10 years after

[chuck hahn]

No not the band. I was given a 78 1000C roller with an engine in the frame about 10 years ago. There were no spark plugs in the engine when i got it and i didnt put any in. Figured i would use it for spare covers or whatever may be salvageable. Buddy wants the frame so i decided to strip it down and store parts yesterday. Thought the crank and trans would surely be rusted solid.
I wasnt surprised when i took off the head to find the thick rust in the cylinders and valves. But surprisingly the lower end and crank were just full of grey sludge.. nothing rusted at all!! So seeing that i changed plans. Now at some point itll be rebuilt with a big bore kit. Cams and shim buckets also look like new. I soaked cylinders with PB Blaster and heated the holes with a propane torch till the oil boiled and no movement. Even tried a little muriatic acid soak to see if it would eat the rust enough to free pistons but all it did was turn piston tops black. The cylinders looked like the valves. The picture shows them after wire wheeling and scraping with a knife.
Thought I'd share some pics. Mind you i know i got luckier than all get out to find the inside so nice. My plan is to set the case on some wood blocks with the crank dangling down and just hammer the pistons out the bottom. Dont care about the pistons as they will be replaced. I just need to get the cylinders off.

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[chuck hahn]

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[chuck hahn]

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[chuck hahn]

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[chuck hahn]

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[chuck hahn]

Got head apart and cleaned up. Wire wheeled the valves and cut the 45 degrees on the seats to get them fresh. Next step will be check shim clearances on the bench and create a spreadsheet on which valve stems will need tipped to be able to have thicker shims installed. A few seats took a lot to get right so tipping the stems will be needed on the heaviest cut ones. Im trying to figure out how to upload pics so be patent.

[chuck hahn]

YES these are the same head and valves seen above

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[chuck hahn]

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[chuck hahn]

Refreshed the 45 degree angle on the seats so i can determine shim sizes and which valve stems will need tipping. As you can see a few took a lot to get right so youll now understand why some tipping will be in order. There is approximately 55/1000 above the keepers so there plenty of stock for the surgery.

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[chuck hahn]

SAM_2264.jpg Todays event was figuring out how many thousands to take off each valve stem. Then used my buddys valve grinder to tip them to the prescribed overall lengths. Tommorow i will find out if my math was good. My attempts are designed to use up the 295 and 300 shims in the kit that never get used. That way the intermediate sizes like 245 to 270 are good for other engines.

[chuck hahn]

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[chuck hahn]

Got all the 75 and 15 degree angles cut and lapped in all the valves. Gonna be a few weeks till i get customer bikes done before ill have time to source a decent cylinder block and engine kit.

[GSXR7ED]

Like your story Chuck...and the pics.

Happy Maintenance!

[chuck hahn]

So my next step is put the valves and buckets with their designated shims back in and install the cams. I numbered each valve and each shim with what position it came from before disassembly so ill start with each one in its original spot. Then use feeler guages to find the gaps.
For instance say intake 1 had a 285 originally and no feelers would go in. So i estimated that if i took 12 thousands off that stem it theoretically should have a gap now. Each shim size is equal to 2/1000. So taking the 12/1000 of is lowering the stem by 6 shim sizes.
So if the gap now measures say 6 thousand thats now a gap of 3 shim sizes
Current shim in it now is 285. so i would now put in a 295 or 300 and check the clearance
Id have to do this process with all 8 valves to find what each new shim will be.
I will post the spreadsheet when im done.

[bwringer]

Nice work on the valve tipping; let us know how it goes.

Some of these higher-mileage engines are getting into the 2.40 and below shims, and the smaller shims are getting harder to find. OEM shims were available down to 2.15 (I have one as a test shim for zero clearance situations), but stocks are spotty.