Topic: Headline: Hondaman rebuilds his old friend - FOUND GOOD OIL!

[HondaMan]

Ofreen has over 140k on his bike! Way cool!

Thanks. It'll be over 143K after the two legs of the relay over the next couple of weekends.  I'll be interested to see what you find for elongation of the cam chain and condition of the various plastic and rubber tensioner bits. 

Welcome to the thread, you King of the Road, you!

The tensioner is down to the metal on the slipper, at the top. The chain is shiny on the edges of the side plates where they were getting too friendly! The roller looks like it went 250 miles at Daytona 1970. I'll get pix of that later. It only made rattly noises above 7500 RPM, though, and had no trouble leaping to that sort of RPM any time. I've held it below 8000 for the last few years, mostly out of respect...

The tips of the valves are showing serious chipping wear, not surprising. Pix below. If they will clean up with a regrind I might just try to reuse them, provided their stem clearance isn't too much? This would let the rockers all find new leverage points, which might mean they could be re-used, too. We'll see...

I'll sandblast the valve springs if they show no edge wear on their tops or bottoms (Henry Ford's famous longevity invention: metal bead-blasting of valve springs made them what they are today, with nearly infinite life). If they are still full height and full tension, I'll put them back in, just 'cuz. Will find that out later this week.

[HondaMan]

Here's some of the "Old Factory" features found in my engine. It is the 530th K2 built for US export, still sporting K1 Old Factory engines. The K0-K1 old-style Oil Jets and "sandy" casting on the rear of the head fins show witness of their older manufacturing equipment used on this engine. Note also the notch in the top fin of the sandy casting picture: a lot of the engines were released with little defects like these being ignored, for the sake of the rush to build them in those heady days.

You can see some of my 1973 port work, as much as was allowed in 1973 Production Racing Rules days in the circuit I ran: I was allowed to match the ports, but had to leave it unpolished. There's a little work around the valve guides and the upper edges of the valves seats, too (not visible here). All of it was left as-cut with a grinding tool, to meet the official's rules of the day. I think I'll smooth them out a little, now?

[trueblue]

This will be an interesting build.  Just one thing though, I have always been taught to not polish the intakes, leave them how a die grinder does.  If you polish, it increases the amount of fuel that sheets out on the walls of the ports.  On the other hand polish the exhausts all you want.  Of course correct me if I'm wrong .

[70CB750]

Also on the slate: will attempt to make some bronze fork sliders for the front forks, as mine are quite loose now. This chassis has the early-style forks, so these are a wear part and can be replaced, just can't be obtained now?

I have early forks siting in my storage - K0 actually, they should be pretty low mileage, let me know if you want them or just some parts.  My K0 now sports late forks and dual disc and I know I am not going back.

[Garystratos201]

Looks like I`m late for the party but will definatly stay till its over........Gary

[MCRider]

Me too.

[markb]

Sign me up too. 

[wowbagger]

subscribed as well

[HondaMan]

Also on the slate: will attempt to make some bronze fork sliders for the front forks, as mine are quite loose now. This chassis has the early-style forks, so these are a wear part and can be replaced, just can't be obtained now?

I have early forks siting in my storage - K0 actually, they should be pretty low mileage, let me know if you want them or just some parts.  My K0 now sports late forks and dual disc and I know I am not going back.

Thanks for the offer! I have a K0 I am piecing together, and those forks are real rough. I might take you up on it for those?

[HondaMan]

This will be an interesting build.  Just one thing though, I have always been taught to not polish the intakes, leave them how a die grinder does.  If you polish, it increases the amount of fuel that sheets out on the walls of the ports.  On the other hand polish the exhausts all you want.  Of course correct me if I'm wrong .

You're correct about that: my term "polish" really means to just smooth down the ridges left by the grinder bit. I don't go for that mirror finish, that's for show! It doesn't work right, either, as proven by S&S on Harleys in the 1970s. If you could see the surface of this port work in person, you'd think it was half-finished, but in the hectic days of the K1/K2, Honda put out some real gnarly heads. Mine was one of them, looking like no one even removed the flash. The performance change at the time was dramatic: the top end went from 126 to 132 MPH for nothing more than the port matching and re-timing the cam by slotting the sprocket. I never did vacuum balance the carbs afterward, and today you can see the #4 exhaust valve is white, indicating it is leaner than the others and has been for a LONG time.

[70CB750]

Also on the slate: will attempt to make some bronze fork sliders for the front forks, as mine are quite loose now. This chassis has the early-style forks, so these are a wear part and can be replaced, just can't be obtained now?

I have early forks siting in my storage - K0 actually, they should be pretty low mileage, let me know if you want them or just some parts.  My K0 now sports late forks and dual disc and I know I am not going back.

Thanks for the offer! I have a K0 I am piecing together, and those forks are real rough. I might take you up on it for those?

OK, let me know.

[gonzobrian]

Here's some of the "Old Factory" features found in my engine. It is the 530th K2 built for US export, still sporting K1 Old Factory engines. The K0-K1 old-style Oil Jets and "sandy" casting on the rear of the head fins show witness of their older manufacturing equipment used on this engine. Note also the notch in the top fin of the sandy casting picture: a lot of the engines were released with little defects like these being ignored, for the sake of the rush to build them in those heady days.

You can see some of my 1973 port work, as much as was allowed in 1973 Production Racing Rules days in the circuit I ran: I was allowed to match the ports, but had to leave it unpolished. There's a little work around the valve guides and the upper edges of the valves seats, too (not visible here). All of it was left as-cut with a grinding tool, to meet the official's rules of the day. I think I'll smooth them out a little, now?

Hey your thumb looks better.   I'm use to seeing the bruised version.  :-)

[Roach Carver]

Marked.

[john campling]

Watching with interest

[SF]

I'm in!

[HondaMan]

Here's some of the "Old Factory" features found in my engine. It is the 530th K2 built for US export, still sporting K1 Old Factory engines. The K0-K1 old-style Oil Jets and "sandy" casting on the rear of the head fins show witness of their older manufacturing equipment used on this engine. Note also the notch in the top fin of the sandy casting picture: a lot of the engines were released with little defects like these being ignored, for the sake of the rush to build them in those heady days.

You can see some of my 1973 port work, as much as was allowed in 1973 Production Racing Rules days in the circuit I ran: I was allowed to match the ports, but had to leave it unpolished. There's a little work around the valve guides and the upper edges of the valves seats, too (not visible here). All of it was left as-cut with a grinding tool, to meet the official's rules of the day. I think I'll smooth them out a little, now?

Hey your thumb looks better.   I'm use to seeing the bruised version.  :-)

Oh, yeah, forgot about that! Preserved forever in full color...

[Doelos]

Subscribed!

[77cb750f2]

yup, another newbie here...  seems like a good place to pickup some knowledge   

[kghost]

Good to see you finally taking it apart lol

[HondaMan]

Good to see you finally taking it apart lol

It feels a little like I'm sacrificing my son on the altar...

[chewbacca5000]

It's Christmas in June!  I will be watching this build closely. 

[kghost]

Good to see you finally taking it apart lol

It feels a little like I'm sacrificing my son on the altar...

Always knew you were father Abraham! Lol

[HondaMan]

Engine cosmetics today: in 1972 I had a famous wreck that broke the lower 2 fins off the right side of the engine. I go them heliarced back on and crudely filed them down, and hit the road. In 1973 during a trip thru Colorado we got clipped by a car while in a muddy construction lane during a thunderstorm and went down, breaking those same 2 fins back off and 1 more above. I had them "fixed up" in 1980 when I had the engine apart, but didn't do a nice job of it. In 2011 an incredible hailstorm here broke off the next fin up, so I took the pieces to my welder here and he drew them back together. Time to do it right...it took 2 files (now worn out), 3 hours, and 1/2 gallon of iced tea today, but they look real nice in person. I'll either bead-blast of soda blast them next, sand them smooth to match. Since there hasn't been any paint on this engine since 1973 (when I removed the black paint that I tried for a while, made it too hot), I might leave it with the 'sandcast look' if the finish comes out well.

[Nikon1975]

I read your notes about the wearing off of the rocker arms, something I never though about. But I am not sure how to distinguish a good from a bad one. If you have the possibility, would you post some pictures of that?

Thanks,

Davide

[brandEn]

Looks good Mark. So no paint at all on the top end?