Parts are here and I made some progress this evening. Basically I got all the old parts off this evening. Tomorrow evening after work I'll see about navigating this maze in reverse and finishing it up. For now, here are some photos of the procedure and a little bit of commentary.

The parts (thanks MaverickAus):





Mileage check:



The patient, prepping for surgery. Nurse, scalpel!







Drain the coolant out this drain bolt. It gushes out pretty fast so make sure you have your funnel and container ready.



Valve cover and cam brackets removed:



Coolant disconnected:



Oil routing tube disconnected:



Timing belt tensioner must go (ratcheting mechanism demonstrated):







Cam shafts removed:



See the four allen head bolts filled with oil on either side of the valve lifters and the two smaller hex head bolts on the right? Those are sandwiching the cylinder between the cylinder head and the engine. They must go. The allen head bolts really require some torque to loosen - they've got some locking compound on them:



Here are the bolts removed:



Cylinder head is off - hey, that's the top of my piston!



Color is not bad - maybe just slightly dark, I might be running a little rich. I suspected as much - I think I might have left a bit too much oil in my air filter after cleaning it a few weeks ago and it's not breathing as well as it should now.



Cylinder head on the bench:



The underside of the cylinder head, valves look good. BTW, I rechecked my valve clearances while I had the lid off and they are right where they were when I adjusted them at 900 miles.



Inside my old cylinder - looks good:



Ok, these next three photos might be a little controversial . I think this is an indictment of Motoguy's logic pertaining to "traditional" break-in method. I broke my engine in traditional. This piston looks brand new below the rings. By his logic, this cannot happen. There are a lot of reasons for piston failure and he seems to be attributing them all to traditional break-in. That is not to say that the fast break-in that he documented doesn't work - I've seen it described elsewhere and recommended by others. But what he says about traditional break-in doesn't bear out with reality, as these photos prove:







Again, color is not too bad - looking for a chocolate brown. I get that in the center but the edges are a bit dark - like I mentioned I suspect I'm running just slightly rich.



Ok, Nurse, I'm tired - cover the patient and his innerds, we'll pick this up tomorrow. This is how I left the poor fellow this evening:

Cylinder head, cams, etc:



Engine opening covered:





Cheers,



EDIT: update image links

 

WOW,
I don't know if I would have the guts to do that. Maybe thats an option though to get more bang outta the bike. Looks like alot of work, how long did it take?? Keep us updated nobrakes, I REALLY WANT TO KNOW HOW IT TURNS OUT.

 

That was probably two hours of work or so. But I went pretty slow and was being careful and stopped to wash off and clean up some coolant that gushed out before I was ready .

BTW, does anyone know if I need to treat the new cylinder in any way, clean it, etc? Ditto for the new piston? I'm just wondering if the oil from the factory needs to be cleaned off, etc, or if it just bolts on as-is.

 

Hey Nobrakes, how's it? That looks like a lot of fun! Did you say you got that as a kit? If so, where from? I'd like to join in on the fun!

 

I just bought the parts individually from Ron Ayers. See the "common part numbers" sticky thread at the top of this forum.

 

Ummm, What's a sticky thread?

 

The 'stickys' are the top four threads in the forum. Controlled by bmwhd, our moderator.

 

Wow nice post Nobrakes, I think you got the record for the initial post with the most pictures I will watch intently for the outcome. good work.

I had to edit this post because I went and looked again at the pictures and thought to myself I will never have the guts to tear into my bike, at least not until the 5 year warranty is up. I gotta give you props for getting your hands dirty and showing us what the inside our bikes. Plus I did see a little blow by on the piston but I'm not trying to start a posting war. Ok then why did you say that deej? LOL I'm just a stinker LOL later man.

 

Great documentation and photo's! I can't wait for part 2

 

Deej, if you are referring to the middle of the three piston photos and the discoloring at the upper left as blow by it is not. Note that the discoloring is above the ring. The pistons are clean and shiny below the first ring. Anyway - no problem. I'm convinced and that's all that matters And I really have no desire to debate this endlessly - besides, I have the photos to prove it

In fact, I'm not so sure much if any break-in is truly required other than taking it easy for the first few rides. I've been doing some more research. The book I referenced on this forum a few nights ago says this about break-in - this is in reference to a 4-stroke engine rebuild:

Well, it definitely appears that the new cylinder has been ball honed - that familiar fine cross-hatch pattern indicative of ball-honing is definitely there. The book says to clean the cylinder with detergent and apply a penetrating oil. And even in the worst case after over boring and no ball honing, the breakin is more like what Motoguy says to do if you are breaking in on a dyno - but for different reasons. If you could see how finely fitting the rings are in their grooves, you would dismiss motoguy's theory about the gas getting behind the rings and pushing them outward. The rings are just wearing to the cylinder walls - no extra pressure from the cumbustion gas is assisting, they are just like springs pushing out - rather strong ones, I might add. The reason you both accelerate and decellerate letting the engine break slow you down is that creates a vacuum that pulls oil up from the crankcase up through the oil ring to help cool the friction rings. The main thing there is so that the piston / rings do not get too hot and seize in the cylinder.

Anyway - I can't wait to get it all back together. Too bad I have to work tomorrow - it'll have to wait until evening. Hope I can get it all done so I can at least take a quick spin tomorrow night. I'm anxious to feel the difference.