Topic: Olivia's Face lift. 78 CB550 build.

[Tews19]

When did you do a new video Cam? Possible for you to post it?

[RustyOlive]

hahahha... here ya go... new Olivia video.

[SF]

HA! that just made my day....needed that! I gots me the end of summer blues

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Well produced, too, Cam. That was done with about 5 different camera shots during the burn.

[RustyOlive]

Well produced, too, Cam. That was done with about 5 different camera shots during the burn.

Lol thanks man. Close. Only 3 gopros were used. Lol

[Retro Rocket]

Well produced, too, Cam. That was done with about 5 different camera shots during the burn.

Lol thanks man. Close. Only 3 gopros were used. Lol

And one tire.....

[RustyOlive]

Well produced, too, Cam. That was done with about 5 different camera shots during the burn.

Lol thanks man. Close. Only 3 gopros were used. Lol

And one tire.....

Tire is fine. The ashfault floor in my garage took the brunt of it. Lol theres a 10mm deep hole in my floor. Hahaha. Guess its softer than I thought. Lol

[RustyOlive]

My new putting hole

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Well produced, too, Cam. That was done with about 5 different camera shots during the burn.

Lol thanks man. Close. Only 3 gopros were used. Lol

I figured it was with less than 5 cameras but a couple of takes to get the combined number of shots. Really cool, Cam. So much for the divot in the floor!

[RustyOlive]

Been a while since I posted on this thread. Lol
Some recent photos.

[RustyOlive]

Quick ride last week before the temps really dropped around here.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Olivia just got a heart transplant!

There, the pump has been primed, Cam.  Now let's see an update!

[RustyOlive]

Olivia just got a heart transplant!

There, the pump has been primed, Cam.  Now let's see an update!

Holy crap!! Lol I didn't think this thread was still on here! Lol
November 2014 was my last post. And a lot has happened since then. Lol

Thank you Donald for giving me the push to get this thread caught up. Lol

So lets back up the train a little. Little miss Olivia has been an awesome bike. We have put many miles (kilometres to us Canuks. Lol). We did a few long distance trips and never slow. She loved to go fast and fast! Lol

September 2015. Flying on the highway with some friends late at night here in Toronto. Whipped out into the left lane and cracked open the throttle hard to pass a car. In a matter of milli secs! I heard a tick tick tick BANG! The rear tire locked up and the motor stopped dead. I grabbed the clutch lever and coasted the bike over to the right and off the expressway. The motor was done!

It was a bitter sweet.. See, the plan for Olivia was to put a CB650 motor in her. But I didn't have a donor bike at the time. 2yrs later... I had no choice but to get cracken on getting Olivia the motor she deserved.

Last fall. I picked up a complete CB650. Runs, not well.. But runs. The carbs were beyond screwed. I didn't care, I was putting cb750 carbs in anyways.

So now that some other bikes i was working on are gone and I have time to my stuff again. I'm doing the transplant.

Pulled the 550 motor out and stripped down the frame. Broke down the cb650 and been working little here little there on getting it all into Olivia.

Picked up a oil cooler kit from another buddy of mine as well. Welded in new tabs and hooked up the plumbing.

Machined a few mill off the "off set" sprocket to make it 4mm more off set to get the chain line just right. Cb650 electrics and controls were swapped over as well. The 650 controls in my mind are fugly. But they will do for now. May revisit that later and get some aftermarket ones. I just want to get this together for now and work out the bugs before introducing new bugs. Lol

Here are some photos. I'll try to keep this up to date as i go along now I remember my login. Hahaha 

[RustyOlive]

Out with the old.

[RustyOlive]

650 donor

[RustyOlive]

650 is in.
Had a little fun drilling some speed holes in the fins and Scotch Brite brushed the motor tins.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Welcome back, Cam! Looking forward to seeing Olivia back on the road with her new motor.

[RustyOlive]

Thanks Brother. Makes two of us. Hahaha

I'm excited to she how much different the 650 motor will be.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Thanks Brother. Makes two of us. Hahaha

I'm excited to she how much different the 650 motor will be.

Me and DaveBarbier, too!

[Honda550k]

Hey man. Good job on cleaning up the engine, looks good. I went through a similar situation with my bike, but the engine wasn't done, it had just lost 3rd gear when I was down shifting and rev matching. I bought a 650 before this happened so it was perfect timing. I also did the same thing as you did with the 750 carbs and oil cooler as well. The power is noticeable in that you don't have to shift down to pick up speed. And good call on running the 750 carbs its easy to tune and looks great too. But theres 4 things you gotta do to make the carbs work and fit

1. You have to bend the return cable holder because if you don't it is going to hit the center valve cover making it not fit.
2. You have to raise the cb550 tank slightly because the 750 carbs need more space for the slides to fully open. I just placed a few flat pieces of rubber on the take holder in front of the seat to do this.
3. I had to angle the petcock of the cb550 tank and have the nipple pointing towards the front of the bike in an angle because the idle screw will be in the way of the petcock and the choke linkage needs space to fully close when the petcock is in the on position. (Note the petcock on the second picture).
4. The fuel line routing is going to be tricky. You need a T joint to join the 2 fuel lines going from the tank and into 1,2 and 3,4 carbs and making sure that it is all in a decline. (I'll post a pic of the routing tomorrow when I get the chance).

  I read on some old posts on here and found that soos who is a member here ran the 750 carbs as well but he is now running carbs from the gpz600 which he said really wakes the engine up you know, if you're feeling like toying around. I'm running gs500 controls too which are more modern, clean and they're cheap. Things I miss about the 550 motor is the kick start and the easy access of the idle screw. I almost always play with my idle screw during stop lights. Lol

Anyway, here's a couple of pics of mine. I still need to polish and clean up the engine cases to make it look as clean as yours. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

[Tews19]

Sorry to hear about the engine but glad you kept with it and are now dropping the 650 in. I drove a 650 plant in a 550 and modern forks. The bike has much more power than a 550 plant. You will enjoy very much.

[akabek]

Does the CB650 engine bolt right into a CB550 frame?  If so are there certain year limitations? 

[Honda550k]

Does the CB650 engine bolt right into a CB550 frame?  If so are there certain year limitations?

Yeah. Bolts right on the 550 frame. I used the 550 hardware. The 650 engines that can fit are from 79' to 82'. 79 and 80 are slightly different from 81 and 82. The intakes are slightly more apart in the later years. If you want to run the 750 carbs you'd have to go with the earlier years. They have more options with swapping carbs such as gpz600, cbr600. If you're running the stock 650 setup go with the later years because the PD carbs on the earlier years are expensive and hard to find parts for.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

[RustyOlive]

Does the CB650 engine bolt right into a CB550 frame?  If so are there certain year limitations?

Yeah. Bolts right on the 550 frame. I used the 550 hardware. The 650 engines that can fit are from 79' to 82'. 79 and 80 are slightly different from 81 and 82. The intakes are slightly more apart in the later years. If you want to run the 750 carbs you'd have to go with the earlier years. They have more options with swapping carbs such as gpz600, cbr600. If you're running the stock 650 setup go with the later years because the PD carbs on the earlier years are expensive and hard to find parts for.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

I have a set of 78 CB750k carbs. They fit good.
I've already had them installed.. They were tough to get into the intake rubber boots. But fixed that by putting the cb650 rubbers in hot water for a bit. And with a little bearing grease. They slid on just fine. I also don't have to raise my tank. The Keihin carbs do not require as much room as previous years.

[GV1390]

Hell yeah!

Maybe this will give me the motivation to get mine done so I can come back up to hang and cruise with you guys again.

-Gennaro