FJ1346 from ashes to... Well, we'll see...

[ribbert]

Cap'n, don't you ever look unhappy? 

Even alone in garage you're smiling.

Noel

[simi_ed]

Ron's smiling BECAUSE he's alone in the garage!

[FJmonkey]

Ron's smiling BECAUSE he's alone in the garage!

I approve of this message.... 

[Capn Ron]

Cap'n, don't you ever look unhappy? 

Even alone in garage you're smiling.

Noel

Noel,

I don't think I've been paid a bigger compliment...so thank you!   

When I was in college, I was hanging out with this group of 4-5 girl "friends" for a few years.  At some point we were all sitting around having a beer and one of them, Jessica...just blurts out, "Holy crap...Ron has NEVER been angry...he's always happy!"  I have my moments like we all do, but generally run at a pretty even keel 95% of the time.  What's not to smile about?  I have my health, I have great friends...(and quite a few AMAZING friends...) and I get to ride that FJ you see my smiling mug in...  Turns out, I'm having a pretty good life.   

[Capn Ron]

Mike has his hands full for sure. Anyone want to start a pool?

Mike's definitely got his hands full with this one, but if anyone can pull it off, it's him!   

[ribbert]

[ What's not to smile about?  I have my health, I have great friends...(and quite a few AMAZING friends...) and I get to ride that FJ you see my smiling mug in...  Turns out, I'm having a pretty good life.   
[/quote]

Cap'n, you forgot WINE

Noel

[ribbert]

Ron's smiling BECAUSE he's alone in the garage!

Of course Ed, excellent observation.

Noel

[skymasteres]

Lol, the time that I find myself in between tasks at work Mark.

Lately, when I'm home I may as well be in a missile silo. There are no calls, there is no television. There is only the FJ food and sleep. (But I'm getting pretty flexible on the last two)

Was up till 4 till I was too tired to even look for my freaking dremel, and the idea of trying to mess with the exhaust was just not palpable.

Yeah, I'd torque the rod bolts if I it didn't mean splitting a virgin bottom end.  And Ron's bike sure is shiny. The Beast is pretty scarred. I won't be taking any pictures where you can see a reflection any time soon.

So I wrote this part yesterday before I left work. Now that I've had the night to work on the bike, I can see how I did.
This thing is ONE GIANT FINGERS CROSSED project. I'm looking at it and I see all of the ASSUMPTIONS that I've made. I'm assuming I have a good bottom end and transmission. I'm assuming that the replacement light bulb that DDM tuning sent me will work. When I opened the package I found that they returned my original ballast, sent a new bulb, and a new harness. (I wish they'd just sent a new bulb and gave me back my old harness so I didn't have to modify it again. That and the harness they sent had a bum connector that I had to fix)  [Verified, the bulb and the kit work, so that's one variable down] Okay, time to panic. I have one more night to get this thing put back together.

Last night I...

Got the tail section put back on.



Gotta say, this thing must have been terribly dirty. The diesel was saturated. (I even changed it out once)  And it was crazy how much silicone was caught under the oil pickup screen. Definitely mad a good argument for absolutely minimizing the amount of silicone sealant you use in a build.



Finished honing the cylinders. (Took a page out of Capn Ron's book and used a bungee to support the drill. Made for MUCH more consistent honing)



Red solo cups and their almost infinite uses.



The engine is all purdy, relatively speaking, and rinsed out.


The oil pan getting a new gasket. I had to remind myself to get the aluminum restrictors back in.



Cylinder heads were a bit of a problem. Warning to others. DO NOT PUT OVEN CLEANER ON ALUMINUM HEADS.... This is what I started with. The oven cleaner doesn't do very nice things...




I don't have any pics, but the heads were pitted visibly. I polished it out so we'll see how that turns out. I also got the last valve guide seal installed and measured all of the valve clearances.  There's a lot of "we'll see" here. Randy was good enough to email me back and forth last night informing me that my piston had struck the head on the blown motor.  After thinking about that for a bit, I realize that he's right. There's no way you can lose a connecting rod and not have that happen. Though I have my fingers crossed that it hasn't "Displaced the valve seats and closed off the combustion chamber. Everything seemed to be sealing and actuating just fine, so I'll find out when I crank him up tonight.

The pace last night was intense. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures towards the end because I was focused on the task at hand. There are many subtle differences between the 86 and 90 model years. The 86 frame has a longer bottom engine mount bolt. It's about 1.25" longer. (It looked nicer than mine, so I was like "Cool, I'll use it." Then, "Huh? Why is there an inch of shoulder hanging out past the footpeg bracket?" (I used my old one)  There are no mounting tabs on the tail section for a fuel pump. (Duh)


On a side note. Sometimes when you're thinking critically about things, you end up making more work for yourself.  I realized, as I'm about to bolt the engine in, that I hadn't checked to see it number one was top dead center before I set the cams. So I took the valve cover off and checked it.




When you're stressed for time, and can't find your parts, sometimes you resort to making what you need.  Like the stupid J nut that holds the headlight bracket to the fairing.
Was out of M8 nuts, so I took a random standard nut, ran a M8 tap through it and welded it to a price if sheet metal that I cut, drilled, and bent for that purpose.  (Fortunately it only took 5 minutes.  But still, felt like an idiot two hours later when I found my stash of all my fasteners for the bike)


The power panel from the fairing needed to be glued. I had circuit breakers in it originally, but they interfered with the fork. Ended up cracking the back of the panel and making the electrical connection to the fuse iffy. A little heavy CA glue and that fixed that.  (Well that and clamping it to make sure that it was held tightly together.)



Taking a moment to pause and look at the fairing, with the frame installed, and the bike with an engine in the frame again.



Though my garage is a freaking disaster right now.



Oh, another almost insidious difference. The top tabs on the tail section are different and make reinstalling a carburetor a real PITA. (I finally did replace my ratty carburetor heat shield. It actually worked out. Two of the rubber retainers broke, and I happened to have two on hand to replace them)




And then there was the issue of the electrical gremlin. I get the fairing one, install the battery, and hook everything up. When I turn the key on, the instrument cluster goes totally nuts, the headlight won't come on and only flickers, the oil temperature sender is going crazy, and the neutral light only illuminates when the run switch is in the off position. Additionally the turn signals were acting funny, flashing normally for a second or two, then doing the broken bulb flash.  I probably spent a freaking hour checking all of my connections, checking grounds and trying to figure out what was going on. (I was pretty much crushed with the notion that this whole project was sunk if I couldn't get the electrical system going)

Finally I decided just to press on with the build and I would figure it out after I got the rest of the engine buttoned up.

I could not believe it. It turned out to be the big Craftsman charger that I had hooked up to the battery. After it was charged everything worked perfectly. (In spite of my onboard voltmeter telling me I had 13.5v the whole time I was trying to figure out what was going on with it on the charger.)  I will say that it was a HUGE relief that it wasn't something on the bike causing the problem.

One more push and it'll be go time.  (I need this to work...)

[FJmonkey]

What an ANIMAL!!! That goes for you and the bike...

[Firehawk068]

Great job Mike!
You are almost there!

I do have one question for you.
You mentioned a bunch of silicone sealant trapped in the oil pickup screen?

Where exactly do you use silicone sealant when you are putting one of these engines together?

Most everything that bolts to one of these engines either uses a gasket, or an o-ring.

RTV silicone sealant is unique, in that it is designed as a "Gasket Maker", NOT a "Gasket Sealant". It even says so right on the label.
I would caution you to NEVER use RTV silicone on a gasket or an o-ring.
O-rings, and rubber gaskets are mostly designed to be installed DRY.
Paper or Cork gaskets can be installed with gasket sealants, but there are specific ones intended to be used with such gasket materials.

RTV silicone can be used "In place of" a gasket, but if such a part calls for a gasket or on o-ring, it is preferable to use the gasket.

The one place where I could see using it, is where you put the case halves together?
But there are better suited sealants for that as well.  Permatex makes a really good Anaerobic Sealer for flanges and case halves.
Back when I lived in NY, and my brother and I rebuilt a lot of snowmobile engines, the best product I ever found for sealing engine case halves was a product from Three-Bond. (#1104)
http://webaruhaz.hskft.hu/uploaded/518_1104.pdf
The product is also fuel-resistant. (mandatory on a 2-stroke engine, where the fuel/air mixture is circulated through the crankcase to lubricate itself)

Anyway, keep plugging away and you'll be riding in no time! 

PS: Your Peach-Cobbler last year was "The Bomb" 

[movenon]

Hey Mike, you probably caught it but in your pictures I didn't see a new gasket between the oil screen and engine.  Small but important gasket as it is also the gasket for the other oil transfer hole (best I can describe it).  Hat's off to you buddy !  
http://www.rpmracingca.com/proddetail.asp?prod=Engine%3ACOMEC020020
George

[skymasteres]

Thanks guys.


Alan, I pretty sure it came from the valve cover, clutch cover, and base gasket. The PO used RTV on those  spots and there was a lot squeezed out.


George, I did not catch that. Well, not entirely. I did not remove the oil pump pickup tube. I did though use a SMALL amount of RTV to put on the part where the pan mates to the oil passage.




I'm thinking that should be fine for getting the job done.



Well, tonight is the finish line and here is what I have left to do.

Get Oil and filter at autozone
Get a gas can filled
PUT OIL IN!
Reinstall exhaust
Fix Tail Light
Dremel Fairing high spots
Reinstall side panels
Put Brake and Shifter back on
Put CBR Mirrors on
Install Grips
Fix and install wind screen
Adjust chain


There's always the little things that come up, but I need to get him running so I can break in the rings for the rally. (And I have to get a new set of shoes on him, but that'll keep for a few hundred miles.)

Oh, and I definitely need to cut off the dang footpeg brackets that I welded to the engine guards. (It's bad news if you make hard contact with them.)

[movenon]

As long as it is sealed Mike.  I think it is on the high pressure side going pass the oil pressure relief and on up to the oil cooler.  But I am on thin ice on the subject.  I admire your ability there.  Took me 2 months and I didn't pull the engine out just to do the top end..  But I work slow and there was a learning curve involved...    Ride safe Mike.
George

[Pat Conlon]

Good going Mike Keep the reports coming.

Don't be the guy that shows up to the rally on bald tires

[Capn Ron]

The first day I met Mike was at the Petaluma WCR and he was wearing the "Drinks Bitch" shirt.  I think he's trying desperately to avoid that this year!