Some photos for your amusement.

[Vard66]

So. Today I finally got the ZXR back on the road. It's been in my garage since last September, laid up, unwashed, untouched, unloved but missed like hell.

On Wednesday, myself and one of my friends did the head gasket on the bike, so I thought I'd take a couple of photos of the 400 without an engine.

Ian with the engine - isn't that sweet, it's so diddy.









Some excellent news - I do have the high compression pistons I believed to be in there, so now it's not just speculation based on performance.



Breakfast time, at half five in the afternoon.





Rode her to work and back today (15 odd miles), and she feels fine, if perhaps a bit hesitant. I seem to remember an explosion of acceleration at 8k that didn't stop until the limiter, and I have to admit, she doesn't feel perhaps as urgent as I remember.

The chain was too tight after I put the back wheel back on in a rush today, and the idle adjust screw wasn't even acting on the carbs, so it tended to stall, but that's a tweak to adjust, and I redid the chain tension again this evening, hopefully that'll be much better.

Did however have to get a bump start from a tatooed YZF rider in Fyfield station this afternoon, after discovering that there was no idle setting and stalling at the pump, and she seems to still be suffering from hot starting issues, shock horror.

[mongo]

Alawys good when you put something back together again and working better than before.

Then again, im sure after owning rovers you will be more than used to doing headgaskets

[Vard66]

Aye, done three to date on my cars.

Two on a 1.4 K16, necessity. Back when I was just getting started learning anything at all about cars and engines, and I was naive about keeping on top of fluid levels, especially on the K16 where it's crucial.

One on the T16, not a necessity, as I was replacing the head with a freshly rebuilt/cleaned/reground/lapped one, so I needed a new HG when the old one came off anyway.

Back on topic; I might have figured out why it feels a bit hesitant. Noticed there's a reedy whining coming from the back of the bike, since I overtightened the chain the other day, and when I pushed my bike a few minutes ago, I noticed that there's a clonking coming from the back wheel.

Either I've not completely correctly reassembled the rear axle, or the wheel bearings are shot.

Tbh, it sounds like bearings to me; particularly because I couldn't actually remember what order the spacers etc went onto the back wheel, so had to consult the .pdf manual when I put it back on.

[Jamz]

Good man!

You say you've done it on 3 cars, so you've got a pretty good idea of what you're doing, but would you say it's an easy enough job for a novice to have a crack at?

You probably saved yourself almost a grand just in labour!

[Vard66]

It's not bad, Jamz.

The engine's quite heavy, but it's liftable by one person if you're not a weed.

TBH, the online .pdf manual on here was infinitely helpful - some of the parts of the bike engine are a bit different to the car engines, and as such the images helped to locate them.

As with anything doing it for the first time, doing it slowly and carefully will always be the way forward.

Myself, even doing it slowly and methodically, I made an error - the top cam chain guide bolts to the head with two bolts. From somewhere, probably the mating between the head and block.

Anyway, I found a dowel, after bolting the head down. There was a hole in the top of the head, where the top cam chain guide is bolted to, so I presumed the dowel should have been in there, and popped it in. Then I put the cam caps back on and began to bolt them down from the other end. As I got to the chain guide end, something went 'PING', in exactly the same fashion as I remember the oil pump casing on my T16 going when it cracked.

Sure enough, that had happened where the cam cap links onto the wobbly-jointy-bit sticking off the chain guide, and a piece of casting had broken away. The cause of which, was that the chain guide didn't have a corresponding hole above where I had put the dowel in, so I had been cranking it down with this held forcibly up by this dowel - hence 'PING!'.

It wasn't anything major, and won't cause any problems whatsoever, but it toad me up good and proper, and just served to remind me rather stomach-churningly, that the devil is in the details, assumption is the mother of all f*ck-ups, and that care and attention as you work will save you making silly mistakes like that.

If you want to save the labour, don't mind getting your hands dirty, and preferably have a mate handy for a minute or two here and there just to help you shift the engine about, I say, get the .pdf up, and get stuck in.

Also, if you get a bit stuck, or doubt something, ring zimm, somehow he seems to know everything.

[zimm]

it wasnt the dowel that's meant to live under the oil feed to the head was it ?

if it was, i hope its back in there or you'll be after a new topend pretty soon.

[Vard66]

:-S

Yark.

I'll go find it.

Though why would it make any odds? As long as the oil feed is seated correctly, surely it'll flow as it should?

[Vard66]

Ok, I can't find it, but then Ian did connect up the oil feed, so I'll have to ask him tomorrow if there was on in there.

[zimm]

without the dowel where the oil is fed to the cams the oil sprays randomly around the topend instead of being pressure fed to the cams, after which its flung around randomly.. if you were oil under pressure would you crawl through a cam cap and out of a sub 1mm orifice... or sneak out the gap by the front door..

it REALLY needs to be in there.

course maybe im just paranoid, and its from somewhere else.. but its bad if my guess is right.

[Vard66]

There was a dowel in there. However, the one you're thinking of seems to be part of the feed line itself, so I would think, would be rather difficult to lose.

Had me shitting myself then, dude.

[zimm]

this one,

camcapdowel.jpg

?

[Vard66]

Well, f***, I don't have time to take the whole fucking thing apart again, and I've binned the dowel I found.

I spent twenty minutes going through the bin the other night.

I don't suppose you've got a suitable one lying around you could post to me, do you dude?

I'll have to take it apart again tomorrow at lunch, and bang one in if there isn't one. Bloody hell.

[zimm]

yeh.. ive most likely got one .. i'll have a look later.

[Vard66]

If you do, I'll love you forever.

I mean... slightly more than I already do, of course.

[mongo]

You`ll be able to tell just by popping off the rocker cover.