Ok here we go, after 15 years of not running
and stored for safe keeping
it was time to pull the finger out and get into it. I have complely stripped every part of the bike, started with frame (sandblast/paint), hydraulics, swingarm, etc.
Now I am at the exciting part, yes the engine.
I was going to post at the start of this journey, but heart surgery took a priority (got in the way, lol) all good and feeling teriffic.
Swingarm, before and after Vapour Blasting, new barings & seals, used the Motorex-Joker 440 to coat as barrier.
Engine time.
After reading Pete’s post on his last re-build, I knew that the liners had to come out, was going to get a brass drift and the remembered that I had some Ali round rod and used that to encourage them to come out, took 2-3 hits and they where out, very easy and I believe mandatory for the age of the machine and look what I found. Hay Pete, I think mine are worse than yours m8, lol ![]()
I have a couple of questions for the brains trust?
Why does Cly 1 look so dry/clean?
Why would Cly 4 have more buildup then the others?
Why has Cyl 2 have the black buildup?
Why do the lower O-ring set have 2 seperate coliur O-rings?
Man, that is looking great! I have one tiny critique. I believe that you painted the brake calipers the wrong color. My 86’ has calipers that are grey. Beautiful, nonetheless.
I cannot help you with your cylinder questions.
Gil
I have a few questions. What condition are the cylinders, pistons, and rings? Will you simply put the pistons and rings back into the cylinders from which they came, or will you replace the pistons and rings and have the cylinders bored?
Gil
Hi Gil,
The colour is not right, its still bugs me too
, I may change it m8?
Hi Gil,
The cylinder bores look good, the pistons also look good, was planning to get honed and put new pistons, gudgeon and rings. I have looked at a lot of places and the Std pistons are very scarse/unavailable, so it may be oversize, next size up (.25) and bore.
These pistons/rings are available.
Unless someone out there knows where might be some new ones.
I just believe if I have down to this stage, after 40 years the old girl deserves as much new parts I can get?
Hi degert,
unless your standard pistons are worn excessively it’s worth considering just installing new rings? If the pistons are undamaged and ring grooves not worn, and lands are good I would re ring rather than go with oversized.
Worth actually enquiring if anyone will bore a VF, as the sleeves need to be held in the crankcase clamped down at the correct angle to the boring head. Thesedays it’s hard enough to find an engineer reconditioned let alone someone who will take on motorcycle work. I have a genuine set of RE pistons which I managed to fluke off Ebay years ago, probably worth more than some of my bikes now! Will keep in case one of my motors totals itself.
Keep up the great work, and posts mate!
Standard size piston rings are available at a very reasonable price from cruzinimage in China, I fit these in all the vf engins ive rebuilt with no issues.
I have a set of these too, in STD size. My engine has only done 29k km (~18k miles), so hopefully I won’t need them for a while.
Smithy.
I’m a machinist too. I love this. Awesome.
Geez @DonR between you anc your brother you shame most of us with your skills. Love the job you made to hold the sleeves. Did you bore O/S? If so, did you use those German piston kits?
Cheers mate. We went with custom 80mm high comp pistons from Special Piston Services in Dandenong, VIC.
Wow…that’s getting close to 1100cc…1077.6 to be exact…very cool..!
Smithy.
Hi Pete, thanks for that, I have cleaned up the pistons gently with some scotch pad (very fine & WD40), they appear ok, however there seems to be some pitting? right at the top, above the top ring or is this just the casting process? and some vertical scratches which are very light. Would be nice to use these.
Hello @DonR after hearing att the advise from you and the whole team, I will try to just re ring, after I clean and inspect all pistons/check the tollerence.
























