1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Guest]

More success again tonight! Cylinders and head are on, nothing torqued down yet though.

This does mean that the engine is ready to back in the frame this weekend though and I'll torque things up then as I don't have sufficient leverage with it on the bench.

I also ordered a bunch of things today including oil filter, starter motor O ring, and a couple of carby float bowl gaskets and I'll need to pick those up on Saturday.

I'm knackered after a long day so I will update the thread with pic's in the morning.

For now... yay

 

[Guest]

Ok, so time for the promised pic's and update.

First up, the honing job on the cylinders (this is before I scrubbed them out):



I believe that's a good job given other pic's I've seen around here and on the 'net in general.

Next up, got my OEM base gasket on with the cleaned up cylinder pins installed:



Then, after scrubbing out the cylinders with an old dish washing brush and lots of kero and putting some more oil in, I popped the O rings on the bottom of the cylinders:



Then set the left cylinder up for installation:



I don't have pic's of my fiddling around getting the cylinders on and seated right, but it was an interesting bit of work for sure. I neglected to make things easy by getting a large hose clamp or ring compressor, so my fingers became the ring compressor. Do yourself a favour and don't do that.

I was able to get the cylinders down with some effort without pinching any skin or breaking any rings which is excellent.



Next up, head gasket and cylinder head pins installed:



Yes, that is an Athena composite head gasket I'm afraid. The issues I've seen so far seem to be the base gaskets and this looks very similar to the composite OEM gasket I pulled out originally, so hopefully this should be fine. Given that I can't tell the difference between the Athena and OEM valve stem seals, I'm starting to think the distributor here wasn't fibbing when he told me he stands by Athena's quality. Only time will tell... I'm still wondering if the kits used so far are older stock or something, whereas I know for a fact this guy had to order mine in from overseas as he only keeps a very small amount on hand.

I can only hope anyway

 

[Guest]

Rear cam chain guide installed in the head:



There's no torque spec's for those bolts, so I just popped some thread locker on and snugged them up without overdoing it.

Then on with the head:



Cleaned up the front cam chain guide:



On with the new copper gaskets:



And the hex nuts on finger tight and the front cam chain guide installed:



And the 6mm upside down bolt cleaned up and sitting in place:



So there we have it ready to go in the frame, and that makes me a very happy chappy.

I'll torque the hex nuts and the 6mm nut up once the engine's in the frame as there's not enough purchase with it on the workbench and the top of the motor is now too high for good grip.

I anticipate the rest of this week will be more gasket clean up to get the right and alternator covers on and probably start cleaning up the wiring harness and maybe even pulling the carbs apart.

Then the weekend should be engine installation I hope.

 

[Charlie G]

pete,

That engine is too clean. I'd a least leave some greasy finger prints on it.

whn

 

[Suzuki_Don]

I neglected to make things easy by getting a large hose clamp or ring compressor, so my fingers became the ring compressor. Do yourself a favour and don't do that.

I was able to get the cylinders down with some effort without pinching any skin or breaking any rings which is excellent.

You've done very well Pete. Especially with a buggered thumb getting those rings compressed. Keep going.

On the issue of removing stubborn gasket material. A can of CRC Gasket Remover works well. Just spray it on and let it fizz up for a few minutes and scrape of the softened part of the upper surface of the gasket, than go throught the process again until you are down to the aluminium case. Only thing is this stuff is stronger than paint stripper so dont spray it near newly painted cases or the inevitable result will be bubbling paint.

 

[SVSooke]

You really are getting somewhere now.Good to see.My own stall now over I hope to get going soon to.

 

[Guest]

pete,

That engine is too clean. I'd a least leave some greasy finger prints on it.

whn

Haha cheers Charlie, and yeah it is rather clean. Don't worry, I'm sure to make it dirty soon enough, already have some greasy finger prints on my nicely polished case covers from trying to get the gasket remnants off!

You've done very well Pete. Especially with a buggered thumb getting those rings compressed. Keep going.

On the issue of removing stubborn gasket material. A can of CRC Gasket Remover works well. Just spray it on and let it fizz up for a few minutes and scrape of the softened part of the upper surface of the gasket, than go throught the process again until you are down to the aluminium case. Only thing is this stuff is stronger than paint stripper so dont spray it near newly painted cases or the inevitable result will be bubbling paint.

Yeah I'm absolutely stoked thanks Don and I'm actually surprising myself with how far I've gotten so far. I'm trying to be cautious and not cause myself any grief, so it's getting there slowly but surely.

Thankfully the thumb is pretty much healed up, although I think all the kero on the fresh skin has caused a bit of a blister so it's not quite all there yet... but you get that :lol:

Thanks for the tip on the gasket spray too. I'm hoping to finish removing all that tonight and tomorrow night but I don't expect I'll get a chance to get a can before the weekend, so I may end up getting a piece of timber and making a bit of an edge with it to get some more off. The metho does soften it up a little, but nothing like what that can would do though.

You really are getting somewhere now.Good to see.My own stall now over I hope to get going soon to.

Indeed! Cannot wait to get it in the frame... but I must be patient and not rush, otherwise I can guarantee to stuff it royally.

Don't you have a bike to paint purple or something?

 

[SVSooke]

Wanta be pretty shades of black and blue?

 

[JEEPRUSTY]

The care you are taking in the photography is much appreciated.
stunning pics

 

[Guest]

Wanta be pretty shades of black and blue?

Hahaha if you do it right it could even end up as shades of purple

The care you are taking in the photography is much appreciated.
stunning pics

Cheers Jeeprusty! I figured with all the awesome help I get from people on here, the least I can do is return as much as I can by doing a detailed thread for a twin as there's not much in the way of them being done at the moment.

 

[Guest]

I'm actually not sure if I'll get to do more tonight or not at the moment.

I've had to come home early in case the train gets stopped by water as they're predicting flooding in Brissie tonight/tomorrow.

Our house should be fine, and I hope all the other guys on here will be ok too.

One of my team is at home on evacuation alert in Bracken Ridge and another one expects where he's staying to flood tomorrow, but I'm not sure where he is.

So Ken (KC1098), Shin-Ken, Hillsy, Sharpy, you guys all doing ok? I can't remember the other Brissie or local guys off the top of my head at the moment...

 

[KC1908]

Got the motor up high Pete? We're cut off now. This rain has to stop one day.

 

[Guest]

All good on that front Ken, up on the work bench, although I don't expect any water as we're not that low thankfully and our brick wall around the back yard tends to direct most of the water around us.

Hope you're not cut off for too long, you higher up or at risk? And yeah, this rain has to stop, and according to the Bureau of Meterology it looks like the rain should ease later today/tonight and for the rest of the week.

Fingers crossed...

 

[Leigh]

Good to hear you're relatively high & dry, Pete.
Thommo thinks he's about to lose his shed in Rocky. Toowoomba looks bad. 13 dead.

You Banana Benders look after yourselves up there, will ya?

 

[KC1908]

We should be right, we're on acreage and there is a creek down a few properties that we just checked and it shouldn't get to our place. My son is on the wrong side of the water and is sitting in his car at Kenmore waiting to see if the water drops enough to drive through. Bit of panic buying going on at the local shop and petrol station. Long queues.

We have two full bottles of Jack and a slab of beer so we're right for at least a day or two

 

[Guest]

Good to hear you're relatively high & dry, Pete.
Thommo thinks he's about to lose his shed in Rocky. Toowoomba looks bad. 13 dead.

You Banana Benders look after yourselves up there, will ya?

Mate I'm surprised anyone in Rocky has anything left by now! Sad state of affairs up there and even worse in Toowoomba, couldn't believe it when I saw that on the news last night...

We should be right, we're on acreage and there is a creek down a few properties that we just checked and it shouldn't get to our place. My son is on the wrong side of the water and is sitting in his car at Kenmore waiting to see if the water drops enough to drive through. Bit of panic buying going on at the local shop and petrol station. Long queues.

We have two full bottles of Jack and a slab of beer so we're right for at least a day or two

Good stuff, that sounds promising. The rain is pretty much gone here so hopefully your son will be right to get through soon. Weird with the panic shopping considering this can't last more than a day or two, but that's how it goes I guess.

I got a full bottle of scotch plus some other nicer bottles of scotch, plus a slab of beer, plus a few other things in the bar, so we should be right as well I hope

 

[Charlie G]

I wish you all well down there and if it ever floods when I come down there, I going to Pete's house and beg his hospitality.

"I got a full bottle of scotch plus some other nicer bottles of scotch, plus a slab of beer, plus a few other things in the bar, so we should be right as well I hope "[/QUOTE]

 

[landshark]

I hope all the other QLD guys and their families are OK too, pretty good down here so far.

If any of you US guys want to see something that doesnt happen often, google the Toowoomba flood, it is on the top of a mountain Range!

On another note, progress is looking great Pete.

 

[hillsy]

Hey Pete - we're OK here at Arana Hills. Got a bit of water in the garage, but the bikes are high and dry

Stay safe

 

[Guest]

I wish you all well down there and if it ever floods when I come down there, I going to Pete's house and beg his hospitality.

Haha nice one Charlie, I like to keep my bar at the ready at all times, and having a bar was a compulsory item on the home shopping list when we bought this place

I hope all the other QLD guys and their families are OK too, pretty good down here so far.

If any of you US guys want to see something that doesnt happen often, google the Toowoomba flood, it is on the top of a mountain Range!

On another note, progress is looking great Pete.

Yeah that Toowoomba storm or whatever you want to call it was just insane, I still can't believe it when they show the clips on the news. I've done a fair bit of work up there in a previous job and it's the last place you'd think of something like that happening.

Looks like you guys down the coast are probably the best off so far, everything seems to be on a diagonal from above the Sunshine Coast through Brissie and inland northern NSW.

Hey Pete - we're OK here at Arana Hills. Got a bit of water in the garage, but the bikes are high and dry

Stay safe

Good to hear Hillsy, even better the bikes are high and dry

I'm having a look at www.brisbanetimes.com.au now and once again they're saying it looks like it's going to peak higher than the '74 floods. Wow

My main concern at the moment is my work is in Fortitude Valley and, as it's a hosting company, power's somewhat important, but Energex are looking at cutting power in the CBD and the Valley tomorrow, and of course if noone can get into the office then I don't know how we're going to get fuel to keep the generators going for an extended period. Could be an interesting time, and I really can't see the trains running to get me in and out either.