Just bought a '77 XS360. Not quite a basket case but...

To clean the valves, I used Easy-Off oven cleaner. Spray them and put them in a ziplock bag and let them soak. Easy-off will break through the carbon.

Get a piston ring tool. Original Yamaha rings and most older piston rings were all made of iron and break very easily. You will have the same problem when you install new rings. Get the tool.
 
Great tips! Headed to Target tomorrow and Easy-off tops the list.

New rings and installer kit are ordered and on the way. The service manual said they were likely to break when removed and I figured it might mean trouble for the new ones as well.
 
The rebuild has been going well, but I don't want to move forward until I ask:

Can the pistons/rings be installed from the bottom without a ring compressor tool? I don't want to take the bottom end of the motor apart and pull the rods as it appears to be in good condition, but the ring compressor tool I have is too tall to fit in the gap between the bottom of the engine and the cylinders.

I see that the jugs are tapered at the bottom. Is the tapering enough to allow the pistons to push through without compressing the rings?
 
I was able to walk them in very slowly with oil when I did it, exactly like how you want to do it. Used my fingers and pushed the rings inward. Just make sure that the ring gaps are evenly spaced around the cylinder. The gaps cant be near each other. I avoid positioning a gap where the wrist pin holes are. Dont remove the connecting rods.
 
I was able to walk them in very slowly with oil when I did it, exactly like how you want to do it. Used my fingers and pushed the rings inward. Just make sure that the ring gaps are evenly spaced around the cylinder. The gaps cant be near each other. I avoid positioning a gap where the wrist pin holes are. Dont remove the connecting rods.
Did it just like you said and it worked great! I clocked the rings before pushing them through and now it's ready to assemble...finally.
 
This just...I don't even have words. This appears to have been a pristine tank with original paint and decals that the PO violated with copper metallic. I figured there must have been something wrong - maybe a lot of bondo-filled dents or rough paint. Nope. It's a great tank he could easily have sold and bought a new one with the proceeds. PO's a nice guy, but right now I am really disappointed with him.

The paint on the top and opposite side was destroyed by the aircraft remover so it has to be stripped. I'll save a chunk of the paint because now I'm considering going with the original blue.

IMG_5056.jpg
 
Those are not xs360 graphics. Maybe looks more like RD type. The blue ones would have looked like this.
1977-yamaha-xs360-10.jpg
 
We tend to see a lot of this sort of thing with these bikes. It is hard to watch some times.
 
After 6 cake frosting-thick applications of expensive (and lousy) paint remover, I finally got the stuff off and discovered the entire tank was wrapped in a 1/8" layer of body filler. I heated it up and peeled it off revealing a very nice tank. Some very tiny dings but no rust and good steel. I like the naked look.

Chris, I think this may be the original tank after all and somebody way back did a refurb on it. That might explain why the decals didn't look right for XS or RD.
 

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The frame of the old 360 was pretty rusty, so I went ahead and removed all the paint. Fortunately there's no perforation. Through the process I've discovered I actually dislike rust so the tank will be painted instead of leaving it bare. Humblest apologies to those who love the raw look.

Somebody hit the tank with a stiff wire brush and there are a ton of deep scratches. I thought to start with primer-filler rather than straight primer to smooth them out. Has anyone used the stuff and, if so, what's the best brand?
 

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If you are going over bare metal, I would use a self etching primer first, then hit it with your high build primer. Are you doing this from cans, or using a spray gun? If you are spraying it, use your paint supplier's house brand. Youre going to be sanding it mostly off anyway. Another option would be to hit the tank with a glazing compound first, then go to primer. Glazing compound is normally put on after filler, to remove sanding scratches, pinholes.

I am a fan of Dupont, and their "affordable" line Nason for my paint and clear.

My tank is bare steel as well, but it has a few dents in it so I will doing filler first, then glaze, then primer. I have some leftover paint and clear from my hotrod, so Ill be shooting it with Nason
 
If you are going over bare metal, I would use a self etching primer first, then hit it with your high build primer. Are you doing this from cans, or using a spray gun? If you are spraying it, use your paint supplier's house brand. Youre going to be sanding it mostly off anyway. Another option would be to hit the tank with a glazing compound first, then go to primer. Glazing compound is normally put on after filler, to remove sanding scratches, pinholes.

I am a fan of Dupont, and their "affordable" line Nason for my paint and clear.

My tank is bare steel as well, but it has a few dents in it so I will doing filler first, then glaze, then primer. I have some leftover paint and clear from my hotrod, so Ill be shooting it with Nason

Thanks for the advice.

It's Rust-oleum primer-filler from a rattle can. I was wondering about etching primer but you've tipped the balance and it's on order.
 
The tank is primed and as clean as it's going to get. I can live with a few tiny flaws, heck it'll make the bike easier to ID when it gets stolen. Now I've put on a base coat of what is supposed to be decent paint, only to have the nozzle shoot out snot globs and ruin it.
I'm going to take Jay's advice and purchase Nason this time. Question: How long should I wait to sand off the crap paint and should I re-coat it with primer filler before applying a new base coat?
 
If you are just sanding off the boogered paint, there is no reason to wait. I would re prime it once you get the paint off. You will definitely be making some new
scratch marks, etc.

I expect you will be going single stage, as opposed to BC / CC, and SS is perfectly fine. I have done all of my frames in SS and never had issues.
Just make sure the activator and reducer you purchase work with the temp / humidity you plan to spray in. Follow the mix instructions on the cup, and you will be fine

I shot these in SS. These were my trackbikes so I wanted cheap and simple:

HTML:
<a href="https://s455.photobucket.com/user/gunther19820/media/bike/C6D757B7-F560-4C6C-8C6C-63C8E8CEDBDB_zpscxztkvo0.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq278/gunther19820/bike/C6D757B7-F560-4C6C-8C6C-63C8E8CEDBDB_zpscxztkvo0.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo C6D757B7-F560-4C6C-8C6C-63C8E8CEDBDB_zpscxztkvo0.jpg"/></a>

HTML:
<a href="https://s455.photobucket.com/user/gunther19820/media/bike/AED52FFB-4F67-47BC-B6C4-479EC2DAEE3D_zpshchdhqrp.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq278/gunther19820/bike/AED52FFB-4F67-47BC-B6C4-479EC2DAEE3D_zpshchdhqrp.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo AED52FFB-4F67-47BC-B6C4-479EC2DAEE3D_zpshchdhqrp.jpg"/></a>

HTML:
<a href="https://s455.photobucket.com/user/gunther19820/media/bike/E2883423-67A5-4B6C-8410-AA4B7E9E585A_zpszptz9ih0.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq278/gunther19820/bike/E2883423-67A5-4B6C-8410-AA4B7E9E585A_zpszptz9ih0.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo E2883423-67A5-4B6C-8410-AA4B7E9E585A_zpszptz9ih0.jpg"/></a>
 
Pics didnt work. Damn
I'm going base coat/clear coat and that's the problem I guess. I'm learning that a base coat isn't that easy to fix.

I tried using the part of the URL that should've linked directly to the pic and still got nothing. Must be a Photobucket issue.
Thanks for the tips and hopefully you'll have some luck getting the pictures to show up.
 
if you are doing BC/CC, you can totally color sand your base before ever hitting it with clear. If you miss the flash period, you should color sand it before hitting it with clear. I try to always color sand it before I clear.
 
if you are doing BC/CC, you can totally color sand your base before ever hitting it with clear. If you miss the flash period, you should color sand it before hitting it with clear. I try to always color sand it before I clear.
Color sand done and starting on the CC now.

Your bike went from pretty nice to Batmobile cool. Brilliant work.
 
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