Topic: Sweep the Floor Bike #2

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I just saw the last picture on Facebook lat night and wondered if it was a sohc/4 member. Funny.

[RAFster122s]

What did you use to paint the cylinders with?
The cylinder head had a drop on that left front corner,  too bad. It still looks sweet!!
Very nice mix of silver and black with a little polished aluminum tossed in the mix. Have you thought about polishing the tappet covers?

[Scott S]

 Yeah, the head was a spare that was ported and polished....didn't notice that little ding until later on. Oh, well.

 The paint is just VHT engine paint. Their silver is a very, very close match to the factory Honda paint. Black on the cylinders from a previous build. All the other black is semi gloss. I actually had polished stuff on it and swapped it over to the Replacement bike. I'm going for a subdued look on this bike. Satin, matte, brushed and sinister.

[Scott S]

 Worked on the bike yesterday afternoon. Got the caps and plugs installed. Got the carbs, air box and K&N filter mounted up. I forgot to bring the drain hoses for the bowls and the breather tube. I'll be back up there soon, though.
 Nate at 2Topia is going to work on a little bit of wiring for me. I'm sick of using my cheap connectors and crappy solder gun. There are only a handful of connections I need to make, but he's going to do it for me with the professional stuff.

[Scott S]

 Got the Kerker sorta-kinda installed. The rear hanger that came with it just doesn't work with my set-up. Nate is going to fab up a hanger for me. I can't wait to hear this thing.
 The header is just hanging loosely in the head....I'll fully tighten up everything when we make a hanger for the muffler.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

For a spare parts based build, this is amazing.

[Bootsey]

Great looking project. What kinda carb setup are you anticipating to accommodate that air filter mod?

[seanbarney41]

For a spare parts based build, this is amazing.

+1, Scott, when you sweep the floor, you really do a nice job

[RAFster122s]

Imagine what kind of bike he could build if he used the stuff off the shelf instead of on the floor?? 

[Scott S]

Great looking project. What kinda carb setup are you anticipating to accommodate that air filter mod?

 Well....I'm not sure.

 I read quite a few threads on the K&N filter and what jetting people were using. The engine is essentially the same as the one that was in my old '78 550K (except this one has higher CR) and, even with the "lean burn" carbs, I ended up with stock settings and a slight bump on the main.

 These carbs and that engine were together before. It always ran a bit rich and started fouling the #3 plug, hence the rebuild. I'm starting with stock needle positions, 38 pilots and 110 mains. I have some 40 pilots and several sizes of main jets, up and down, that I can try.

 I'm hoping that by keeping the plenum it will help simplify tuning.

[mrfish2]

I've been going through all that tuning trouble on my 550 with the single K&N filter mod. I ended up putting the stock airbox back on after going through too much of a headache trying to get everything smoothed out. I hope yours is a lot less trouble!

[Scott S]

 What kind of trouble did you have?

[mrfish2]

Here's the thread I had started for it

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,150501.msg1719288.html#msg1719288

I started with stock settings and it ran fairly well for the most part, but I ended up fighting both lean and rich conditions and so have since put the stock airbox back on to remove that variable while I get the air/fuel mix sorted out. The only reason I haven't updated that thread is because now my #4 cylinder doesn't want to fire all the time and I'm waiting on a guy I found locally who has extensive knowledge with these bikes to help me out with it.

One thing I can say for sure is that filter flows A LOT of air at WOT.

[Scott S]

 It's been slow going, but occasionally stuff gets done on this project. The wiring is taking a while, but it's going to be very neat when done.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Scott,

You tease with the close up shots.  Can you do some wider shots to show where the 2 boxes/trays are with respect to each other.

[Scott S]

 Battery tray is on swing arm behind the engine. Electronics tray is under the seat, where the stock air box lid/tool tray would be.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Battery tray is on swing arm behind the engine. Electronics tray is under the seat, where the stock air box lid/tool tray would be.

Makes sense.  Is that Dynamat or some kind of heat or vibration insulator in the battery compartment?

[RAFster122s]

I am betting that is heat insulation so the exhaust would not affect the battery.

[Scott S]

 It's a sticky backed heat deflection matting....the guys at 2Topia used to use it in the engine bay of turbo race cars.

 Exhaust heat shouldn't really be an issue down there, though.

[Scott S]

 Got about 98% of the wiring done last night. We also made a little smoke and noise! Fired her up for the first time!
 We really didn't do any tuning; just let it go through a few heat cycles, idling, varying the RPM, etc. Haven't even put the vacuum gauges or timing gun on it yet. It starts right up and will hold a pretty nice idle.
  And that Kerker.....    ....droool...... It sounds so wicked. I thought my old Carpy/GP style pipe sounded nice, but MAN....nothing like genuine, vintage, Old School performance parts! Good LAWD it sounds good!

 Sorry about some of the pics being a little blurry.

[Scott S]

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

That matte paint looks fantastic. The high-rise clipons and the seat give it a street tracker look.

Looks like you could use a new t-shirt!

[Stev-o]

Looks and sounds great!   I've had a couple Kerkers, really like them....

[Scott S]

That matte paint looks fantastic. The high-rise clipons and the seat give it a street tracker look.

Looks like you could use a new t-shirt!

 That's not me....that's my buddy Nate. Shop shirt...LOL

 And with the CB750 forks, I can run the clip-ons up top and keep proper 550 front end geometry. I was telling Nate last night that the dash/controls remind me a little bit of the 500 Interceptor or something. The seat isn't padded yet, but it's surprisingly comfy to sit on with those bars/pegs.

[Scott S]

 Everything has sort of taken a back seat while I deal with....life.... but this bike is still alive. I just sold my other two 550's (Oh! The pain!...   ), and this one will be coming home as soon as I make a spot in the garage.
 It still needs a little jetting work. Taking what I learned on my other 550K, I have four new emulsion tube/needle jet sets. I'll deal with final jetting, timing and syncing once I get those swapped over.

 I still need to wire up the speedo drive and get the seat pan upholstered, too. For some strange reason, the tach on the Danmoto doesn't work. We've traced it down to a faulty Danmoto, which sucks because they've always been really good. I'm undecided what to do about that right now. It's been way too long since I bought the unit to send it back. Maybe I'll run a small analog tach? Or and LED strip of lights? or, just do without.

 The vintage, old school....circa 1975...Kerker sounds like nothing else on the market these days. Absolutely amazing.