Nice work so far, I was actually going to shoot you a text the other day to make sure you're still around, haha. I agree with Cal as far as you'll probably have to raise the needle a clip position or two. You'll have to do some plug chops to see what you need as for jets. Which screws are you taking about? The little ones attaching the arm to the bottom of the slide? Are you using actual JIS drivers, I think I remember you saying you did buy a set.
In the oil filter housing are you pointing out the sludge? I can't see any large pieces of metal. Sludge is normal as far as I know. I wouldn't worry about it.
If you have fuel flow or overflow problems in the future, consider removing all those connections to the overflow tubes. From factory there's just one tube coming off each bowl down behind the motor. You've increased the likely hood of all bowls being unable to overflow and vent properly if that one tube gets clogged. Many people just use windshield washer hoses. It's cheap and will hold up fine with the amount of fuel it sees.
Is there an in tank filter sock? If so, you don't need an additional filter.
Nice side cover panels. How's the "feet touching the ground" issue?
Agree with Cal with the truing stand. New spokes and you should be good to go. Unless of course there's damage from an impact like the PO got rear ended. But it doesn't seem like there's any damage like that.
Again, nice progress!
Hey Dave,
Yeah, I'm talking about the screws in the bottom of the slide. I think I was going to try putting the housing in my bench vise but I didn't want to risk damaging it externally. How did you go about removing them? And yeah, they're JIS.
Also, it is just sludge in the oil filter housing, but it literally feels just like a glob of aluminum anti seize, and totally looks like it too. Is that normal? There was also traces of that stuff on the sides of the cam, and a little bit on the bottom of the breather assembly thing on the top of the valve cover assembly.
I replaced the overflow hoses as they were completely dry rotted and stuck, and we actually found the the overflow tubes were PACKED with varnish. I found this out when I was soldering the cracks on them and certain ones kept smoking. We took the smallest drill bit to it that we had, and it fit perfectly through and cleared them out.
Total newbie question, where would the tank sock filter be within the tank? The petcock has that screen but otherwise I haven't seen or know of any filters internally. I actually found some particles in the inline filter I was running, but like I said, it was definitely creating flow issues, so I'm not running it anymore. I also cleaned out my tank a month ago or so, but apparently not well enough! Is it worth it to purchase that Red Kote tank coating and cleaner? My tank has little to no varnish or surface rust, maybe a couple spots the size of a penny.
I can touch both feet on the ground, just on my tippy toes haha. I'm a little worried once I get some ride time in that I'll manage to fall parking it somewhere, sometimes it's a little difficult turning it or moving it on a slight incline. Guess we'll see what happens. The side panels sit flush unlike the factory panels, I fabricated them from some spare sheet metal, wasn't a fan of the look, so I put 1" foam on them and upholstered them with heavy duty vinyl, and installed the old school Honda badges on. They're also attached via heavy duty velcro, so they're study sitting, and should be fine while riding, but I'm sure a test run will show results.
I don't think there's any rear end damage, but I'm curious if the PO ran over something, got air born for a hot second, and maybe fell off the bike after? It would explain the bent spokes in the rear, and the bent fins I have on the side. Otherwise the bike is in good condition visually. I agree, I should really get a truing stand, but at the moment I'm still catching up on a ton of other things. Financially I don't think I will be able to ride this season, maybe if I'm lucky in October I could get a run or two in?
I did compression readings recently and I freaked out over my results. Across the board, I measured 90, 80, 70, 90psi on my cylinders... Granted, this was on a harbor freight reader, and I never used it before, so I can't deem it accurate or inaccurate. Either way, it measured them at a consistently low level, so I got really upset and irrationally decided to tear the top end off, as I pulled the spark plugs and found cylinder 1 was burning oil.
Luckily (but also frustrating?) I found no visible damage anywhere on the valves, pistons, or cylinder walls. I noticed my valve seals are bad on a couple, but again, not a compression issue. There were crescent shaped rust spots where the head gasket sits on the outer areas of cylinders 1 and 4, so that definitely indicates a blown head gasket right? The gasket was seeping externally, but very minutely.
I did find one of the head studs is torn off though, a lovely surprise. I'm going to have to find a way to remove that. I'm assuming it's reverse threaded, and I don't want to tap it if I don't have to. I was thinking about welding a pipe onto the top of it, creating a T shape, and using that for leverage and freeing it from the block. Thoughts on that?
Anyways, so since I have the top end off, I definitely decided to get the Vesrah gasket kit (heard it's better than oem?) and, I also want to get the top end bead blasted and powder coated. A place I went to for an estimate quoted me $200 and also said it might be worthwhile to leave the fins unfinished and I don't really know if I like that idea at all. That price isn't including the tappet covers or any hardware, as I want to go with a stainless steel kit.
I also may be purchasing another cylinder jug soon; mine has two huge cracks in the fins by the exhaust, not to mention every corner is either bent, cut, or lightly chipped. So, I'm not sure if I want to just hone the "new" jug when I get it, or just say screw it and bore it out to a 550, get new pistons, etc. I would like to get this powder coated as well. I really wasn't looking for a power build with this project, but I don't see any reason not to at this point if I'm already in there. Side note: I have a mix of marvel mystery oil, pb blaster, and wd40 sitting in the cylinders, and cylinder 4 has virtually no mix left in it. All others are full. Does this definitively say the rings are bad on 4? Like I said, there is NO scoring anywhere. Could it just be that the ring gap is right below the pool of the mixture (bike is on the side stand) on 4 and gravity is just working it's magic?
It was also only at the point of total removal that I realized timing could be the main culprit.. We static timed the points.. but I totally forgot to time the bike itself.. So mad at myself but lesson is learned.. I guess in a way it gives me peace of mind knowing the internals are decent. If I had just timed the bike, I probably would have been on the road by now...
