Topic: Terry's Kawasaki ZZR1100 "Bring it back to life" project.

[754]

I was asking about the piston skirt he broke off..

[Terry in Australia]

Yes Frank, was turning the engine by hand slowly and as soon as the skirt contacted the upper case a 5mm section broke away. Unlike the other Pistons, the later "D" Pistons appear to have super thin skirt "Extensions", possibly in an effort to reduce piston slap?

[krusty]

yep, raise a shirt and expect slap.

oops typo, meant skirt not shirt

[Terry in Australia]

Well winter officially fcuks off on Friday, but the weather was nice to me yesterday, so I drove over to the self staorage place where I store my garage overflow, and took the Triumph Rocket III and the VFR750 for a ride. I don't think I've had them out for maybe 3 or 4 months so I took my little lithium battery jump starter doo-hickey, the Triumph, with it's new non-gel battery needed it, but the VFR had plenty of berries in it's old Motobatt AGM, and fired up almost right away.   

I've got Bursitis in both shoulders, and adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder) in my left, so riding the Triumph (with it's massive arm wrenching torque) anywhere is a pain, you can be cruising along at a sedate 60 MPH and decide that you want to make some distance between you and that tailgating clown behind you, so you just grab a handfull of throttle and you'll be doing 120 in a couple of seconds which is excellent, but by then my arms are just about pulled out of their sockets and I'm hurting. Oh well, after I have some other surgery on Friday and have recovered a bit, I'll get another cortisone shot in each shoulder, which should make it a bit more fun.

Terry's Rocket III Aug 25 2018 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

The VFR750 though, with it's racers crouch, is actually better on my shoulders than the Triumph's "sit up and beg" riding position. I took each bike for an hour or so each and probably did 120 miles or so, which was just enough. I'm so looking forward to summer. The ZZR piston arrived earlier in the week, so I may wander out and assemble the top end, now that I've got 4 pistons that all look the same!

VFR750 Saturday Ride 3 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

[Terry in Australia]

OK, so I got offa my arse and went outside to see what I could see. The new (old) piston looked fine, the ring gaps were well within spec and the piston to bore clearance was a nice snug fit. Sweet.

ZZR1100 to end assembly by terry prendergast, on Flickr

I finally pulled out the Vesrah gasket set that I've had since May (when I started this) and slotted the base gasket in place. These gaskets are metal, and fcuking sharp as I found out, slicing into my poor thumb. Oh well, only a little blood.

ZZR1100 to end assembly 1 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

I arranged the rings with the gaps in the 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock positions, then used a couple of hose clamps as ring compressors.

ZZR1100 to end assembly 2 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

This engine has engine bolts and not studs, and I think it was a little easier to slide the sleeves down over the pistons, because I had the barrels back on within a few minutes.

ZZR1100 to end assembly 3 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

Well, I turned the crank a couple of rotations and everything was good, so I pulled out the new head gasket (another metal three layer job) and popped it in place, then dropped the head back in place. I checked my pics from May and made sure I'd installed the correct bolt in the correct holes, and just ran them in without torqueing the head, I'll do that another day.

ZZR1100 to end assembly 5 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

So the head is on, I just need to torque it down, install the cams and camchain (easy with the chain mounted on the left hand side) and pop the cam cover back on, and I'm almost there! Everything will stop on Friday when I have that surgery, and nothing will happen for probably a month or so afterwards while I let it all heal, but as long as it's all back together before Christmas, I'll be happy. I'm actually a lot happier now.

ZZR1100 to end assembly 7 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

[BPellerine]

starting to look like an engine again Terry,hope all goes well with the surgery.bill

[RAFster122s]

Best of luck with the surgery, hope you are drinking plenty of fluids. David

[ekpent]

 DAMN- Now we have to wait a month or longer to hear this engine roar back to life. Call the Dr. and cancel that surgery for crying out loud, we all can't wait that long---------   

 Good Luck T-man, sure all will go well

[RAFster122s]

It could be longer than a month..cannot risk stitches from surgery or odds of bad things goes way up...
1:10000 chance of negative outcome to the surgery...

Good Luck Terry, it is a pretty fast procedure, sister had it done in early Aug.
Hope your presurgery diet is going well.
David

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, sadly I've already paid the surgeon and the anethetist so there's no chance of delaying the surgery until after the big black beast is back on the road, but I'm sure that while I'm on my 14 day sick leave I should be ok to do a little tinkering, although I should perhaps torque the head down before I go under the knife, the torque spec for the ZZR is more than twice that of a CB750, so I could see myself popping some stitches if I tried to torque it up post-surgery. Cheers, "T Man"!

[spotty]

going well there, give me a call if you need a hand getting things back together again. i'm always looking for an excuse to escape the gardening for a day ( not to mention i might borrow your fcuk off chainsaw while i'm there)

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, no worries Spotty, you'd just be happy to spend a day working on level ground wouldn't you?

[PeWe]

Good luck with the doctor, Terry. Hopefully no mistakes like removing most of your brain making you to a Harley or twin cam guy!

[ekpent]

Good luck with the doctor, Terry. Hopefully no mistakes like removing most of your brain making you to a Harley or twin cam guy!

  I think it too late for him PeWe, he already has a Harley and a twin cam. He's too far gone now to save.

[BobbyR]

Good luck on the operation Mate. You will once again be a lean, mean, wrecking machine! The bike will wait.

[PeWe]

Good luck with the doctor, Terry. Hopefully no mistakes like removing most of your brain making you to a Harley or twin cam guy!

  I think it too late for him PeWe, he already has a Harley and a twin cam. He's too far gone now to save.

Maybe not beyond help. Here is one bloke that got his brain regrown!
https://futurism.com/beautiful-creature-can-regrow-brain-in-4-days/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2639831/The-alien-backyard-Researchers-sea-creature-unique-brain-regrow-four-days.html

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I'm really looking forwards to getting this surgery over and done with, and that particular monkey off my back. The pre-surgery diet is going well, well, it's going............

I keep thinking that now I've lost way more weight than the surgeon said I needed to (about 10 Kgs, or 22 pounds, I only needed to lose 6Kg) surely I could have one last, delicious meal? I start work at 0600 and used to go across the road from the Barracks to a cafe that served a delicious breakfast of sausages, eggs, crispy bacon, buttered toast, musrooms, tomatoes etc etc.

It'd be just my luck though, that somehow after having one last magnificent breakfast there'd be some issue that prevented me from having the surgery and it'd be my fault for eating while I was supposed to be starving myself, and I'd lose all the moola it's cost me so far, so I'll just have to pass. Oh well. For all the ghouls out there, here's a pic that explains how the surgeon is gonna re-arrange my plumbing. It looks like I'm getting a "Two into one" fitted....

Gastric Bypass by terry prendergast, on Flickr

Better her than me, I couldn't be a surgeon, I'd keep throwing up on my patients, and infecting my handiwork.

 

[PeWe]

English breakfast is tasty but not good for the health in the long run. I have almost quit bacon totally, very seldom and just a little. I recently stayed 2 weeks on a hotel on Crete with all inclusive where I could eat and drink as much I could and more
I need to loose some weight too. Too many reports about bad levels of cholesterol in the blood (my blood samples included) and diabetes type 2 not there yet. Meat and veggies with chilies and occasional salmon work fine. Hamburgers without fries...perfect diet I have just eaten one I made with some hot chili powder on sour creme and the normal add-ons, Trinidad Scorpion varieties ...mmmm...

[Terry in Australia]

The mental picture you've painted has me drooling Per, I love the show "Man finds food" because I love looking at the amazing food on offer in the US, over here the restaurants seem to try to outdo each other with tiny serves, apart from a couple of my favourite eateries, that I some how feel guilty for deserting, I only hope they can survive without my patronage......

[spotty]

i shall have a pizza in the memory of your previously prodigious appetite this evening and maybe a couple of delicious crispy cold french lagers too

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Spotty, the only thing I think I can look forward to in the bear future is some wonderful morphine at the hospital......

[RAFster122s]

The gastric sleeve tends to have higher weight loss numbers in the first year whereas the Y surgery you are doing is time tested and a very old method now. Gastric sleeve can eliminate diabetes and remove a lot of hunger enzymes.  Too late to discuss that!

Best of luck your last two days and the prep for surgery...
The super glue instead of stitching for the holes they use for the laproscopic tools leads to scars looking like you got shot.

[jgger]

Well, there goes the Bikini ideas!

Good luck Terry, my wife had the bypass and really cut down on her meds.

The other thing is when you get to your target weight you will have extra skin (it doesn't shrink back vertiy good). But I have heard you can have it cut back and donated to burn victims.

Any way best of luck and have a speedy recovery.

[Terry in Australia]

The gastric sleeve tends to have higher weight loss numbers in the first year whereas the Y surgery you are doing is time tested and a very old method now. Gastric sleeve can eliminate diabetes and remove a lot of hunger enzymes.  Too late to discuss that!

Best of luck your last two days and the prep for surgery...
The super glue instead of stitching for the holes they use for the laproscopic tools leads to scars looking like you got shot.

Thanks David, but in fact it's quite the reverse. Gastric bypass is still the "Gold Standard" of weight loss procedures, and statistically, folks who have the bypass will lose more weight than those who have the sleeve. I know, I was going to have the sleeve when I was in Canberra, but I decided to wait until I returned to Melbourne spend the money, and have the bypass instead. The surgeon has told me that once she gets inside my belly, if for some reason she can't perform the bypass she'll do a sleeve instead, but has warned that if I have the sleeve I won't lose as much weight.

Regarding the other benefits, (avoiding diabetes type 2, lowering blood pressure, reducing hunger etc) both procedures will provide those results, obviously if you're not overweight anymore, your blood pressure will drop, you're unlikely to contract diabetes, and the part of your stomach that tells you that your hungry is no longer functional. I hope that she can do the bypass, but I won't be too concerned if I can only have the bypass, it's still way better than "banding", that procedure doesn't stop you from feeling hungry, it just limits the size of your bites. Basically, if you try to swallow too much it won't go into your stomach and you'll need to vomit it out. That doesn't sit too well with me. I had a workmate who had "Lap Banding" a few years ago, I saw him several months after the surgery and he wasn't happy, he said he was hungry all the time, and while he'd lost a lot of weight, he said he'd wished he hadn't had the surgery.

I hope I'm happy, the only measure of success in mind is whether you're happy. If you're not happy, it's all been for nought.

[Terry in Australia]

Well, there goes the Bikini ideas!

Good luck Terry, my wife had the bypass and really cut down on her meds.

The other thing is when you get to your target weight you will have extra skin (it doesn't shrink back vertiy good). But I have heard you can have it cut back and donated to burn victims.

Any way best of luck and have a speedy recovery.

Ha ha, my sons were teasing me last night and suggesting that I was actually having a "Gender Re-Assignment", so if that was the case I'd probably be worried about my bikini line, but it's only keyhole surgery anyway. I told the surgeon that I'd prefer open surgery because it's a well known fact that chicks dig scars, but she said that nevertheless she'd try to do it with keyhole surgery as it heals quicker than open surgery, with less chance of infection.

My sister had the surgery last year and told me that she has no loose skin at all, and that makes sense, I lost 30 Kg in 2009 (and pit it back on sadly) and I didn't have any loose skin, so hopefully our skin is that type that doesn't sag like some. I knew a lady who lost an enormous amount of weight (180 pounds, from memory) and she told me that sh'd need several surgeries to remove the excess skin. How much did your wife lose mate? Cheers, Terry.