Bead Blast Engine

Today I picked up the sandblaster and compressor from Dave's.
I also assembled the engine "shell" without the crankshaft, pistons or gearbox components and masked off any holes that I did not want fine grit to get into.

I set up the bead blaster on the back deck and will hopefully do all the blasting tomorrow.

Big End Bearings arrived

Wob ordered some big end bearings from Pro-X (through "R2"; being New Zealand's agent for Pro-X).
The initial delivery some months back were actually the wrong part. They were 17.5mm wide instead of 17mm wide. This was actually a fault in the Pro-X catalogue. So after Wob went to great pains to explain the fault in the catalogue, with the typical headless chicken responses from the companies involved,.....//sigh// ,.... after some time (and the associated, but needless stress) the companies involved finally took it seriously and sorted things out and delivered the correct bearings. Excellent work Wob!
They came in at about NZ$40 each which is a very good price I think.

So now I have no excuses not to get on with it and get the engine together.
I need to get the crankshaft assembly pressed back together and then re-assemble the engine.
This means that I really need to hurry up and get the bead blasting of the crank-cases completed.

Once I get the engine in the frame, I will, no doubt, start to find quite a few little bits and pieces that I need to enable me to get the entire bike completed.
Of prime importance is a set of carbies. The set I have is actually an R2j set (MC16). Hopefully I can get some off a friend of mine, but I need to chase this up.

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