I would believe that something was trying to keep me from riding my honda this summer.
First, there was an oil leak in the block that I couldn't seem to fix. I disassembled the engine and found that in the process of boring the cylinder block out for larger sleeves, I hit porous casting. Then, after having sent the block off to NW porostiy sealing to have it sealed I discovered that my piston to wall clearances were too large after re-installing the sleeves in the block. Soos was kind enough to trade pistons with me for 3rd over where I was already (+5.5mm). Then I found that the sleeves were a bit proud of the block, so I sent it to the machine shop to have them pressed in and the surface re-machined. I reinstalled, only to have a bad head gasket leak.
So... I took the block back to the machine shop and recognizing the poor work of one of their employees, they re-surfaced both the head and deck for free, and I reassembled. ...Except that one of the holes in the case for the cylinder bolts (unique to the 650) stripped. I pulled the block and installed inserts in all of the holes, and used 6 of the APE cb500/550 studs that would fit, using the 650 bolts for the rest. I got it together again, and it ran like a bat out of hell, with no leaks! ... but developed a louder-than-usual cam chain noise.
Tonight, I disassembled and found that the tensioner blade had come apart, effectually creating no tension on the chain. Good thing, right? Sure... except that one of the APE studs snapped off at the top threads on the third torquing sequence, at 15 ft/#. They're good to 22.
I pulled the head and block and started to remove the stud, figuring I'd just use a 650 bolt in it's location instead. It broke loose and began turning out... and then snapped off in the case at the base.
I really think something is trying to keep me off of this bike. either that or I have really bad luck this year.
