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Replacing piston rings, what else?

  • Thread starter Thread starter rightious
  • Start date Start date
R

rightious

Guest
Hey guys, it's been a while since i have been on, i am in the process of pulling my motor out to replace my piston rings. I am wondering while i have the motor out and apart, is there anything that i should do while i'm balls deep in this thing? Nothing else is wrong that i know, but i'm pretty new to motorcycles all together. Any help would be VASTLY appreciated. thanks
 
De-carbonize, valve stem seals, hone the cylinders, clean off all the grunge and paint.:)
 
Okay, bigger question

Why are you replacing the rings?

Poor compression?

Blowing oil?

You say you are new to bikes, are you sure the diagnosis is correct?

Cam chain tensioner guides are mandatory
 
big t,

yeah, i put a compression tester on all the cylinders, and the one had real weak pressure. So i am going to replace them all.
 
If it was #3 then you probably washed out the cylinder with a leaky petcock. Fix the petcock and the rings will seat.
 
Did a wet compression test help? Checked your valve clearances? How bad off was the compression?
 
You don't need to remove the engine to do the rings. But as others have stated, make sure you have a ring problem before ripping into it.

Has it sat for a very long period. You may have siezed rings in the piston grooves. If so, take it for a hard ride and redo your compression test, while the engine is hot and with the throttle wide open.

You can remove the head and barrels with the engine still in the bike.
 
yes the wet compression test helped, without oil in the cylinder it was like 20 or so psi. i already have the engine out, i want to go threw it and clean it up any way, and since i live in chicago, it is disgusting outside, so i have a warm basement to do it in.

i do believe it has sat for a while, i just got it in the fall, so i am not sure what happened with the previous owner.

i still have issues with it running on only 2 cylinders, i was one before and everyone told me i need to rebuild the carbs again. i did rebuild them with cheep aftermarket rebuilds, so i might re-do it with oem rebuilds.
 
Not sure what you are calling "OEM rebuilds", but there are no OEM rebuild kits for the carbs. Your best bet is to get a full set of o-rings from cycleorings.com, dip the carbs in Berryman's Carb Cleaner Dip (overnight for each carb body), use the original jets, put it all back together.

.
 
I believe the vac. port is on the #2 carb.. Use a ball hone on the cylinders and go with new OEM rings if using OEM pistons. Go thru the head with new seals and have the valves re-seated (valve job), have the valves back cut 37 degrees this will pick up low-mid lift flow a bunch. If your machinist doesn't know what a back cut is..get your stuff and run away as fast as you can ! Also, have the deck 'cleaned' up with a .005 surface cut. New base and head gaskets. Use a service manual that explains ring end gap placement (stagger). Work slowly and pay attention to detail and keep a RECORD of what you do. Take a compression test after the first 2000 miles and RECORD that too for future reference. Good luck and keep use informed.

Terry
 
headsbikesmopars said:
I believe the vac. port is on the #2 carb.. Use a ball hone on the cylinders and go with new OEM rings if using OEM pistons. Go thru the head with new seals and have the valves re-seated (valve job), have the valves back cut 37 degrees this will pick up low-mid lift flow a bunch. If your machinist doesn't know what a back cut is..get your stuff and run away as fast as you can ! Also, have the deck 'cleaned' up with a .005 surface cut. New base and head gaskets. Use a service manual that explains ring end gap placement (stagger). Work slowly and pay attention to detail and keep a RECORD of what you do. Take a compression test after the first 2000 miles and RECORD that too for future reference. Good luck and keep use informed.

Terry
Click to expand...

Good advise except for two things. As Steve has pointed out, the vacuum port is on #3 carb.
There is little point in staggering ring gaps as mentioned in many service manuals. As soon as the engine is run, the rings move around in the grooves anyway, so occasionally they will all end up in alignment. That won't happen very often. But even when it does, at 7000-9000 rpm, you won't notice the difference in performance anyway.
 
rings look fine...

rings look fine...

So i pulled the cylinder block off and looked at the pistons expecting to see my rings all messed up, but they look perfectly fine... i have new ones waiting, but if the current ones are fine, should i replace them anyway??

i have a new base gasket, but the one between the head and cylinder block is metal, can i just reuse it?

have you heard of this like sonic cleaner for carbs? he was telling me that it has mineral spirits and like sonic waves or something... supposed to work better than crappy barrymans dip...

let me know..
 
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