H2 into a SP

[Mori Man]

Have now gathered enough parts together to transform the bike from this:



(original thread: viewtopic.php?f=87&t=6811&p=55180#p55180)

Into a fully fledged SP with some slight mod's

Spec' will include:

Full SP bodywork J2 (with optional two seat tail)
SP engine with F3 cams and M3 pulsar
F3 Race loom with F3 CDI and additional road wiring
FCR's with 50mm Blue trumpets and ramair box
SP front forks J2
SP rear shock J2
H1 Swingarm
H1 radiator
BEET zorst
BEET rearsets
BEET limiter off
BEET rear light lens cover
Brembo Brake Master cylinder front and back
Two pot rear brake conversion (maybe Brembo)

Should have photo's of frame, swingarm and wheels next few weeks.

[RedexRobB]

look forward to this. Your projects are always great to read about!

[jake]

nice....but why put a naff h1 swingarm on, when you already have a h2 swingarm?

[Mori Man]

nice....but why put a naff h1 swingarm on, when you already have a h2 swingarm?

It wont be when i'm finished with it

Even on it's own, I do like the sub framing

Also have a L5 swinger too

[Mori Man]

SP engine arrived tonight so whipped the cam cover off just to confirm it was:

All lobes are pristine

Slotted cam's (should be available soon)


Engine oil was nice and clean and anti freeze was still a good colour too - milage on the clocks was 16+K Kilo's so just over 10K miles.

With the cover off I done a valve clearance check and believe it to be true as the gaps are kinda what you would expect. Taking the bike into a dealership they would replace 6 shims me I'm going to do 10 if i can't swap them about.

#1 EX both tight ( .15 .14) IN 1 tight 1 just on limit (.11 .12)
#2 EX spot on (.19 .18) IN both on limit (.12 .12)
#3 EX both tight (.14 .14) IN spot on (.15 .15)
#4 EX 1 spot on 1 just on limit (.18 .16) IN 1 spot on 1 on limit (.14 .11)

All the gaps on the limit I will raise so final gaps will be

EX
(#1) .20 .19 (#2) .19 .18 (#3) .19 .19 (#4) .18 .21 (would like to grind both the .2 & .21 down to .19 , plate glass with some valve grinding paste)

IN
(#1) .16 .17 (#2) .17 .17 (#3) .15 .15 (#4) .14 .16

Just wished they made the shims in .02 increments instead of .05

[masterofinsanity]

fancy doin a write up on checking valve clearances?

[Mori Man]

fancy doin a write up on checking valve clearances?

No prob's bud, I'll start a photo shoot on getting the shims out (tricky fookers they are) without removing the cam's.

My 1st recommendation (as I am doing this engine out of frame) is get angled feeler gauges (my .04 is already bent lol) for this motor.

Before buying the shims I'll do another check on them, the engine is out on the veranda just now so could ask the wife to take some photos as I am doing it.

With most things the 1st time is daunting and I only know too well from past experience that a comprehensive set of instructions eases the pain. Only too happy to help anyone giving this a try for themselves - it's not difficult, just remember " If it was complicated then the service engineers servicing your bike would be rocket scientist's" As soon as some one shows you what's what you'll kick yourself that you ever let them do it for you.

The good thing with shim's they don't need exchanged so regular but still need checked if your an "Ernest thrasher" , this engine is even more user friendly as the shims sit on top of the valve spring collets (Usual shims are "shim under bucket" or "shim over bucket") and the rockers slide on spring mounted rails

1st tip - when you move the rocker arm away from the cam lobe and shim ( it is "free" with no load) use your finger and push it down and rest it on the valve spring out of the way (photo to follow).

[masterofinsanity]

look forward to the info as i'm doin mine on the 750 soon.

[stug]

I thought grinding the shims to a smaller size was a bad idea cause they have a hardened coating and grinding them makes them softer and more prone to wearing.
Could be wrong though.

[Mori Man]

Weather been a bit poor lately so haven't been able to tackle the frame, wheels and swinger so I've turned my attention to the cylinder head as that can be done on the kitchen table

Armed myself with a rotary grinder / polisher kit and bought a valve spring compressor too:


The timer is so i don't run it for too long, they recommend 15min max so i set it to 10mins.

1st task was removing the rockers - very easy to do after removing the two side bolts that hold them in place. after that I slid one of the rockers and the end of the shaft popped out enough to grab and pull straight out, your then left with the rockers sitting in place with the springs. I've marked up a sheet and kept them in order and will be bagged accordingly.


Will do all the head work with the valves in place then remove when doing the ports - removed two just now so you can see what's happening.


Cylinder Head:
From the factory the finish isn't the best and indeed the combustion shape is also a bit rough too, so I have started to smooth out the casting and re-shape the chamber;


If you imagine a river with big boulders in it and how much disruption they cause to the flow then that's what's happening inside here too - removing these obstacles creates a better flow and the chamber can fill / empty quicker and more efficiently;


I'm not going crazy with the removal of material, just enough to clean up the rough casting. I am also removing the material from around the valves (left there from when the block is cut to fit the valve seats) which again helps gas flow. I am doing this by hand with a new Stanley blade which shaves the alloy very easily and controllably ;


Once I get all the "ruff" work done then I can start getting it polished to a mirror shine including the valves, they will finally get "lapped" back in when I do the re-build. All components including the head will be placed in a bath of cleaning solution and blow dry with an air line to ensure all traces of swarf are removed. Piston crowns will also have the same done to them

Inlet / Exhaust Ports

Here you can see the rough casting lines and indeed casting blobs in the inlet tract, again all I am doing is smoothing these out and not removing vast amounts of material as my aim is not to drastically change the character of the port. Once all the cleaning has been done these will also be polished as best as can to promote a good clean fuel/air flow and emission.


Only just starting with this but should be worth while in the end;


As I progress with the work I'll keep adding to this post , to get the bike registered easier and quicker I am considering a quick fix just now on the H2 and once I've got the plate on it strip it again and fit the other parts

Later.....

[RedexRobB]

Nice work, quite possibly the first post on mild DIY tuning!

Read of people doing it but no one ever posting pics like this.

[Mori Man]

Today i got confirmation that i will have no problem registering the bike with the new frame and SP engine

So no need to do a mock build on the existing bike - can go full build .......

Better get the frame hunted out and start preparing it

Cylinder head is coming along fine and after a few searches it's actually a lot better than what some folks get done professionally

I should post up photos of the "tuned" engine I stripped as a comparison

MM!

[Mori Man]

Been picking away at the head each night for an hour or so before the wife gets home

Made good progress and now down to polishing each one up. I ordered up some industrial parts cleaner (a bit like sugar soap) and that arrived last night so today I made up the solution for de-coking the exhaust ports before smoothing them out and polishing.

Stuff works a treat and also removes that Tan colour from inside the head and while i was waiting for it to do it's job I attacked the outside with a "brillo" pad
From this:

To this:


Next task is to clean up the SP engine the same

As your cleaning you notice crud gathering in wells and flat surfaces so I set about to clean them off with an LPG based parts cleaner to discover they weren't dirt deposits at all

Each Exhaust rocker arm pin bearing is badly pitted - same thing which can happen to camshafts and a sign of bad casting and quality control :smt013 I'm actually going to have it sent back to Kawasaki to explain themselves as this is shoddy work regardless how many miles or years the bike is. I don't mind parts wearing out from use or even getting destroyed with neglect but this should never happen.
Not as critical as if it were in an area where the pin was rotating (which it doesn't) but still worrying knowing it's there non the less. When I come to service the other engines I am going to pull the pins out on them and check for this kind of manufacturing error as I would prefer to know and try and do something about it. Personally I would degrease and fill with epoxy as best as can but hope the other units show no sign of this - any one here have a similar experience?

Look at this lot


With out any sign of oil starvation the case hardening has broken away due to the cast having an underlying fault - pretty damn piss poor if you ask me

[masterofinsanity]

thats pretty bad mate, can't be much material there at the start.

[Mori Man]

thats pretty bad mate, can't be much material there at the start.

Non critical part and i'll check the pins to see if they have been getting effected by it

The saving grace is this motor was always destined to be taken to the extremes - looks like it's already there
Busily buying up motors at under £30 a time so this motor owes me nothing as the cam's are fine , pistons, clutch, crank and starter motor.
Just worried this is a common feature in the engines , but suspect that it will be a one off among thousands.

As soon as i drop the H2 motor out the other frame I'll start attacking it Know what I'm doing now

BTW, try find a good GPx head for your soon to be redundant motor and start building a proper motor for it

MM!