Unfortunately, it did not come with a title. However, I have a CX500 parts bike that I'm thinking I might just use the steering Vin tag and its title to drive around after the rebuild is done, until I get my title worked out.
Anyways, I did some more work on the bike today and got pretty far I do believe! I pulled the engine using the lay the bike over method which I definitely recommend, its very hard and dangerous to lift engines! I found a nice little place on my work bench to keep the engine and put some wood underneath.
After I had the engine in a nice place I proceeded to take off the valve cover. Note that you have to take the breather cover off and remove the four screw under the breather cover before you can take the valve cover off!
All of the exterior engine parts are super nasty I'm planning on using a home built baking soda blaster that I've seen on the site to remove all of the dieing chrome. Is this a good idea? Also, after I've done that do I need to use a clear coat finisher or should I paint the engine with some sort of high temperature chrome paint? I want it to be super shiny just like it came off the assembly line.
After I took the valve cover off things began to get interesting. To remove the cam shaft the first thing you do is remove the two screws connecting the cam shaft to the cam chain sprocket.
Then apparently you are suppose to turn the cam chain adjuster screw a 1/4 of a turn clockwise and the cam chain should have enough room to slip out of the sprocket. I honestly spent about an hour trying to wiggle the darn cam shaft out. Finally I got the brilliant idea of taking the chain off the sprocket!
That allows just enough room to remove the cam shaft. After I took the cam shaft and sprocket out I tied the cam chain with a long piece of string so it wouldn't some how get sucked into the bottom end
In order to take off the the cylinder head that holds the cam and valves you must first remove the intake ports that run from the carbs to the engine and the cam chain tensioner assemblies.
At this point in time you can remove the nuts (I think its 12 or 10) and two bolts which holds the head onto the engine block
After I took the head off I finally got a glimpse at my pistons! I had been suspecting #1 was burning some oil however, #1 and #4 both looked abnormally shiny
I can't completely remember but I believe the block just slides right off I don't think its held down by any bolts but I could very well be mistaken. After I took the block off I this is what I saw, I can definitely tell piston #1 and #4 look different from #2 and #3. I'm thinking they were burning oil does anyone feel the same way?
So basically, this is where I stopped for the day. I'm pretty confused because I've never actually done an engine rebuild before. I'm pretty scared about taking the pistons off the rods and continuing into the bottom end. Do you guys feel that for my trip it would be necessary to check out the bottom end? I didn't really have any transmission issues when I was able to ride it. I'm planning cleaning out the fuel pump filter but thats about it so far unless anyone has any advice.
Furthermore, I really want to shine the crap out of the cases to make the engine look brand new. How can I do this without splitting the cases?
Lastly, now that its all torn down I need to know what my next steps should be. I'm guessing I should check the pistons and rings to see if they need to be replaced. Then check the cylinder walls to see if they need to be honed. What are the steps in doing this? Any other advice is greatly appreciated on what else I should do while I'm in here!
Thanks to anyone who is willing to help!
