GSX1150 Rebuild

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Its been a couple of years since my last rebuild that i have now sold on so it was time for a new purchase. I bought it about a year ago from a guy who was selling up. It was a case of take it all or nothing. There was an 1150ES (no engine in frame), an 1150EFE (slightly battered) , 3 engines (not complete) , a rolling chassis, spare tank and the ES engine fitted in a motorcross frame. I needed a small truck to get it all home.

 

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Excellent. Got the first photo uploaded so heres some more

 

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Bear with me while i remember how to add multiple photos in post

 

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And heres the engine

 

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A few spares

 

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Heres view from other side

 

[steve murdoch]

A "small" truck to get it all home?
Everybody needs a 100hp 4 cylinder dirt bike!

 

[dorkburger]

Wow... that dirt bike appears to have the 1150 frame downtubes grafted onto it. I wonder if hillclimber was the intent.

 

[wyly]

Many build options with lot's of spares there's enough there to keep you entertained for a few winters.

 

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Here is the 1150 EFE that came with it. I will deal with that in a separate post

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Apparently the bike had been a Beach Racer rather than a motocross


G]

 

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The EFE was last registered on the road in 2002 and the ES in 2010 so there was no guarentees anything was going to work to well. Still it was relatively cheap so worth a shot.
First job was to get the engine out of the yellow frame and give it a health check.

After much angst it came free

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Those engines are very heavy so i needed this to move it around.

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First job was to get the sump off and check in there. There was about 5mm of sludge sitting in the sump, the consistency of wet Muriwai sand. For those who dont know NZ, Muriwai is a black ironsand beach, very fine sand.
The good news was looking up it looked pretty good.

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[dorkburger]

From what I hear the 1135 engine is getting to be tough to find, so even if you have rebuildable cores, it seems like you're ahead of the game.

 

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A few hours with paint stripper got rid of the orange hue and it looks almost normal now

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Next step was to get the valve cover off and see how the top end looks.

 

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It doesn't look too bad but a couple of issues have presented themselves here. 1 spark plug would not come out and 2 of the bolts that hold the cam shaft covers in place snapped off when i was removing them.
Its off to the Engine Reconditioner to get these items fixed.

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[roeme]

Oh, a proper challenged. Subbed.

 

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Seeing as I don't own a Drill Press I wouldn't be so stupid as to have a Go with a handheld cordless drill.

 

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Seeing as the Cylinder Head is off it was time to check out condition of the cylinders.
Its not pretty. Theres a lot of crud in there and some rust in cylinder bore.

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No.1

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No.4

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No.3

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& No.2

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And here is cylinder bore with rust

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[wyly]

It doesn't look too bad but a couple of issues have presented themselves here. 1 spark plug would not come out and 2 of the bolts that hold the cam shaft covers in place snapped off when i was removing them.
Its off to the Engine Reconditioner to get these items fixed.

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I had nearly identical problems, two broken and frozen plugs and two stripped cam cover holes. I just handed it over to one of the best engine re-builders in Canada, Vass Preformance Cycle. I had him rebuild the entire head for $1,200, money well spent.

You have someone in Auckland with a fantastic reputation, Brent Hyde. I've dealt with him in regards to my Honda CBX not sure what his history is with Suzuki or if he can be of any help. brentmopar@xtra.co.nz

 

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Once i scraped out the crud from cylinders i thought it prudent to remove cylinder as well.
There was rusty buildup on the studs but the cylinders themselves look OK

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That was all wiped / scraped away fairly easily.

I got the cylinder head back from engine shop. They had to drill out the problem spark plug and so heli-coiled it. They also did the other 3 as the threads were had it.
A few extra dollars got the head skimmed as well.

Before

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and after

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So now I needed to get the engine back in the frame so i could see if it would run. In previous restorations i have used the 'Tip the engine over and lower the frame over it" approach. Easy enough when he frame is bare but this was still fully assembled and i really couldn't be bothered dismantling it so an alternate approach was required.
This required a garden pergola, blocks of wood, paving tiles and some tie down straps.
Step 1: Get the bike and engine in position adjacent to each other

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Step 2: lift the engine up by tilting it back and forth and inserting wood/tiles under it. Use the straps to stop it tipping over.

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Once at the right height put some timber across frame to drag the engine over

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Almost there

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And done

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Now to get the Cylinder Head back on.

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