Pics! Build notes!
Step one: I got me a shiny new compression tester!
Most of the tools arrived in the trunk. Solvents, tool box, box of moto parts and tools, manuals, note book.
First things first.
Tank off. Always a good first step.
Compression looks good! Just about 150 all across the board. The first test (top left) is low because we didn't kick it over often enough- first time and all that. Once we kicked it over seven or eight times, it always leveled out just about 150. I'm OK with that. Plugs look good- #3 had some white on it, I'll need to check into that next. #2 was really loose- didn't even feel like it was hand tight. We had to borrow a plug socket from the old biker next door.
Breather cover off, tappet covers off.
More new tools! I have an impact wrench now! And we got those screws out...
All the nuts and bolts that hold the head on are now gone. Some of them stuck a bit (see: impact wrench), but we got them out.
Boom. Head. Looks remarkably clean. Everything's nice and smooth. I have to admit that I was seriously worried about this- the bike's got just under 19K miles on the clock, but I've seen enough pics of wrecked rockers and stuff that I was terrified. I anticipate no issues.
Most of the oil wiped off and wrapped like a piece of meat for storage.
And there's the head! Again, everything looks great. Timing chain's in great shape, don't see it having scraped anywhere. I'm very happy about this! There was no way to get the tensioner out from here (even AFTER we figured out that the stupid thing had another screw that we'd missed because someone *cough* printed the manual out in the wrong order), so we had to go deeper. I was hoping to avoid this, but not very hard. I'm honestly pretty excited about this. Three weeks into my first motorcycle, and I'm already tearing the engine apart!
Cam shaft. Totally clean.
Ah, now things are getting hairy! That bastard of a screw that stripped out was giving us fits. There was just now way we could hold it still enough to get the lock nut off. So out came the hack saw, dipped a finger into the cylinder head and dripped some oil on the blade, put some scrap aluminum against the fins so we don't damage anything, and went at it like lumberjacks. Push-pull, off came the nut!
Cam shaft out (easy), carbs removed (pain in the butt!)
Head off! Cracked really easy-like. Unfortunately, this is as far as we got.
A bit of carbon in the cylinder heads, and a manky old gasket. This thing was leaking everywhere. Slowly, but throughout. Cylinders feel totally smooth inside, although there's a bit of carbon built up inside the heads and on top of the pistons.
And the offending timing chain guide, finally removed. Rather worn, and the adjusting screw was completely stripped out (oh, and sawed off by two jokers with too much caffeine, but that's besides the point).
It's still got the base gasket firmly in place, and it's a bit of a headache. I'd love to replace it, since I got this far. Everything I read before I started said to just plan on doing both- once you're that far, it's not much farther, and besides, you'll probably break the seal on the base by cracking the head gasket anyhow. But then we couldn't get it to budget. Two dude tugging, shoving, wrench at it, levering at it with pieces of wood, sticking screwdrivers in the special gaps for that (did nothing but mar the metal, so we stopped), we event laid some pine on the side and slapped it around with a hammer. Nothing. Not a budge.
I'm tempted to just leave it, but I'm worried that we got some tiny little leak started, and we'll have to repeat the whole operation. I did some checking in the forums, and it sounds like some of these things were all but glued down out of the factory, so I'm tempted to leave it, but I just don't know. Is there any way to test this? If it doesn't budge, is it OK to leave? Or is there a magical solvent that'll delete the offending gasket?
We'll tackle it tomorrow with some penetrating oil or something. More posts later!
