piston rings/ honing tool

[petejw1966]

hi wiz,
i think the shims are hardened, i put the side
of the grinded shim into the bucket so theres
no wear going on, he hard part to he grinding
is keeping the skimmed area flat and even.

[wiz]

I thought grinding the shims was a no-no as they are case hardened ?

[petejw1966]

wow didnt realize how long ago i started
doing this,
well ive started the strip down,
nearly all apart, just having a few hassles with
the barrells there about 3/4 off, left it for now
and ill get back into tomorow.

ill keep u updated.

[petejw1966]

honed the cylinders today
and gapped the over size rings
came out pretty good.
heres a few pics.





the 1st cylinder slightly honed in a attempt to show the depth of the upper ridge


the cylinder honed, removing the upper ridge.


the pistons cleaned and polished


and some pics of the head

[petejw1966]

rings came in the post and look pretty sweet,
i should have the honing tool on monday,
so its all starting to come together.   

[petejw1966]

cleaned up the pistons today,
got rid of all the carbon,
used an old ring to clean the carbon from the ring grooves,
used a guitar wire to clean the oil holes out, a few of them were blocked
with carbon.
used oven cleaner for the inside of the pistons, that worked quite well,
left it on for around 10 minutes and did it twice, that stuff is pretty toxic
so didnt want to leave it on to long.
also polished and buffed them up,
these pistons and the jugs are off my original engine which had over 150,000 k's
on it and cleaned up really well,
the only problem i came across was the gudgion pin was a bit to loose in 1 of the pistons for my liking, this piston was attached to the con rod that seized on the original engine.
so ill have to use a piston and pin from the engine i have mounted in the bike atm.

also used oven cleaner to clean up the oil rails, they came up a treat also,
ive bought the over size piston rings so will be using the oil rings but using the old
oil rails with them

hopefully il be able to get hold of a honing stone shortly,
and get stuck into the jugs,
so all good so far.

[petejw1966]

got stuck into the head yesterday,
i used the soda blaster to clean the exhaust ports,
with the valves still fitted, cleaned them up nicely.

new valve stem seals had been fitted a little while ago,  so there sweet,
poured petrol into each port with no leakage or seepage,

adjusted the valve shims, what a prick of a job even with the head
off the engine, according to the manual for best performance
the valves should be adj to the lower specs so
i set up the intakes to be all exactly 4 thou and the exhaust
all exactly 8 thou, this meant some grinding of a few shims,
i did this buy using an old shim bucket to hold the shim before grinding,
the valve shims i got of melb came in very handy, thanx again brian.


 its also very important to torque all the cam bolts to spec 7.5 foot lbs
each time the cam has been removed, (i wasnt doing this at first)
as overtighting the nuts (even by a quarter of a turn) meant
the valve clearance would close up.

cant take any pics atm as my internet connection has been restricted.

[petejw1966]

the motor in it atm has at least 140k's,
probably not he best solution, but hopefully will
do the job.

ive got a big bore kit thats been sitting here for the past cpl
of years, but i want to put that in the original motor along with new
con rod and crankshaft bearings, but moneys tight atm so hopefully
one day ill get that all put together.

[Eveready1100]

Sure, Pete. No worries about the cylinder hone. Just give us a yell if need be.
About the rings, I don't see an issue using them if you gap them properly.
That'll probably be the way I'll go when the time comes to do mine.
What sort of mileage is on the motor?

[petejw1966]

thanx eveready, ill leave for the moment as i havent got the rings yet,
if i cant get hold of one, ill definately let you know. thanx for the offer.

excess.11, these are going in my spare motor thats in the bike atm,
im doing this one on the cheap, a cpl of the boys on the uk and us sites
have done this with the oversize rings with out any problems so far, i think .25 i should be sweet
if i do the end gaps correctly. it definatley wont be like using new pistons and having the cylinders
bored to suit but fingers crossed it should get me out of trouble3.

[excess.11]

Aside from honing the bore to fit these .25 oversize rings..........did you carry out a rebore and are they standard boresize.....( aside from wear and tear) to start with?
Saw this post and it had me wondering..........
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=60841.0

[Eveready1100]

Sure Pete. PM me your address and I'll send it off to you unless someone just round the corner from you has one

[petejw1966]

sick of spending money on oil, and riding with
a smoke sceen behind me,
i just bought these rings off ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110640508115#ht_1282wt_935


was also wondering if any1 had a honing tool i could borrow to hone the cylinders.