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An extremely boring tale......

39K views 435 replies 23 participants last post by  Motorbikerx 
#1 ·
Called into the engineers today and the torque plates are bolted up to the first barrel and it's on the lathe getting machined out in stages ready for the fitting of the big bore sleeves!
Told ya it was boring....
 

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#2 ·
Man
MbX that is just so good to see this, seen it 10x on car engine's but not on motorcycles, soon you'll be riding your Victory again mate...

The titel threw me off track, until I opened the thread.. Funny.

Andre
TaPaTaLk
 
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#5 ·
Well it's machined out to fit the new sleeves, in one of the pics there's a stock 100" barrel and sitting to the left of it a sleeve, might give you some idea of the difference.
I'll call around to the workshop after the weekend and get an after pic to compare.
There's a fair bit of alloy coming out as you can see in the pic.
Mark, the engineer machinist mechanic wizard said it's very grainy alloy and hard to get a smooth finish with it.
He's gonna take at least 3 cuts to gradually get it down to an interference fit of 4.5 thou, least that's what I think he said.
You'll notice the sleeve is stepped to hold it in place too.

I once destroyed a Leyland V8 which are a 1962 Buick alloy engine, overheated it the day before when a hose blew. Then the next day I was driving it to the Gold Coast Indy Car race and gave it a huge rev and smoked up the tyres showing off.
Then BANG clatter clatter clatter!!!!
On post mortem pull-down it was revealed the block had been sleeved out to 308 cube but no step on the sleeves, the heat had shifted the sleeve downwards and when I gave it a big rev a ring slipped past the top of the sleeve and then tore the top clean off the piston!!!

That's why they're stepped, it's a very involved machining process, that's probably why you have to send your barrels in to Lloydz.
Thankfully they made an exception for us cos of distance and freight logistics and the fact I have a really good old school engineer doing the highly specialised job.

100" and 106" share the same bore size and pistons, the difference is in the stroke of the engines.
Same kit takes 100" to 109" or 106" to 116"
 
#6 ·
we used to do big bore on HD's and would wind up with a one pound coffee can full of fine shavings like you see in above photos.
 
#10 ·
There is nothing a 4 jaw chuck can't hold and keep running true :D
 
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#8 ·
Boring but cool.

Years ago we use to use a boring bar on tractor blocks. It never made them perfect. I use to send my blocks I would overhaul into the machine shop. The old guys at the shop went ahead and use the boring bar to bore out the blocks, still remember seeing them sleeve the cylinders that were to far gone, pretty cool. I just did not trust that old boring bar or me doing it, ha, ha. Looks quiet pricey the machining for your cylinders. Would love to see a dyno run after you get it all broke in and dialed in. Hope the engine work meets your expectations. Good luck. Send more pictures. Picture of the old pistons next to the new pistons would be cool.
:grin
 
#9 ·
Years ago we use to use a boring bar on tractor blocks. It never made them perfect. I use to send my blocks I would overhaul into the machine shop. The old guys at the shop went ahead and use the boring bar to bore out the blocks, still remember seeing them sleeve the cylinders that were to far gone, pretty cool. I just did not trust that old boring bar or me doing it, ha, ha. Looks quiet pricey the machining for your cylinders. Would love to see a dyno run after you get it all broke in and dialed in. Hope the engine work meets your expectations. Good luck. Send more pictures. Picture of the old pistons next to the new pistons would be cool.
:grin
I'll see what I can do, I plan on visiting the engineer shop at their lunchtime today, which is about an hour from now.
 
#13 ·
I think the weakest link will be the tires....
Smile

Andre
TaPaTaLk
 
#17 ·
I drop my 235/65/15 rear street tyres on my car to 20psi for traction at the drags. Why wouldn't that work on a bike?........err think I just realised!
My rear 180/55/18 is a low profile and I know for a fact that guys at the drags running modern Street cars with their low profile tyres shouldn't drop their rear pressures, the low profiles don't like or need it....
Yeah ok VJ point taken.
 
#19 · (Edited)
#28 ·
MBX... here, the crybaby libtards would be trying to have you imprisoned for animal cruelty! Lol

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#30 ·
Enough of oversize manic marsupials,
Back to that extremely boring tale....
Just dropped into the engineering workshop to see how things are going.
The second barrel is being reamed out to size to fit the Darton sleeves, as used by all the Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, Top Bike, and Top boat, nitromethanol fuelled monsters.
These are the sleeves Lloydz fit to your barrels when you get his big bore kit.

Mark commented today. After warning me not to touch any part of the lathe in my photography mission.
He said to get a pic showing the bottoms of the original sleeves laying in the removed scarf under the lathe.
So much metal is removed for the new sleeves that during the machining the original sleeve parts company with its barrel.

More still needs to come out, it has to be done in stages with stops to allow everything to cool down as the process generates a lot of heat, carefully touch a drill bit after you've drilled through some metal, and you'll get some idea of what we are talking about.
Then the step has to be machined as I've already elaborated on.

I snapped off a couple of other pix of jobs that are being done alongside mine, mainly bikes of that other American company.
Enjoy a look inside an old school engineers shop that prides itself on it's motorcycle work as well as all facets of general engineering.
 

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#33 ·
It is but still funny

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#34 ·
Animals are TOUGH.

My neighbor had a great big German Shepard and that dog was mean as I don't know what. I had borrowed a big 18" crescent wrench from the neighbor and I walked over to return it. The dog was chained up. When I opened the gate and walked through it, that damned dog broke the chain and came at me full on attack mode. I swung overhand as hard as I could and cracked that dog right between the eyes with that big ol' wrench. The dog shook it off... didn't even go down.

Seriously, that blow would have killed a man.
 
#35 ·
Damn.....that is nuts

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#36 ·
Was up till 330am fitting new forks, brakes, wheel with new Avon RoadRider tyre.
Bought off a bloke in the GPZ900R forum here in OZ who went to USD forks and 17 " front.
They're 16" front OEM
Anyway just woke up and it's time for a testride.
This friggin arthritis in my left hand is a worry, I can handle the Kawasaki hydraulic clutch easy, don't even use it on upstarts....dunno how I'm gonna go with the Scorpion on the new bigger motor but...
Only time will tell.
Anyway I'm off for a testride to clear the head.
Oh yeah pix!
Before, during. And after, and what I woke up to this morning. No vertical smile when I sleep at the workshop but.
 

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#38 ·
Tyre & wheel look good.

Nice GPZ. Road an old early 1980 GPZ 550 red back in 1983. Nice bike it was. Never got to ride the GPZ900. Road one of the original KZ900, did not have my license back then, the fastest production bike when they came out. Hope the new wheel works out good, that bikes a keeper.
 
#39 ·
Nice GPZ. Road an old early 1980 GPZ 550 red back in 1983. Nice bike it was. Never got to ride the GPZ900. Road one of the original KZ900, did not have my license back then, the fastest production bike when they came out. Hope the new wheel works out good, that bikes a keeper.
Yeah thanks mate,
it's sure nice to ride in its own way.
Sharp, precise,and fast.....and fairly comfortable tourer for a sportbike....more a sports tourer compared with modern weaponry.
Probably a keeper, as I sold my last one,identical to this one, to help finance my Victory Vegas, I'm a cash buyer if I ain't got the money I save or sell assets, for the Vegas my last Gpz900r had to go as well as my ratbike XS650 of 1973 vintage.
As soon as I knew the Vegas was gonna be off the road for a while I got on the hunt.
For either a Gpz900r or XS650 or CB750/4 Honda,
You can see what I came up with.
Needed a bit of fettling to get up to scratch and this front end is something from another forum that came up at a a price too good to refuse.
 
#42 ·
Yes mate. I bought an identical one brand new in 1978 so the K7 was my first 'big bike' so to speak, not counting my CB400F that I traded on it.

A few years ago I decided to try and find a good one locally but as you know, most SOHC Honda 750's in Australia have had a dozen owners by now and been modified and flogged to death several times!

I bought this one from a guy in Rhode Island in the USA. He'd bought it from the original owner in about '79 with 2000 miles on it and only put another 5500 miles on the clock over the ensuing 34 years. It's a cracker of a bike - completely original aside from a new set of genuine pipes I fitted earlier this year.

It amuses me that it had done less miles in 38 years than my Victory covered in its first year!:smile
 
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#44 ·
My brother in law modified a neglected 750/4 he bought of some guy. Fun bike to romp on.

More comfortable than it looks, trust me.
 

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#45 ·
Didn't I see those two in the Original Mad Max? :)
 
#46 ·
Could've...the bloke that's building my Vegas worked on some of the bikes in the first movie.
My K2 was built by a mate, Rodney Harris, he cut the frame below the seatbase to lower the seat as well as working the tank mounts to get it sitting lower, it all his work except for the paint, I did the gold stripe as a mirror of the black stripe that appeared on the gold bikes.
810cc kit with cams, period Ram Flo filters, home made 4-2 exhaust system, 16" hog rear wheel.
Front is XS1100 which gives the appearance of the forks being oversize in length (cos they are)
also gave good braking with the twin discs.
Rear fender was bobbed (hence the word "bobber")
Rodney created a great bike, that I swapped him a Holden Rodeo ute for, I got the best part of the deal for sure!
Bought it when my first daughter was born, in a concession to slowing down, sold my GPZ1100B and rode the K2 for a few years, it won Best Jap on a local Poker Run, I have a trophy for that, but as things go I sold the Honda to finance the finishing off of a Cleveland V8 that I was having built....I do regret letting the old Honda go.
It was a one-off bike.

On a lighter note I called into the engineers at lunchtime and the dry ice should arrive tomorrow for the freezing of the Darton liners ready to slip into the oven warmed, bored out Victory barrels!
They'll be honed to suit the Wiseco forged pistons, and the top end can go together, then it'll be another case of Coopers mid-strength beer in their workshop fridge!
Aussie Incentive Scheme :devil
 
#47 ·
Called in to the workshop today and saw the barrels with the new Darton sleeves fitted.
Still warm to the touch when I took this pic.
Now they get bolted back up to the torque plates and go into the lathe again to be bored to suit the Wiseco forged slugs.
Then once honed to perfection it'll be time to fit it all back together, check deck heights etc.
Then fit the freshened heads with S&S valve springs and dial in the cams.
Still hoping for a Victory Xmas but after all the delays and hold-ups I'm not holding my breath....
There was a card in my post office box tonight so looks like my Lloydz primary support plate has arrived from Paulie@hondaeasttoledo and the timing couldn't be better.
 

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#48 ·
Shiny!

Lloydz primary support plate arrived today!
Picked it up from the post office riding the GPZ, it was extremely well packed, Thanks Paulie@hondaeasttoledo
I cut the tape at the post-office counter and stuffed the plate down the front of my leather vest and made sure the extra leather belt I use as security so my vest don't blow open was nice and secure.
Someone commented on my "bullet proof vest"
Haha I'll use that one!
Called into the workshop to show off my bullet proof vest but the boys sussed what it was.
I cut the shrink pack plastic off and took a photo of it on the bench all shiny!
Hopefully next time I see it will be with it bolted in place prior to the engine going in the frame.
Still hoping for Xmas but not holding my breath.....
Anyway here's the pic.
 

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#49 ·
Good write-up MbX, slow is always better, if you hurry then down the road you will be sorry...

You will have a glorious bike again mate....

Andre
TaPaTaLk
 
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#50 ·
I can't wait to see the finished product! This bike is going to be bad azzzzzzzz!!
 
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