Thanks Bobby! Yep the new build is getting closer, as is the collapse of my finances, but WTF, when I was waiting for the "dye test" (the worst thing I've ever swallowed, ever) in the Radiology section at Hospital last week I had a chat with an ex-maths teacher called Graham who had terminal lung cancer and I couldn't help but think that there are worse things than being slightly broke.
Anyway, today was the best day on sick leave ever! Tim, my youngest son drove me over to Bunnings (big box hardware) for a wander around, I didn't really want to buy anything, I was just going stir crazy and needed to get out of the house. On our return I wandered out the back into sunny warm weather, and decided to start putting the ol' ZZR engine back together. I torqued the head down, (and twisted my guts in the process) 39 foot pounds? It's no wonder CB750 heads weep oil and ZZR1100 heads don't!
I torqued the head down and was quite proud of myself, before I realised that I'd left the front cam chain guide out, AAARRRGGGGGHHHH! It's just a big chunk of moulded rubber so I spent 10 minutes trying to force it in from several angles, then 5 minutes undoing all the head bolts, lifting the head, dropping the tensioner in place, and torqueing it back down. D-uh!
Similarly I reckon I had the cam timing absolutely spot on before I tightened the cam saddles down, and by the time I installed the tensioner it looked like the inlet cam was a tad out, so I'll take another look at that tomorrow, I don't want to jump in and undo everything I did today because it looks like it's closer to half a tooth out than a full tooth, and the exhaust cam is spot on, so it might be OK.
Anyhoo, it was a great day, and a great change from sitting on my duff watching the idiot box. I was really pissed off though, that after scraping off the remains of the old cam chain tensioner gasket I discovered that there was not another one in the $200 (USD) Athena gasket set, but I managed my rage well, and broke out the black silicon.......
The weather tomorrow is not gonna be as good, but that's OK, as long as it's not raining on me, I'll be out there, getting it done.......
ZZR Tuesday by
terry prendergast, on Flickr
ZZR Tuesday 1 by
terry prendergast, on Flickr