The Rookies Head Job …. No Not Like That

[nathan steeleMember]

Well ive put it off as long as possible, after the last enduro at narrabri my Valves went tight, against all advice to get the last of the life out of them i adjusted them, after a solid 3 days at goanna tracks and a 4 hour enduro at coolatai im not willing to take the risk again, time to pull the big girl apart after well over 200 hours of riding ( dont judge me just yet friends )

Pulling the big girl down was very straight forward and pretty easy, what i found on the inside of the thumper is what shocked me !

even the valves didnt look all that bad ( even tho once the heads pulled apart i may take this statement back )

so this is how the big thumper sits at the moment

next weekend will see the big rig pulled down further to sort out a few other niggly problems and a bit of maintence.

first things first but, tomorrow nick at tekniks will be getting a phone call about a head over haul and a few other little goodies

keep you guys posted

rookie

[Nick JacksonMember]

Great post Rookie , these are the best threads IMO

, looking forward to the updates mate

Nick

[Dwayne OMember]

Says a lot for the Honda top end Rookie,,
Keep us in the loop as the rebuild progresses mate

Cheers

[GregMember]

Well done Rook great job, you must maintain the bike really well, it’s a credit to you mate. Great photos and good cross hatch on the bore again well done. We don’t often see enduro bikes with those hrs on them.
Have you considered at 200 plus hrs a crank rebuild should be done?
Speak with Nick when you do the head, remember to tell him you are an old bull

Look forward to the rest of the thread

TB

[ianMember]

looks like your doing a good job there rookie , how did you go at coolatai i went up and met gibbet but i didnt notice to many hondas there

[GregMember]

huskybloke wrote:

looks like your doing a good job there rookie , how did you go at coolatai i went up and met gibbet but i didnt notice to many hondas there

Bit here on it Ian

TB

[nathan steeleMember]

Yeah I’m a bit anal when it comes to the oil changes and airfilters. Both are pretty cheap compared to a rebuild. Cheers for that was a bit difficult to show how good the cross hatching still is!
I’m going to play the the conrod tomorrow and feel for any slop, if I can feel any its coming out. If its still nice and firm it stays in. I’m selling the big girl at the end of the year so I’m not going to go too far over board.
Ill remember to do that TB hopefully I’ll get onto him tomorrow if works quiet and discuss the best plan of attack on this build. Not going to lie TB if it all comes together the way I have it in my head i can wait to finish this build !

Rookie

[nathan steeleMember]

Well Folks shes back together, but was the wait worth it.

i received the head and bore back from tekniks and boy was i happy with the job, the head looked a million dollars … the same couldnt be said about my old valves how ever haha

So i had to pull my finger out and get the piston and gasket kit, the day after receiving the head i ordered a Wiseco piston and gasket kit from the states. The piston was no stock replacement as a bit more compression was on my mind, a healthy 12.5.1 ratio should do the trick. The delivery time was unreal, i went to the post office to drop off some oil samples to be sent away when i was told i had a package from the states, i was excited! for the rest of the day i couldnt wait to knock off and go home and start the re assembly!

Taking out that shiny new piston i swear i was like a 5 year old at Christmas!

so the construction started! after a night this is how the motor looked.

complete, timed and tight

thursday night everything was re-connected again and at around 8:57pm the neighbors herd the sound they haven’t missed. After a bit of a set back ( someone forgot to hook up the earth for the coil haha ) the big girl fired 2nd kick and my first thoughts, LORDY SHE SOUNDS LIKE A REAL THUMPER NOW !

due to the time i was un able to go ride around and run it in ( i miss living on the farm ) but friday due to a well timed RDO the big girl was run in, poking around i knew this bike was nothing like it had ever been, it was very cranky of the bottom end wanting to snap the back end out at any chance given, after 45 minutes i wheeled her into the shed, changed the oil and filter, had a good check over. All was good, got a little video here of how she sounds

i took her back out to do a race start, lordy i got the shock of my life, dropped the clutch it rared up like a PI$$ED off brumby at a rodeo, i grabbed 3rd with still no luck getting the front end down, grabbed 4th and held on for dear life. This thing is an animal !

So Tomorrow im off to Denman to race iron-man, 4 hours should be enough to test the new top end.

Thanks to the guys at Tekniks for all there help, i couldnt be happier with the way my bike runs now !

[Nick JacksonMember]

Nice job mate , looks like the rebuild went very well and you got the result you wanted

Good luck in the race , let us know how she goes :woohoo:

Nick

[CrisMember]

Hey Rookie how did you go at Denman???

Heard on the grape vine you came 6th. How did the engine hold up???

[nathan steeleMember]

I’ve been meaning to getting around to updating this sorry for leaving it so long guys.

Denman was a blast, bit different set up to how the NIPES is ran but still an enjoyable day … if everything goes your way.

Was only a short track, been 14km’s ( if my memory serves me correctly ) and looked nothing like the YouTube videos, the videos had be thinking i was in for a nice cruisey track, nice hills, minimal rock … haha oh was i proven wrong on the sight lap, snotty rocky hills, tight singles. Today was going to test both the bike and me.

I got a terrible start, bike was the 2nd one fired up, but i missed the gear lever and gave the big 450 a bit of a rev tune before realizing what i did wrong, i was off but stuggling in dust.

The bike was running like a champion, but on the 2nd lap i had a incident involving a ninja kickboxing tree. Ripping the end of my barkbuster out, leaving it dangling around hitting my knee and radiator shroud, it had to be removed. Unfortunately i had no tools and lost about 5 minutes on the side of the track.

After that i rode like a bat out of hell, admittedly forgetting i no longer had a barkbuster and busting my knuckles on the regular occasion on small trees. I came from last to 6th, and was within 6 minutes of 3rd which makes me feel a bit better that my results will get better.

The motor was animal ! Couldn’t fault it after some solid hard riding, the high comp piston was a wise investment. Sitting on the back mudguard on the snotty hills in 2nd and holding it pinned was an absolute hoot! it had no shortage of power.

Once again thank you to the guys at Tekniks for the head work, after the race i did a quick adjustment of the valves and shes all good for the next race day .. or trail ride ( may try make a appearance at Nundle this weekend if i don’t have to work )

Gee small world boze who told you how i went haha

[CrisMember]

rrrrr very good. Good to hear ya didn’t kill it and it held up to your abuse. So the rumours were true :laugh:

I was talkin to I think it is Mick Patton. Maybe see ya at Nundle on saturday, go on come for a slow ride & bbq.

[Author]

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