unless I am missing something, having some damage there should not affect the engine, right?

 

You are right, the engine will be fine and work with those little marks. Only air fuel mix running through there anyway. The clamp would have been on the other side of that valve, so not sure what and the heck would cause the carbon being cleaned from that area? Maybe they had just treated the gas with some type of carbon treatment and it was working?

 

Pulled all valves and have the same on other cylinders as well. Thankfully no other damage or metal flakes. Gonna give it a good cleaning and put it back together.

Also, I finally received the shift fork from Japan and engine is now pretty much ready for reassembly, I think. Well, minus the shims.

 

That is great news and can't wait for the post that she is alive!

 

Starting to look like an engine again


Should be fairly complete by end of weekend with only shims and crankshafts left to do. New shims should arrive next week.

 

Sooo.....
Cylinder head is on and am now working on putting the valves back in.
I removed the old valve stem seals.
Any trick to get the new ones installed? Seems a tight fit and I can't really tell when they are seated. Thinking about using a socket that fits over the rubber parts to help push them in. Good idea?

 

Actually not a good idea, just ruined one

 

Ordered oem, my engine gasket kit probably has aftermarket ones. Not messing with it any longer. I am waiting for the shims anyway and two o-rings were not included in gasket set, had to order as well...

 

Stuck now with top end but will continue to work on the other things, like installing my new clutch plates and springs etc tomorrow.

Shame it's a full fairing bike, the engine came out nicely after a cleanup

 

I was just thinking how excellent it looks. Is that soda blasted?

 

No, just soapy water.
I guess it helped that engine has less than 8k on it and was protected by fairings

 

Yes the engine is looking great.

 

New clutch plates and springs installed.
Starting to look like an engine again. Starter motor and alternator are back as well, so is part of the cooling system.

 

All this work you are putting in, as long as she feels and drives good for you, I wonder if you will flip this one?

 

Ha, good question. Right now I'm thinking about keeping her. This being said, I probably put her on craigslist for a high amount, as I usually do, to see if there is interest.
But first, I need to finish her. Yesterday I realized that the shim size calculation in the manual was wrong and I ended up ordering the wrong shim sizes. Big thanks to Dave and Tony for the support there. I was highly confused. Sucks that I have to return and reorder. Lost me 1.5 weeks.

 

Saftie is going to give me a good deal on it... besides, he needs the space back!

 

Please see my garage make-over thread. I have room. Lol

Put the brake calipers back together this morning. New seals and brake pads all around.

My valve stem seals arrive today. This means I can finally put all valves back in and put the header back on. Shims are ordered but will not get here until mid/end of next week.

I will paint my exhaust headers this weekend. They have the typical surface rust. You can't see them under the fairings but I will know that they look as good and clean as the rest of the bike .

 

Got valve stem seals and they popped right in/on. Curious to see if they stay in place though once valve stems are going up and down.
Tomorrow morning the valves will go back in.

 

Valves are in. Took a while...

 

Shims are installed.


Put camshafts in, it's a massive struggle because they do not bolt down individually. The chain guide putting pressure on one side doesn't help either. After rotating a few times i know that I'm off by one tooth, have to do it again. Grrr.
Only nice thing is that I can count the links in between camshaft marks to know that at least the shafts are aligned correctly to each other.

Another weird thing is that at some point the intake camshaft 'jumps' as the valve springs release tension, this leads to a loose chain between the sprockets.
Already noticed that before I disassembled the engine.

 

Moved everything by one tooth, put tensioner in and everything lines up perfectly.

Even the jump is gone. Happy happy.

Will torque everything down and put the lid on
That will conclude my engine rebuild

 

Is it possible that the "jumping" was your mystery noise?

 

Hm, very possible. The jumping was related to chain tensioner. Because the chain was lose, the intake camshaft just rolled/rotated quickly at a certain point (aided by the valve springs pushing against the rolling-off lobes). This led to a sagging chain between the two sprockets. Possible that it was just the chain slapping against something. I'll check for marks onovalve cover tomorrow.

Or it was the two metal pieces stuck in valve springs.

 

Engine done and half way back in the bike. A pain in the butt job to do alone. Front is secure, now I need to lift the rear up to mount. Or I use the stand's tilt capabilities and ratchet down the rear of the bike. Same effect. But that's something for tomorrow morning.

 

Wow, took three grown up men just now to muscle that engine back in.

 

Shiny exhaust


So far so good


Exhaust, oil cooler and radiator installed and hooked up.
After that and until I have my carbs back, I can only finish routing of wires, coils install and brakes. I will also rebuild the petcock. Can't install fairing either because I need to be able to check for leaks once she runs.
Once that's done, refill fluids (oil and coolant) and I think I'll crank engine a few times to get oil circulated. This way most of the system should be lubricated before I fire her up the first time.

 

Just cranked bike to get oil moving. Sounds pretty smooth. All fluids topped off. Fingers crossed there is no leak in morning.

Brakes are on as well and I will bleed them in morning. All that's left is petcock rebuild until I have carbs back.

 

Turns out petcock didn't require a rebuild. Two hoses were just connected the wrong way. Easy fix.

Been looking for leaks. Found a coolant leak but it was at the drain bolt. Tightened it up a bit more and seems to hold now.

I do see a bit of oil but can't tell if it's leaking or still left over from putting the engine back in. Not forming drops yet. While assembling the engine, I poured oil over moving parts which started to leak from the open oil cooler ports (oil cooler is only installed after exhaust is on) . While putting the engine in, it made a mess. Hopefully the oil I am seeing right now is from that. There are no drips on the paper towels I placed under the bike two days ago. So far so good.

Next update is when I have the carbs back in.

 

Come on carbs....fire this beast up!

 

Still waiting for Dave. He's a busy man so that might take a little bit.
But in the meantime, the bike is prepped and pretty much ready to go. Even cleaned fairings while still off the bike.

 

So...
While still waiting for my original carbs, I sourced a good set on ebay which I will sell again.
I hooked them up this morning and after cranking a few times without carbs to get oil flowing, I installed them and the bike came to life.

The video is of the very first attempt. Happy to say she sounds great. I will run her a bit longer this weekend to check for leaks. I did see one drop of coolant on the floor, but not sure yet where from.

 

Is it me, or does it sound not as smooth as I would have expected? I realize carbs may not be awesome and fully sync'ed and all that.

Sorry! I re-read and also meant to say, I've been waiting with the rest of us to hear this run! Pretty exciting stage of the re-build!

 

I think it's a bit of both, camera and carbs. I had the camera leaning against my manual with mic close to it. Listening to the video I felt the same but in person it was a better, not as perfect as I had thought but not too bad. From a past experience I know that well tuned carbs can actually make a bike sound better. I had to fix a leak on the carbs and since I have them off, I will do fuel level adjustment.

And yes, I only slapped on the carbs without any fuel level checks or sync.
Can only get better from here. At least nothing exploded.

I will make another video this weekend with bike outside and me holding camera. The sound in this one is not very great.

 

She Lives!! I would have done the same thing. All that work and would want to hear her run. Glad she is working great and that there were no unexpected issues!

 

Thanks.
I really hope there are no leaks. That's my biggest concern. All SHOULD be well because there are new o rings, seals and gaskets all around, and everything was triple checked and torqued down to specs. But the fear remains. I really don't want to pull the engine again.

I guess I will know tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

 

Brill when a motor fires up after a rebuild. One of the things being a motorcyclist is about.

 

Think I know why it sounds strange. Cylinder 4 doesn't fire. Investigating now...

Hm, has compression and spark. Checking fuel on carb 4 next...

Have to do other stuff now and will get back to it later. Still not firing, weird. Must be fuel related.
Hooked the vacuum tube up, that shouldn't be it either. But there is a lot going on with other hoses coming from carbs. Could be a vacuum thing after all.
Well, the bike went so smooth so far, something had to be a bit more challenging

 

Just leave it alone. Triples sound cool

 

Lol.
I can sell it as custom bike then.

 

Don't laugh, there is actually a racing class nick named cripple-triples, 600 supersports with a cylinder disabled.
I believe the piston and valves must remain but the fuel injector is disabled, that cylinder (commonly #3) will be a drag as it's still compressing air.
The power stroke on that cylinder will just be the rebound of compressing the air so not a total loss of energy like an air compressor.

 

So I built myself a race bike? Lol

 

Had a suspicion that it was vacuum related and was right. I removed vacuum tube from cylinder 4 and 'plugged' it with thumb. Cylinder immediately fired.

Means I have an issue in the vacuum system somewhere. There is a valve with membrane, I'll check that next

Bike now sounds as it should

 

Reading more and all the tubes and vacuum lines go into emissions stuff because I seem to have the CA version.

I either delete it or figure out how it works and fix it. Very close...

 

Connected all hoses according to manual and no more issues with 4th cylinder. Maybe it helped that I cleaned the membrane on that one valve yesterday. Bike fired right up.
Had it idle for 10 mins, will check for leaks now then put fairings back on.
Once done I will get better fuel lines, sync the carbs and finish up with tank.

 

So...
Checked for leaks and all good. Found out where the mystery coolant drops are coming from... Had some residue on stand from disassembly and it forms there. Only noticed one when I moved stand. The vibrations made it fall.

Anyway, I have to replace the oil cooler hoses, one looks a bit oily around pressure fitting, but not enough to drip.
I'll do that when I change oil in 50 miles or so.

Time to put fairings on which will be a pain....

 

Slowly but surely..

 

Took an hour of trial and error to get the front back on and have it fit correctly...

 

I hear ya, after the time it takes to do the motor and get everything the way you want it. Then go back and put tab A into B and so on. Find the correct size screw and gromit that will fit and then hope the gromit holds as you turn the screw tight. I get it, been there! Looks really good and I sure do like the Kaw green.

 

Right, next thing is that there is a plastic tube connecting two carb vents. Mine is with Dave and the original carbs, so I had to order a replacement. Gets here on Friday. Until then I can't finish up. I thought about using t-connectors and tubes, but it's too much of a hackjob. Gonna do it right.
Only things left now are fitting airbox, putting the tank back on and adjust rear wheel and chain once it's back in the floor. Hopefully all is finished Saturday morning so I can test ride her this weekend.