Hi guys,
Some of you may remember me posting many years ago that my second gear had gone pop and that I had replaced the entire lump rather than strip down the engine. Well, the bike has now down 117,000 miles and the replacement engine unit has now done 60,000, so I thought I'd better get on with reconditioning the original engine in case I need it. As luck would have it, a second hand gearbox came up on eBay for bargain £75, so I thought the time was right. It must have come from a very low mileage bike because it is almost perfect. Not a scratch on the selectors or the dogs, gearwheels almost brand new. A good start.
I watched John Frankenthal's R1 engine rebuild videos on YouTube several times
http://www.youtube.com/user/SupermotoJohn?feature=watchand emboldened, I made a start.
The original engine has been sitting in the garage since 2006, so
I cleared out the conservatory and started cleaning. After 57,000 miles and 7 years in a garage, it took a while.The finish as we all know is pretty crap on Fazer engines. Believe me, after cleaning, it still looks bad and since the camera deceives, I have to tell you it looks worse in the flesh. But it's cleaner than it was. I've got a big problem with the studs which are well rusted in, and the oil return pipe bolts sheered with 0.1 ft/lbs or torque and will have to be drilled out.
I bought an electric rattle gun and various other tools and started unbolting. Here's what came out.
First, a very manky cylinder head. The cylinder tops are just as bad.
Although the original honing cross hatching is very much in evidence, the bores themselves have marks and I'm not sure whether they need reboring. Anyone care to suggest if they do? See the marks at 2 o'clock about 0.5cms from the top? You can feel very slight ripples if you run a finger over them.
Crank journals seem ok, as do the cams.
But there are significant pick up marks on the bearing shells probably from it running low on oil. This engine always burnt a lot of oil.
There's a nasty bit of damage on the inside of the gearbox where something hit it
But here's the piece de resistance
It had been slipping out of second and getting worse from the day I bought it. The cause is a known problem on 2001 Gen 1s and various R1s and is down to incorrectly cut dogs, so I understand. Staggering amount of damage though.
Comprehensively trashed. I thought it would just be the 2nd/6th gear wheels, but it ain't. And the dogs are scored and bent too.
And here are the bits from the gears which I found in the sump and went flying round the engine. Everywhere I look there are tiny little shards of metal coating every surface.
My next steps are to work out whether the cost of rebuilding it is worth it. I would like to reunite the original engine with the chassis for originality's sake, and although the gearbox hasn't cost much, I suspect I'm going to spend a bit of money. Possible rebore, pistons, rings, valve guide seals, gasket sets and so on. Is it worth it, I ask myself.
Anyone care to venture an opinion?