'92 140,000Km rebuild.

[tmkaos]

Picked up my bores from the engine guy yesterday avo. They look brand-spanking new, 99% of the scratches came out with just a hone. So that's great. As a bonus, he had a oil cooler laying on the floor that he gave to me for another $40. I've been looking for a transmission cooler for our car as in a month we're towing my Dad's caravan around the South Island for 2 weeks, about a 2500km trip. This will be at the height of our summer so the trans will get a work out.  (NZ ain't exactly flat, nor did our roading engineers understand the concept of 'straight')  As most shops quoted me over $300 for supply and fit, $40 for an item that is plug and play sounds pretty good.

Anyway, back to bike stuff..

Today I'm going to scribe a reference mark on my cams and sprockets then pull off the sprockets and attempt to sneak them into the CNC between jobs and slot the holes. This means when I set it back up again I can at the very least dial it back into factory specs, and gives me options in the future should I go nuts and tune the fuck out of the old girl (unlikely)
Randy said he should get back to me today with pricing for the rings which means I can pay him and he can get my belated Xmas presents on the way.

The only down side to doing this rebuild is the 1000km run in period..  My daily commute on the bike is only a 7km round trip - it takes me longer to put ,my gear on then take it back off than to ride home. So I think I'll have to hold off on the daily commute until I've had the chance one weekend to do a bit of an Kiwi Iron-butt..  My mate has just turned his 2005 Suzuki SV1000 into a naked version with new wider and higher bars for comfort so i think he's gagging to take it for a blast.. This could work..  But I'm getting ahead of myself. Gotta put the bike back together first. 

James

[fj1289]

FLUSH OUT THAT OIL COOLER VERY VERY VERY THOROUGHLY!!!
If there were any contaminates, bits of gears, friction material etc from the old engine they will contaminate yours and could spell an early death. Ive known engine builders that refuse to reuse oil coolers for that reason.

[tmkaos]

FLUSH OUT THAT OIL COOLER VERY VERY VERY THOROUGHLY!!!
If there were any contaminates, bits of gears, friction material etc from the old engine they will contaminate yours and could spell an early death. Ive known engine builders that refuse to reuse oil coolers for that reason.

Excellent advice, and it was the first thing I did when I got to work this morning.  Half hour in the parts cleaner flushing it through... Been getting some funny looks lately I must admit. I ride a push-bike to work as the FJ is laid up and the missus needs our car for baby-taxi duties, so in the last couple of months I have strapped, bungy-corded, hung, stacked and otherwise festooned my bike with a cylinder head, the bores, kick plates, a complete exhaust system, the swingarm (that was exciting) and then this moring I had an oil cooler dangling from the handlebars. Not to mention all the little parts that have gone in my bag, i have FJ component shaped bruises all over my back..

the things we do for the Kookaloo!!

James

[andyb]

+1

In honest truth on the street, the better rider will be quicker unless there's a really massive gap in performance.  Even in straight line performance, just shifting well will make a huge difference.

It's not that a good rider makes the bike faster, it's that a good rider makes the bike less slow than the worse rider.


As for the cam timing, you don't really need to mark things unless you're really wanting to see how far out they were originally.  Just use the factory timing marks when you align things and it'll be fine.

[Dan Filetti]

In honest truth on the street, the better rider will be quicker unless there's a really massive gap in performance. 

Street or track, and even with a massive performance gap, that is assuming there is also a massive skills gap, in reverse, at the same time.

I have posted this before, but I really enjoy watching this skilled rider at Laguna Seca on a Ninja 250, work his way through a pack of much larger bikes, including R1's. Yeah they get around him again on the straights -for a while, but he consistently works his way so far past these bikes that they eventually can't catch him, even on the straights.  Skill can and does trump displacement, in many situations, especially when the road gets twisty.

Ninja 250 vs. the big bikes at Laguna Seca

Enjoy,

Dan

[tmkaos]

Yahoo!!!!!!!

Parts just been ordered from Randy! He now has standard Yamaha piston ring sets on the website, BTW.. 

We're on the road to recovery..

James

[tmkaos]

Quick update..

There is a box of parts somewhere over the Pacific ocean winging it's way towards me, hopefully with NZ Customs (bless their little money grabbing hearts) blissfully unaware of it's existence.

Did the ignition advance mod today, that's some easy-peasy horsepower right there I'll tell you. It's a 10min mod.

I'm organising all the parts I pulled off in the garage, I was keeping it neat and tidy and then Xmas happened and i got busy and well, shit happened. I was pretty careful to bag and tag everything but it's all mixed up, got to separate the engine part bags from the frame stuff. Still working on cleaning up the motor - minus the barrels and heads so I can paint it.

Who knows a good trick to remove encrusted carbon deposits from the exhaust passages in the head? There is approximately 2mm of hard carbonated crud in there I want to remove. Our parts cleaner is just kero based and doesnt touch it, and I've tried scraping it out and I'll be there all year. Is there a sloutionj i can make up at home that will dissolve that shit?

Cheers,

James

[skymasteres]

Quick update..

Who knows a good trick to remove encrusted carbon deposits from the exhaust passages in the head? There is approximately 2mm of hard carbonated crud in there I want to remove. Our parts cleaner is just kero based and doesnt touch it, and I've tried scraping it out and I'll be there all year. Is there a sloutionj i can make up at home that will dissolve that shit?

Cheers,

James

The two things that have worked for me are oven cleaner and old aluminum hunting arrows. You spray the overn cleanere in there, let it sit for an hour, then take the aluminum arrow and use it like a flathead srewdriver to chip the stuff away. Should come right off. A little scotch bright would clean up the little bits that are left.

[tmkaos]

The two things that have worked for me are oven cleaner and old aluminum hunting arrows. You spray the overn cleanere in there, let it sit for an hour, then take the aluminum arrow and use it like a flathead srewdriver to chip the stuff away. Should come right off. A little scotch bright would clean up the little bits that are left.

Thanks for the reply Skymaster but..  Somebody upstairs must be listening to me..

After just asking about cleaning up my head, I got talking to the guy who we make custom cam-chain guides for his Honda race bikes, he came in to pick up the next set we've just done, and he's offered to take my head into a mate's place and do what he does to his CB race heads to clean them up - it's a liquid-borne bead blaster. He said it gets the heads looking factory fresh, no paint or carbon left anywhere and doesn't dimensionally alter the head in any way. The only issue is I will have to chase out the glass beads from the tapped holes with a roll-tap, but that's ok, I have access to a cabinet full of those.

Nice one. He'll drop it back to me on Monday then that means the head will be ready for painting straightaway before I fit the new valve stem seals, which should be turning up any day, and then start to re-lap in the valves.

[tmkaos]

Randy I love you.. FJ Porn delivered directly to my door..

that's a box of goodness right there.. 

Stay tuned for the fitting..

James

[fj11.5]

omg,pics like that should come with a warning and be pixelated 

[tmkaos]

Ok so I've delved into my box of goodies allready and fitted the seal kit to my rear caliper at work today, and then put it all back together. I've also finally got around to slotting my cam gears, got that done this morning. I slotted the holes 2mm each way on the same PCD. And then, to really make my day, Brent dropped back in my head after he'd liquid suspension bead blasted it.. holy shit, i'll put a pic up tonight, looks a million  bucks! Clean as the day it was cast..  Brent really knows his bike motors, his 1979 CB1000 motor is currently spitting out 140hp ish at the back wheel, titanium everything, and he's convinced me to get into the ports and clean out the casting flaws and match all the machined parts to the cast parts.. he reckons extra 5hp easy so I didn't need much convincing.. He said I could go to town and really blow it out, and then spent an hour showing me exactly how to do it! But time issues say just a quick job now, and hey, it'l be making more horses than before, so that's all good...

More kookaloo for me... 

James

[fj11.5]

Often wondered if cleaning up the cast lines in the exhaust ports was worth doing ,, I know its not the same, but removing the casting on rc heads and pipe improves performance

[racerman_27410]

matching the ports and cleaning up the intake tracts is always a good idea.


KOokaloo!

[tmkaos]

Here's the head after cleaning.. Started going through the ports this avo, removing steps from the exhaust side. Some of them were actually quite substantial, about .5mm or so. You can clearly see them in the exhaust ports in the pic..


And the slotted cam gears..