Piston Rings

Just a quick update, things have been on pause for a while here but with a random ebay check I was able to find a set of 2 piston rings, the elusive ones I have been having problems finding. So now I have 3 sets! wooho!

This means at my discretion, I can go back to rebuilding my original engine, or I can continue re-assembly with my donor engine... decisions...

Hopefully soon I will get back into the swing of things. My seat just needs a little more filling and then paint, I received an all balls bearing replacement for my steering stem too. So many parts, so much to do...

Valve Job

Little late on posting, but a couple of weekends bag I finished up on my valve lapping job.

Step 1: Cleaning the valves and head

This took a long time and a lot of methods. At first I soaked the valves in sea foam, then scrubbed with a brass brush and whereas this helped a little, I was not making significant progress. In the end, I used a brass brush on the end of a drill for cleaning the combustion chamber. The valves, I actually put on my drill and used a small screw driver to scrape off carbon as the valve spun. This is probably making some purists cringe, but it seemd to work well without any visible damage that I could see.

 

 Step 2: With everything as clean as I can get it without spending many more additional hours than I care to, I went out and bought a lapping tool and some lapping compound.

After about a minute of lapping each valve I used some prussian blue afterwards to check the surfaces. The mating surfaces were looking pretty good. I assembling the head without the valve seals, tested for leaks with kerosene and came away without any. So everything looking good, I re-assembled with my new viton valve seals. Now I just have to get back to attempting to clean the gasket mating surfaces and I can get the head back on.

New Seat Build - Part 1

Ok, like a small child or a bird, I cannot focus on one thing at a time. I am revisiting the seat and have read so many wonderful threads of fiberglassing success that I think im going to try my hand at this. So, some florist foam, painters tape, aluminum tape, a huge mess and one angry girlfriend later, this is where I am at:

Change of plans...

So, in the interest of getting myself on the road a little quicker, i decided to bite on a local listing for a motor!

It came from a 79 kz400 B2, turns over and has equal compression across both cylinders, though not the best compression... At any rate, I'm hoping it should get me by. If not... well, I guess I have plenty of parts for my other motor.

I will be cleaning this one up a little then throwing it into my frame for this years riding season. I will continue piecing together the other motor and will wait patiently for piston rings. Tonight i set the valve clearances and dumped some seafoam onto the pistons to sit overnight. This weekend past I also discovered that kerosene is a miracle cleaner. Amazing shit my friends, amazing shit. No scrubbing, no sanding, nothing... Just a couple of swipes and I get results like this:

Brilliant.

Doing time

Still unable to find NOS rings for my pistons, so not much news to report here. This weekend i cleaned up the crank case halves a little. I have discovered that kerosene is my friend. How I cleaned anything before discovering it, I dont know.

Another session or two of cleaning and I will likely seal up the case. Part of me thinks I should replace all of the bearings but im not sure if that is necessary... Part of me is getting tired of this whole song and dance but i'll stick with it, even if it means I dont get to ride this season :(

Seat Build - Part 2

So with a little more time on my hands, I drilled out some holes in the two metal pieces and riveted them together:

 

After that, I cut up seat cover and mocked things up. I think with some foam and contact cement I should have a half decent seat made up here.

Seat Build - Part 1

So, while my engine sits in pieces and I wait for the magical Piston Ring fairy to be done with her vacation, I decided to make an attempt at building a seat.

I bought 2 pieces of 16 gauge steel from Lowes and using a combination of Tin Snips and a Dremel, I was able to cut out the shapes I needed. I bent the metal to shape using a large metal hammer and some pieces of 2 x 4.

Not looking too pretty, but hopefully once I have the pieces sanded, painted, then riveted together, it will look a little better. Then I can get some foam glued on and finish it all up with some Vinyl. Stay tuned.