Restarted Project

Not much. New baby & christmas kinda slowing things down. Have been gathering parts & working on design. Should make some progress on the frame this week. I have been toying with the idea of hand maching the cylinder head to increase volume and decrease compression but I think it might be too much work for a half-arsed outcome. :shrug: Will see what the machine shop $ is when they come back to work.

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I want to have really clean handle bars as that is what a rider looks at the most. Mounting mini leds in headlight, microswitches for indicators, horn & kill, mirror on cutsom bracket off bottom triple.

Started sanding/polishing fork leg by hand while watching 2 eps of walking dead. Still got a long way to go so might ghetto-up a drill/bench polisher.

I am a trying to work out how to mount stubby mufflers as stock mounts are too far back. Maybe use centre stand mount but worried it might foul kick stand and rear brake pedal...

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Are you talking about emgo shorty mufflers?
Depending on how long your headers are I don't think there would be enough weight in it to need a bracket, if you think you do maybe just go to bunnings and buy some alluminum plate and make your own??
 
yeah, if the stock pipes are short enough, it shouldnt be a problem just worm driving/exhaust clamping them down. if your unsure of the weight for safety concerns, go get some of that universal exhaust hanger crap. the aluminum with the holes in it. but thats only if you dont have a welder or access to one, but if you do, there is NO excuse as to not fabing one up all nice and pretty like and welding it to the exhaust/ bolting it to the frame. lol
 
Hi Ryan, thanks for the congrats.

Drewpy, I am trying to work out how I can grind, weld, solder & paint with my son with me. Thinking of setting him up with scuba tank, ear muffs and wrap him in a foil windscreen sunshade. :yikes:

Well I spoke to a fellow resourceful Aussie about increasing the squish area of the xs250 head & he had a great idea. Fabricate a thicker cylinder base gasket, which will effectively move the head away from the pistons. This seems like a good idea as it only has to seal oil unlike the head gasket which is exposed to combustion pressures. i calculate that a 2.4mm thick gasket would increase the squish area up to 22cc that Chris measured. So 2.5mm thick aluminium should do the trick. I have a new base gasket for the xs400 that i could use as a basis for the design. - What do you guys think?

reguarding the mufflers, I have the fat & short reverse cone style. http://www.mcas.com.au/_product.php?section=1&prodid=10909 I will make a custom bracket to hold them in place.

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will pull your valve timing out, hopefully the chain will stretch 5 mm (one each side) you will need a dial gauge to retime.

You will also need to retime the ignition if the adjustment holes will let you advance/retard that much!
 
I think a copper spacer would be better as aluminum would degrade more quickly as galvanic corrosion would take place.When I replaced the head gasket,milled,valve job,etc. on my pickup truck,the machinist said that the head had been milled excessively,and I'd have to put a shim gasket on it or it would have too much compression and re-blow the gasket.I put the copper gasket on without further problems. You could get a sheet of copper and cut out a gasket. lha
 
Damn it you guys. Are you trying to make me do this properly? The Aussie in me is screaming just bang 'em on & she'll be right... But a copper gasket does make a lot of sense & thanks Drewpy for pointing out that the chain will be streatched twice to gasket thickness. Best I focus on the frame so I can get the bike rolling again.
 
Hi Drewpy, how would I correct the valve timing? I assume that the thicker gasket would advance the valve opening time - is this right? What is this dial gauge you speak of (sorry for the noob question). Also, the xs400 has a more advanced spark than the xs250 so the the thicker gasket could actually "correct" the ignition time. Does this sound right?



drewpy said:
will pull your valve timing out, hopefully the chain will stretch 5 mm (one each side) you will need a dial gauge to retime.

You will also need to retime the ignition if the adjustment holes will let you advance/retard that much!
Click to expand...

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When I shimmed the head on my truck,it didn't change anything as far as valve timing is concerned,and works on the same principle. When the crank is at TDC,The intake valve on one cylinder,and I suppose the exhaust on the other would be open.A dial gauge is an instrument which measures minute differences in height,radial movement,etc. With a degree wheel,a dial gauge,and correct information you can "dial in"the valve timing,in relation to the crankshaft. lha
 
lhaolpa said:
When I shimmed the head on my truck,it didn't change anything as far as valve timing is concerned,and works on the same principle. When the crank is at TDC,The intake valve on one cylinder,and I suppose the exhaust on the other would be open.A dial gauge is an instrument which measures minute differences in height,radial movement,etc. With a degree wheel,a dial gauge,and correct information you can "dial in"the valve timing,in relation to the crankshaft. lha
Click to expand...

skimming is not 2.5 mm. its more like .001mm depends on the warpage.

as for timing a dial gauge is a little clock with a spring loaded pointer on it and measures the cam lift for instance.

image030.jpg


to correct the timing i would assume you need a vernier cam sprocket, to move the timing over!
 
I shimmed the head with a solid copper head gasket shim 0.025 inches thick,as the head was milled too much off. It has run well for 2 years since. lha
 
****Project update*****
The bike is now completely striped down.

2012-03-04191838.jpg


2012-03-04192029.jpg


Last night working on the bike while dead tired I ended up dropping a starter motor bolt down into the crankcase. :doh:

I bought one of these magnetic bendy things today and went fishing.
2012-03-05210308.jpg


After about 30 seconds of fishing around the bottom of the crankcase I caught the wayward bolt.
2012-03-05210527-1.jpg


:thumbsup:
 
try warm/hot lemon juice. I soaked my carbs yesterday in 3:1 lemon juice/water, and all of the surface rust came right off. freed up the idle speed screw and other thingies on there...took about an hour.
 

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