Project Motor Swap

[FJ1200W]

The 1315 motor is about to come out of the FJ1100 frame, I thought it was interesting the frame and engine numbers matched, I'm not used to seeing that.

As discussed before, the previous owner pulled the starter drive out to try and save some weight, so I need to disassemble to motor and make that repair. It will be a good time to inspect the rest of the innards. Of particular interest, which Carillo rods are in there? I have a feeling they are the older "A" beam.

One thing I learned today, I'm going to get some help pulling the motor, I'm out of shape and it's heavy!

I left the lower rails on, I'm thinking it might have been easier to remove it - I'm at a standstill until some muscle shows up. Cancer sucks, but that's behind me.

Oh, the plan is to transplant it into my 1989 FJ1200. I originally planned on swapping the head, but you know what, 1315 sounds good and the old motor is running so well I'd hate to buck it up.

[FJ1200W]

1314. Thirteen Fourteen. Not 1315.

Moving on -

Pulled the valve cover, everything looked good.

Pulled cams and found a nice shim under bucket setup.

It looks like the cam ran hot on one end, please see the pictures, it feels better than it looks. Some additional upper end oil might be needed.

[FJ1200W]

Combustion chambers are clean.

Pistons and cylinder walls look good -

[FJ1200W]

Buttons on the pistons  and the rods appear to be Carrillo as suspected 

[FJ1200W]

Couple of serious concerns after some emails with Randy.
It appears that the cylinder studs may be too large of a diameter and could be impeding the oil flow to the cams.
The end of the intake cam bearings and the bearing surface on the head, possibly damaged. Cam faces need close inspection. A cam bucket is not rotating enough.
Possibly corrected by a top end oiler - heavy on the possibly. My theory. Would it fit withing the frame?
Piston height and damage to one piston, I'll look closer. Piston height would be corrected when I put it back together.
Fun stuff!
Very grateful to Randy and RPM.

[FJ1200W]

Deck height, not piston height...

[fj1289]

A top end Oiler CAN be made to fit in the frame.   The fitting on the intake side gets very tight. 

You will need to modify a banjo fitting to be "low profile" - may need to buy a few different brands/styles and see which  is most suitable to being narrowed.  Then have to make sure the bolt will still provide a good oil path (since you have changed the internal alignment of the passages between the fitting and bolt).  You can also thin the bolt head on a lathe to gain some clearance.  You will definitely have to grind down a wrench if you need to tighten it a touch inside the frame (if you have a small leak, etc).  Finally. Make sure you DO NOT get a banjo bolt with tapered threads!  I missed this little detail when I assembled one for the old drag bike engine.  Nearly stripped the head because of it!  A "straight" threaded bolt solved the issue. 

Two following thoughts -

If I remember correctly, he was running that engine on nitromethane/methanol mix?  I'll bet with the heat of combustion from the nitromethane, the piston ring gaps were setup very wide intentionally to keep the ends from butting due to the heat.  I don't know how appropriate this will be for street use.   

Why not swap out the cylinder studs for stock and alleviate all these concerns?  When we built the race motor for the land speed bike (drag bike mentioned above repurposed for land speed) Randy intentionally went with stock cylinder studs despite the large nitrous oxide shot we were going to run for a fairly long period of time (20 plus seconds at a time vice 10 or less for a drag strip application).  Why?  Randy's concern is the aftermarket studs don't "give" with the thermal expansion of the engine and actually pull the threads out of the cases.  We actually went with slightly LOWER tightening torque with the stock studs to give a little more "give"  with the nitrous.   No head gasket issues at all even with 82mm bore and 150HP shot of nitrous. 

I'd strongly recommend going with stock cylinder studs and go with the very well proven stock FJ oil system.   That recommendation comes from someone that likes to modify everything in sight and has been down this road - both engines we've used in the land speed bike have seen 150HP shots of nitrous and both have been very happy with stock cylinder studs and stock oiling systems.

[FJ1200W]

A top end Oiler CAN be made to fit in the frame.   The fitting on the intake side gets very tight. 

You will need to modify a banjo fitting to be "low profile" - may need to buy a few different brands/styles and see which  is most suitable to being narrowed.  Then have to make sure the bolt will still provide a good oil path (since you have changed the internal alignment of the passages between the fitting and bolt).  You can also thin the bolt head on a lathe to gain some clearance.  You will definitely have to grind down a wrench if you need to tighten it a touch inside the frame (if you have a small leak, etc).  Finally. Make sure you DO NOT get a banjo bolt with tapered threads!  I missed this little detail when I assembled one for the old drag bike engine.  Nearly stripped the head because of it!  A "straight" threaded bolt solved the issue. 

Two following thoughts -

If I remember correctly, he was running that engine on nitromethane/methanol mix?  I'll bet with the heat of combustion from the nitromethane, the piston ring gaps were setup very wide intentionally to keep the ends from butting due to the heat.  I don't know how appropriate this will be for street use.   

Why not swap out the cylinder studs for stock and alleviate all these concerns?  When we built the race motor for the land speed bike (drag bike mentioned above repurposed for land speed) Randy intentionally went with stock cylinder studs despite the large nitrous oxide shot we were going to run for a fairly long period of time (20 plus seconds at a time vice 10 or less for a drag strip application).  Why?  Randy's concern is the aftermarket studs don't "give" with the thermal expansion of the engine and actually pull the threads out of the cases.  We actually went with slightly LOWER tightening torque with the stock studs to give a little more "give"  with the nitrous.   No head gasket issues at all even with 82mm bore and 150HP shot of nitrous. 

I'd strongly recommend going with stock cylinder studs and go with the very well proven stock FJ oil system.   That recommendation comes from someone that likes to modify everything in sight and has been down this road - both engines we've used in the land speed bike have seen 150HP shots of nitrous and both have been very happy with stock cylinder studs and stock oiling systems.

Excellent information, thank you so much!

I'm probably pulling the cylinder today if time allows and I'll check the ring gap as well as that damage Randy noticed.

[FJ1200W]

Regarding the oiling, what about milling off a fin to tuck the line in closer? Or - shoot me if you must - Just drill those two holes in the block slightly larger?

Pulled the cylinder off -

Sleeves looked a lot thicker than some of the ATV's I've seen.

Measure at 2.50mm

The damaged piston, possibly dress it out?

Another had a smaller nick.

Cases look really clean.

Ring gap - I am going to have to double check these as it seems tight -

Top ring .11mm and 2nd .14mm

[FJ1200W]

I'm going to check and see if I have the stock cylinder studs and the stock shim-over components.

Might be a step backward in some ways, but a step forward in others.....

[FJ1200W]

I checked a few boxes and found the stock spring retainers and shim buckets, but no cylinder studs - yet. more to look through.

Measured the ring gap and weighted the pistons for fun.

I've got to get in touch with my machinist to measure the pistons and bore to see if they'll work.

Fun stuff, open to suggestions.

[FJ1200W]

Parts located and the totes I could search....... I am admittedly behind on getting organized.......

[FJ_Hooligan]

What model is that Pioneer Receiver? 

I have an SX-650 that I bought in 1972.

[FJ1200W]

What model is that Pioneer Receiver? 

I have an SX-650 that I bought in 1972.

That one is a SX-680 and it's driving Cerwin-Vega surround sound speakers mounted in the rafters. Sounds pretty good for a shop system.

Inside it's a SX-980 driving a set of Time Window's. Originally it had JBL L100's and I wish I still had them, they were fantastic speakers.

Fun stuff

[FJ1200W]

Piston weights - Comments?