Crankcase degrease and Gasket set

Yesterday, I received via courier 2 gasket sets that I ordered from cruzinimage_co on eBay.
I got an MC18 set for myself and an MC21 set for Dave. As it turns out, Dave is going to be using MC18 barrels on his MC21 engine so I actually should have got Dave a MC18 set. D'oh! I am pretty sure that the only difference between the 2 gasket sets is that the head gaskets for the MC18 are hexagonal where as they are round for the MC21.

The gasket sets cost USD$36 each with combined freight of USD$21.
Ended up being NZ$65 each for Dave and I.

Also, I spent a few hours with a bucket of diesel and a toothbrush de-greasing the crankcases, barrels and heads and water pump housing.

Engine stripped

Friday 5th November 2010

Paul arrived at my place yesterday about 4:30pm with my long lost MC18 SP engine from OkShon.
Paul was keen to start stripping the engine down straight away, but I had an unexpected visit from my Father and had to set up the BBQ as I had to do dinner for Paul and I, as well as Wob and Kathryn. Later Dave also joined us for a night of eating and drinking.
So, this morning I got up at 6:30am and went into the laundry (temporary shed) and started to pull the engine apart.
Paul joined me at about 7:15 and we soon had the engine pulled apart. Well, except for the flywheel as I stripped the thead on the flywheel puller trying to get it off. D'oh!
The barrels/heads and pistons looked to be in very good condition.
We took the engine into Wobs and pulled the flywheel off and split the crankcase halves and pulled out the crankshaft.
Then we pressed the crankshaft apart.
The crankshaft and conrods appear to be in excellent condition !! This is EXCELLENT news!

All that was wrong with the engine was the RH Main Bearing was worn out.
The Lower RH barrel had some very minor scoring in a few places around the cylinder but this is not really a problem.
Also, as the crankcase halves seperated, the centre main bearing seal broke apart. It had been crimped at the join of the crankcase halves on assembly.
There was a fair bit of black RTV silicon "goop" around the RH main bearing seal. Clearly the engine had previously been pulled apart. In fact it has probably been used as a race engine as the sump plug has been replaced by an Allen head cap screw and the dip stick "handle" had 2 holes drilled in it for lock wires, no doubt.
A curious point is that the Upper LH cylinder and crankcase seemed quite dry and poorly lubricated. I am unsure why this would be the case.

Wob has ordered a pair of big end bearings, and when they arrive he will press the crank back together with new bearings and seals, and align the crank.
In the meantime I will bead blast the crankcases and possibly polish up the insides of the crankcases a bit.

After 16.5 months and NZD$1100.00 I am actually pretty happy with my engine purchase from OkShon Japan. :-).

Fairings and Engine

Last Saturday (30th October 2010) Paul picked up my engine from a depot in Auckland.
After 16.5 months I finally get my engine from OkShon.
It cost NZD $150 in customs and freight.

Also a couple of months ago I received my repaired and painted tank and also a new set of fairings from Hong Kong. The first photo shows the bodywork about to be sent from Hong Kong.
Notice that the 6 flags in the Terra Racing emblem are in the wrong sequence. I informed them of the problem and they fixed it before sending the bodywork to me. The correct flag sequence is shown in the second picture laid out on my lounge floor.

Paul has had a brief look up the exhaust ports and seems to think the engine initialy appears to be in pretty good condition.

Paul will most likely deliver the engine to me this Thursday (4th Novenber 2010). So within a week or two I will have the crankshaft apart for inspection. If all is well, I may be able to start some serious reassembly and have the bike going some time over summer.

Tank repaired and painted

Today I got my tank back from Hong Kong.
The fairings can't be far away.

I also talked to the Hong Kong Police today about my engine with OkShon.
It has now been shipped to a company in Nagoya and will be shipped on August 11 by sea freight.
I basically told the police that since they rang OkShon I have made progress and the case can be closed as after 13 months they have finally shipped it.

Fairings and OkShon Engine

Well, I have been getting some R6k fairings made in Hong Kong.
I also sent my tank to get repaired and painted at the same time. I have been dealing with Branda Wu who exists on eBay as Parts4Bike. At the time. Parts4Bike had an eBay feedback of 728 with 100% positive feedback. I note that this has recently changed to 776 with 99.6% +ve fb.
I recently got an email from Branda with a picture of my newly painted tank and ABS plastic fairings.

There are a few faults with the paint job:

1) There is no text below the red "PGM" on the front fairing.

The text should read

IGNITION SYSTEM

RC VALVE

CARBURETOR

2) The shape of the text/font is not quite correct for the RC VALVE text in the side fairings.

3) On the left hand side fairing, the "T" in TERRA is not located properly and is truncated too early by the edge of the fairing. I cannot see the other (right hand ) side fairing to see how the TERRA lettering is located.

4) The sequence of six flags through the centre of the Terra racing emblem has been done wrong. Basically, you can see that the decal containing 4.5 flags was put on the wrong way around. D'oh!

I emailed Branda to see what he could do about this and he is going to correct the sequence of 6 flags, but leave the other 3 problems as they are. I am actually reasonably happy with this. From the photo, it looks like a very professional job. I hope to have the fairings in about 2 weeks time, so I will post again then with high quality pictures. A real bonus was getting the tank repaired and painted for no extra cost. Well an extra NZ$90 to send it and US$80 for freighting it back actually.

Also I am getting a new clear windscreen blade from Branda for US$20.

Branda is a bit of an NSR fan too. See below for a picture of his MC28 SE.

Fairings cost US$475 (US$250 + US$225 freight)

So total cost for me was US$([475 + 80] + 20) + NZ$90 = US$575 + NZ$90

Total NZ$936 delivered with tank repaired and painted.

The engine that I bought via Ok!Shon has been an ongoing battle for the last month. K-Line logistics in Osaka insisted on treating the engine as "dangerous goods". They quoted me an airfreight price of NZ$1700 and a sea freight price of NZ$1100. This is just ridiculous!!

I am trying to pursue a guy who ships cars from Nagoya (approx 200km from Osaka) and get the engine shipped through him as he will almost certainly be a lot cheaper. I am not going to discuss the exact method of transit here. I just need an address in Nagoya to ship the engine to. Unfortunately my man in Nagoya has been sick all last week and I have not yet been able to get an address. Murphy's Law is really going hard on this whole engine issue it would seem :-)

I have recently heard back from the Hong Kong Police and have the name and number of an officer who is going to look after my case with OkShon, for being so non-responsive in getting my engine shipped that it basically amounts to criminal theft. However, ever since the mention of Police action, Ok!Shon have been positively pro-active about getting the engine shipped and are currently waiting on me (makes a nice change) to get information to them.

I hope to get the engine shipped to my man in Nagoya this coming week, although time will tell. I don't even want to think about what other brick walls "Murphy" is going to put up in the coming week.

Below: Old tank for repair and paint. Also, Branda's MC28.

For anyone interested, here are Branda's contact details:
Email: wu.branda@gmail.com
Paypal email address brandacat@yahoo.com

Ok!Shon to be dealt with by Hong Kong Cyber Crime Police

OK, well today I found out via an email from Paul that Ok!Shon are basically a bunch of Chinese Mobsters. They are based out of Hong Kong:

Their PayPal account lists them as Mart Smart Limited:

Mart Smart Limited
Rm 618, Hollywood Plaza
610 Nathan Road, Mongkok
Kowloon, NA NA
HK
+852.29614860

They have failed to deliver (or refund money for) an MC18 SP engine that I bought through them about 1 year ago costing me approx NZD$1100!

I managed to get hold of a guy in Australia who had dealings with them about 2.5 years ago. He had massive problems trying to get his stuff out of them. He ended up getting excellent results after informing the Hong Kong Crime Prevention Unit (CyberCrime division) of the fraud he was victim of.

http://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/11_useful_info/contact.html#tcpu

Items were delivered or money refunded within 2 weeks of the cyber-crime guys getting involved.

So I will get in contact with the Hong Kong Police and let them know about this crime.

Apparently the HK cyber-crime division know about Okshon well enough.

So I still hold out hope for a reasonable result here yet.

Their basic approach is to get the money via PayPal and use delay tactics until the 45 day dispute period with PayPal expires. After that, they just ignore all emails, keep the goods and keep the cash. Or perhaps the cash gets through to the seller. After time, the ripped off purchaser gives up hope and they win.

Apparently a google search of OkShon turns up whole heap of forum discussions about people getting ripped off by these guys. Yet PayPal seem to continue to support them.

I intend to have a real good go at PayPal for basically facilitating this fraudulent criminal group.

One example: http://forum.hfactorx.org/index.php?topic=1732.0

Another: http://nsr250.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8017&sid=fcc194be930d4b972a2cb13ad3349a55

Hopefully I will be posting again soon with good news.

NSR250 MC18 Crankshaft Picture

Well I have been on a mission to make a nice drawing of a complete crank.

So for no real reason,.. here it is.

Also for better viewing, a .pdf is available here (takes about 20 seconds to load)

NSR250

NSR250 MC18 Crankshaft disassembly

Yesterday, Sunday 20 June 2010 I disassembled my $300 SP engine.

I could not easily get the gudgeon pins out, or get the flywheel off.

So I stripped it down until it was just an assembly of:

Upper and lower crankcase halves

Crankshaft

Pistons

Flywheel and alternator coils

I then took it around to Colin's and he had some large spanners with which to apply more torque to the wheel puller. After a bit of grunting, the flywheel came off.

So then I unbolted and seperated the 2 crankcase halves and pulled the crank out.

However, because the 2 pistons were still on, the upper crankcase half was still loosley attached to the crankshaft.

I then went around to Wobbly's and, as we now had better access to the pistons, punched out the gudgeon pins.

Wobbly then pressed the 2 outer crank webs off the crank. These were fine.

However, the 2 inner crank webs had stuffed big end pins and both conrods had stuffed big ends.

See the attached jpeg. Items 2 and 4 were stuffed.

Paul's crank was similar to mine, items 2 and 4 stuffed.

Dave Spin's crank had 1 good conrod and only item 4 was stuffed.

I need to get a good single pin crank web (item 4) and a good dual pin crank web (item 2) and 2 good conrods. Then I can make a complete good crankshaft assembly.

Actually, Paul has 2 good conrods spare I think.

Last night I spent a few hours creating the picture (you see here) of the crankshaft components. I figured it would be helpful to refer to when emailing people about the various parts that make up the crank. I am happy for this picture to be used/reproduced by anyone for their own purposes.

Various things happening

SP engine via Ok!Shon is a hopeless case.

Motor with Ok!Shon Japan has not been able to be picked up.

I organised for a courier company in Osaka to contact Ok!Shon directly with the hope of going to the Ok!Shon warehouse and picking up the motor. However, the courier company tried to do this and failed saying that they had never come across anything like it before. Somehow, the people at Ok!Shon just could not co-operate with the courier company and make things happen. What is going on here?! Seems really REALLY weird. Anyway, I am now giving up hope of ever seeing that motor (and NZD$1100) ever again. Nasty. Moral of the story: if a packaged object weighs over 30kg, do not buy it via Ok!Shon. In my case it probably weighs about 34kg.

Fairings and tank sorted.

An advert on ebay US for MC21 fairings made from ABS plastic and painted up to original spec was spotted by Paul and I followed it up. ebay member name parts4bike

A complete set of MC18 R6K bodywork for US$248 (+ freight of US$225) was do-able. This is the Silver/white/green bodywork with the Terra Racing logo. I emailed Brandon Wu about this and he said he would paint up my blue/white tank as well (for free) if I couriered it to Hong Kong.

I sent my tank to Hong Kong (NZ$89) and paid an extra US$80 to get the tank sent back to NZ. A total of US$555 (NZ$890) and NZ$89 gives a total of NZ$979 for a complete set of new plastic bodywork and matching paint job on tank.

I sent the tank air freight on Monday 14 June 2010. The post office teller told me that it should arrive in Hong Kong between 11 and 25 working days from then.

Brandon Wu is going to wait until the tank arrives before beginning work on painting the fairings. This is to make sure that the paint job on tank and plastics are a perfect match. I have already paid in full, so I hope his eBay rating of 736 (with 100% positive feedback) means that I will be happy with the final outcome.

Crankshaft Seals and Big End Bearings

Dave Spin had ordered a set of the 3 crankshaft seals from RGV Spares in Australia for me.

I now have them. Cost NZ$80.38

Wobbly is ordering 4 big end bearings from Wiseco for Dave Spin and I. Not sure on cost yet.

When these arrive, Dave Spin and I will have a complete set of crank rebuild parts:

Main Bearings x 3

Bearing seals x3

Thrust washers: Large x 2, Small x 2

Big end bearings x 2

1 barrel and 2 heads from Paul.

Paul has been purchasing a lot of things NSR related fron Ok!Shon japan and on Tuesday 15th June 2010 I met up with him (and Dave Spin) at Bayfair shopping centre in Mt. Maunganui.

Paul had a spare "B" sized barrel and 2 heads that he gave to me. So now I need to get one more B sized barrel.

Suspension arrived.

At the same meeting, at Bayfair, Paul gave me my SP Rear shock that has been reconditioned by Goudenz Gissler. This looked to be in fairly good condition all round. Paul had cleaned it up.

Paul also dropped off my SP front forks that I got from Ok!Shon. These had also been cleaned up by Paul. This was a complete assembly of things:

Front forks

Both triple clamps

Steering damper and fork mount

Front mudguard

Steering head shaft and bearings

Front Axle

All seemed to be in fairly good condition. There is a 4cm long crack in the mudguard around the LH mounting bolts that is not too noticeable.

Engine tools

Paul also dropped off a flywheel puller and a clutch basket holding tool so I can pull the crankshaft out of my $300 SP engine.

Crankshaft

Paul, Dave Spin, and I, all have an MC18 crankshaft each. We will soon press them all apart and see if we can make 1 or 2 good crankshafts out of the 3 cranks. Paul has already had his crank pressed apart at Wobbly's and found Brinelling on the crank pins (journals). An annoying thing about the NSR crank is that the pins are an integral part of a web (counterweight). So you can't just press out the pins and machine up new ones to press back in. You have to find a set of good "pin/web" combinations to press back together to make a good crank. You could try other options, but I will not go into that as it is not what I want to do.

Summary

So, I need to find 1 more good barrel. The current good one I have is a "B" size barrel.

I need to get a set of good pistons and rings to match the B size barrel.

I need to physically get the big end bearings and bodywork.

I need to get a good set of crankshaft web/journal components to press together to make a good crank.

After that it is just a lot of cleaning/labour to assemble it all.

Additional

Also I recently acquired some glass beads from Regal Automotive to try out in Wobbly's sand blaster up at Dave Spin's. Then I can clean up my barrels/heads/cases to look like new.

I also want to do something(?) to the bottom fork legs to make then look newish. They currently look a bit oxidised. Nothing major, but it just looks crap.

There are also (almost certainly) a lot of smaller little issues that I am currently unaware of that will crop up as I go about the disassembly/reassembly process.

SP fairings on Ok!Shon

Paul sent me a link to an auction on Ok!Shon
It was a company in Japan making plastic (ABS) fairings painted up exactly like the original MC18 R6k. Terra Racing on White and Silver.

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r64582552&sl=ja&tl=en


They have an instant "buy now" of JPY 64,800 yen which is about NZD$970. (USD$690).

Seems like a fairly reasonable price!
I rang Paul to get him to buy them, as I don't have an Ok!Shon account, but he was away from the phone. Hopefully these will come up on Ok!Shon again regularly.
Only thing missing is the tank.

Looks like the company name/brand is "Exaray"

Some text from the translated auction text:

Products are outside the cowl. Parts & Decals cowl painted outside (clear) the hotel has a beautiful finish. Our material is ABS plastic products.

It is hand-made products ※, and some small scratches or distortion, please forgive me. 御座Imasu process can be adjusted if needed to fit the bike parts custom parts because it is outside.

NSR250 Frame and Suspension geometry

I have been playing around with a 2D CAD package trying to get a handle on the NSR Frame and Suspension geometry. [More to come]



The dimensions shown (if readable?) are not at all necessarily correct, but I am working on it.

Paul picked up Engine and Rear Shock

Yesterday, being Easter Friday, 2nd April 2010, Paul picked up the NZD$300 engine and the SP rear shock from Auckland's North Shore. He had a bit of a play around with them when he got them back home. He also picked up various other bits for Dave and himself.

Unfortunately, there were signs of corrosion inside the cylinders and primary combustion area. I am hoping that this is not too bad. It would be nice if the crankshaft and the good barrel were salvageable. Time will tell.

Paul did a good job cleaning the shock and also tidied up the engine a fair bit. I will get the shock sent to Goudenz Gisler at Gisler Moto Technic in Tuakau to get it re-gassed for about NZD$80 I hope.

Maybe I might try to go in with some mates and buy a bead blaster that we can all share. Bead blasting the external surfaces of the crankcases, barrels, heads, etc really makes the engine look like new.

Front Shocks Freight Charge

Today I got an email from Paul stating that the freight for the forks from Ok!Shon was USD$125, or NZD$180.70.
Not particularly cheap, but at least they are communicating with us and hopefully moving the freight very soon.

So all up cost of front forks is NZD$457.62 + NZD$180.70 = NZD$ 638.32,... Yup.

Spare Engine and rear Shock

Today I bought a spare SP engine off TradeMe for NZD$300.

Also Paul bought an SP rear shock off the same guy, for me, for NZD$100.

So that means I now have all the bits to make a complete SP (1989 NSR 250R SP [MC18 R6K])

Well, I have bought them, they have yet to actually be physically in my possession.

The Engine Auction stated:

nsr 250 mc18 motor

Top barrel is cracked and will need resleeving or a whole new barrel before it can run. its off a sp so has the dry clutch. no idea if pistons or rings have been changed. odometer read 31000 when i took it out. have heaps of other mc18 parts available. Auction Number 280725185

The Rear Shock Auction stated:

nsr 250 mc18 sp rear shock

sp shock with remote reservior, needs regassing.

Auction Number 280686129

SP Front shocks bought off Ok!Shon

Overnight I had 2 bids run on Ok!Shon
I had a bid (JPY15,625 yen approx NZD$250 + freight) on an NSR 250 MC18 SP rear shock which I was outbid on.
I had a bid on a set of Front shocks as well, complete with triple clamps, steering dampener and slightly damaged front guard. My winning bid of JPY51,100 yen converts to USD$315 or NZD$457.62 + freight. Not exactly cheap but it seems like the "SP" components go for a premium.

Now lets just see if I EVER actually get delivery of these front shocks!

Note that they also come with front axle, steering head bearings and shaft, plus handlebars.

Hopefully Paul will keep scouring the internet for an SP rear shock for me.
Paul found these and placed all the bids using his OK!Shon login.


Link to Front shock "Okshon" is here
AuctionID = 128921396

News on the engine!

Today I got out of bed and checked my emails.

There was an email from Paul with subject line....

"OKSHON has responded!!!!"

Amazing. I was quite excited.

I bought the engine online on June 16th for about NZD$1100 and now, (9 months and 4 days later) it is starting to look like there may actually be a chance of getting it.

Because the packaged engine was over the Ok!Shon limit of 30kg, they had massively stalled on the freighting of the engine. Paul had recently sent them a few curt emails, and it looks like that tactic has worked as they have finally responded.

I hope to get them to send the engine to a freighting company in Osaka that I have connections to through a friend of a friend. Then hopefully I can get the engine sent to me in New Zealand.

Just for the record, we have finally been able to get a physical address for Ok!Shon.

It is Rm102, 2-34-8 Kamisakabe, Amagasaki, Hyogo which is very near Osaka port in Japan.

View Larger Map

Today I also got Paul to put in some bids on (A) an MC18 SP front shock assembly NZD$455 max bid and (B) an MC18 SP rear shock NZD$210 max bid, for the NSR.

If I can get the SP suspension and the MC18 SP engine, I will be able to put together a complete NSR SP MC18 as I already have the SP (Magtek) rims.

Fingers are crossed.

I guess a lot of readers of this blog (which only averages about 8 hits a week by the way) will wonder why I bother to go back to Ok!Shon for the suspension given their appalling record so far. Well I have just had a bad run due to exceeding the 30kg limit. They seem OK otherwise. Well,.. when I say '"OK", I mean slow and crap, but basically functional, which is kind of OK given the language/cultural barrier perhaps?

Crankshaft bearings and Expansion Chambers

Over the weekend, Paul dropped of a set of 3 crankshaft bearings ($273) that he ordered from Greece.[NSR250 crankshaft bearings and seals availability]

He also dropped off a set of pipes and the pillion peg brackets that hold them.

The NSR crankshaft is sold by Honda as a single unit. This is extremely painful and typical of Honda. Also, the bearings and seals are of non-typical sizes and not readily available. This is also fairly typical of Honda.

However, over time, people do find ways of obtaining the individual parts that make up the cranks and rebuilds of cranks become possible.

I had the seal on the inner bearing of the NSR crank fail on me when I was racing NSR's back in 1990. I had to buy a complete crankshaft assembly to fix it. Yeah, good one Honda! Luckily I managed to find a near new one second hand. ($900 instead of $1500 new at the time)

If I ever do receive my engine from Ok!Shon I hope to be able to rebuild the crank. I have the 3 main bearings, now I just need the big end bearings and the big end thrust washers. Paul is working on sourcing those too.

Also, Paul spotted a Kick Start Lever on TradeMe so I bought it for $40 + $5 postage.

Registration on hold. New Crank Bearings

Saturday 30th January 2010

Today I put the Rego on hold for another year, will come up for renewal 23 Feb 2011

Also, through Paul I have bought a set of 3 crankshaft bearings,. yet to arrive, for NZ$244.21 + NZ$27.93 freight = NZ$272.13