Engine inspiration thread!

Old habits die hard. This wasn't really necessary on a street bike, but is in keeping with the Street tracker idea of a racer on the street.

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The kickstart level was adapted from a modern MX bike to make it look more competition oriented and the safety wire is an old habit.
 
Tim said:
So you have to cut the safety wire to check/change your oil?
Meh... to anyone who has done a lot of safe-tieing that is a piece of cake. I still got my safety wire pliers from the military days. With a set of these it takes about a minute. But the chances of a fill plug coming loose after tieing are slim to none... plus the COOL factor is top notch! ;)

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Hoosier, That's exactly what we use. And my wife has her own pair (that didn't sound right) of lock pliers for her race bikes.

It was partly habit, and partly because that plug is a push in and rubber plugs and lube is not a conversation I'm used to holding......
 
Hoosier Daddy said:
Meh... to anyone who has done a lot of safe-tieing that is a piece of cake. I still got my safety wire pliers from the military days. With a set of these it takes about a minute. But the chances of a fill plug coming loose after tieing are slim to none... plus the COOL factor is top notch! ;)

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I had an oil cap come off on me and I ended up having to rebild the engine. This would have saved me a lot of money.
 
Kudos to you guys that have posted pictures of your noise makers, you have far more patience than I.. I'm a little OCD so I can't have an engine that clean and pretty looking, but I do admire what has been done here..

Pic of my last one, 1975 xs 650 B. .25 oversize, but other than that its stock stock, barrels were painted with VHT gloss black, as well as the cam covers and the adjuster cover. All the parts that look like aluminum are just that, head and top hat soda blasted, cases stripped and polished. I have another engine that i'm going to start tearing down tomorrow, i'll start a thread on that and do a step by step on it. Its seized so it might prove to be interesting... Cheers.

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Here is the Lump in my current build... little before and after.
Again, Duplicolors 1650 for the aluminum case, VHT Black on the cylinders and polished side covers.

Before:




During:




After:



 
Do any of you guys have experience of welding Yamaha [ or any ] engine side covers? 8)

I want to "lose" the YAMAHA motif on the two side cases [ TR1 and XV920 ] before I paint the engine.

I was going to use body filler, but not sure it will be up to the job.
 
i have ground them out, used JB weld, and even body solder as it is easy to sand and work... body filler would prob not hold up due to temp changes and vibrations... i would go solder or jb weld
 
Yea, I think you confirmed what I was thinking Joe - cheers.

I'm aiming for something like this [ courtesy Turbodog ] but using satin Black with barrel and head fins filed.

It's the Yamaha script I want to lose - probably be replaced with a "Vindicator" logo.

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revheadgl said:
BC...bog will crack as will epoxy. Weld is the only permanent solution. Cant speak personally for Yamaha...but the metal they use cant be any worse than Honda's and it welds just fine.

Thanx Rev - that's the info. I wanted. I'm only going to do this once [ well twice actually - 2 bikes to build ] !! I was just a bit concerned about the quality of the alloy castings.

I've got nothing against the Yamaha name - but for a 60's inspired Cafe Racer that does scream out a bit !
 
i've been waiting for new piston rings so i got "ballsy" and notched out the fins. it came out awesome. it took about 3 hours. used a small machinist file and a dremel with a ball shaped bur bit. full engine pics will be up soon.
 

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Color - we don't need no stinkin' color.... Au naturel is the way to go

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That one is a CL175 sloper more or less stock with minor modifications. Small can be beautiful too. Those are 26mm Keihin carbs and under the alternator cover is a single Dyna trigger on a shortened crank nose and it still whips. Stock crank, lightened rockers, modified pistons, lightened valves, light tappet adjuster screws, Megacycle street cam. Now makes around 21hp @ just over 11k and stock it made around 11hp at the rear wheel and we thought it ran pretty well at that.
 
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