Have you set the float levels with the clear tube trick yet? easier now before the carbs go back on. Wasn't it a wet cylinder that started this whole adventure? Make sure those tiny little upper body vents are clear to atmosphere. Definitely easier to check before they go back on.
Nice work on the engine painting, it's going to look good this bike, you're almost there, get the carbs sorted and it will run sweet as well.
When you finish yours, I've got one that needs a cleanup.
Hey enwri, always good to see you back here. I haven't reset my float levels yet (ii set them when I rebuilt my carbs last year, but I'll recheck them), but your questions made me want to post all the photos & document all the symptoms I was having before I took the engine out.
What started all this? Well, I had the bike back together for about a month last summer & was having a lot of fun riding. One day, I pulled up to a stop sign about 50 yards outside of my dad's house & he was out in the yard. He mentioned that he could see white smoke coming from my muffler. I pulled into his garage & tried to check it out. Took a couple more rides after that & the problems seemed to get worse. Before long my head gasket was leaking too.
Smoke (May be hard to tell, sorry):
Head gasket leak:
I was also losing oil. Fast. I changed the oil twice before finally removing the engine. When I changed it, it looked as though it was mixed with gasoline -- very dark, something was definitely wrong. That same oil (mixed with whatever else) was coming out of my exhaust as well. See the first photo below.
I checked my spark plugs & one of them looked like the second photo below, three of them looked like the third photo below.
The last ride I did was the worst one. The bike was stuttering a lot & quit on me a couple times. Fortunately I was able to get it back to my dad's garage. When I got back, I looked inside the gas tank (which I had just filled a day or two before), & the tank was completely empty! No wonder it was acting like it had no gas.
I took the exhaust off & noticed three of my exhaust valves had a white coating on them. See the fourth photo below. The remaining exhaust valve looked normal from what I recall.
So out came the engine. When I removed the head, I noticed the bottom of the exhaust valves had a rustic brown tint to them, see the fifth photo below.
Finally, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it, but when I took the engine out I checked the carbs. One of my main jets was completely out of the emulsifier tube. The last photo below is what it looked like when I took off the float bowl, just sitting there staring up at me. I must not have tightened it down enough. I figure this is how all my gas escaped on the last ride?
Here's a summary of what I've done to the engine:
- All new gaskets, o-rings, & pucks (with non-hardening gasket sealant), gasket installed dry except for the cam cover gasket, which I added non-hardening sealant to)
- new cam chain roller & guide (left the old chain in since I only rebuilt the top end, bike has 25k miles)
- New piston rings
- Cylinders honed
- New intake valves
- New valve stem seals
- Standard valve work
- APE hd studs
- Head machine work, (decking, etc)
- Rebuilt oil pump
