Hello!
I have recently acquired an '86 FJ from a friend of mine. It is in remarkable shape; however, it appears that the engine will need some work. The bike has been in storage since 2003. In 2002, the bike was unfortunately stolen and then recovered. The poor bike was painted black and it never ran the same since. There is a very strong belief that the jerks who stole it did something to the engine (it only has 30 000 kms). I dumped the engine oil and it looked clean with no debris. I checked the top end and everything looked good but a compression test showed the internals not to be healthy. The engine was cold and with a whole lot of cranking and wide open throttle, I was only able to get 70-80 PSI for each cylinder. I never attempted to run the bike but the P.O. said it ran pretty rough. All the original plastics and tank are off as the P.O. also gave me beautiful, original replacements. It is definitely a wonderful candidate for rebuild. Any ideas as to approximate cost of engine rebuild. Does anyone know what RPM charges? Where should I go from here? Ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Dean
I just recently rebuilt mine. I used a Andrews Motorsports cylinder kit. Here is the write up
http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=14834.0 (http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=14834.0)
I used the 1297cc kit, they have 5 available in the following sizes.... 1195cc, 1250cc, 1297cc, 1380cc and 1410cc. the last 2 need the lower cases machined to accept the larger diameter sleeves. The 1195, 1250 and 1297 are drop in kits, with no modifications required.
With no other modifications done, I would say that with the mechanical ability to adjust your own valves that most people can do this rebuild in their own garage. I would think that with the purchase price of the kit and new dowel seals from RPM and a carb rebuild with jetting for the displacement increase, that the total rebuild would be in the $2000.00-$2500.00 range. To order the Andrews kit and have a shop do the install, I would add at least another $1000.00 for labor.
If you hone your existing cylinder block and use new rings from RPM on your existing pistons, the cost is substantially less. George (movenon) can quote these figures more accurately. He did this procedure a year ago.
I used a Haynes FJ1100/1200 manual for the teardown and rebuild procedures.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-FJ1100-FJ1200-Custom-Big-Bore-1250cc-Wiseco-Piston-Kit-Cylinder-/171130176952?hash=item27d82745b8:g:FDEAAOxymwBSOkMe&vxp=mtr (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-FJ1100-FJ1200-Custom-Big-Bore-1250cc-Wiseco-Piston-Kit-Cylinder-/171130176952?hash=item27d82745b8:g:FDEAAOxymwBSOkMe&vxp=mtr)
Fred
Probably more than you think it should at first...but once you learn what it take to do the job well - you realize it is probably less than it should be!