RS top-end rebuild (8.6.05)

Ok, time for a top-end rebuild. My friend Alex (whom I purchased the bike from) offered to go through it with me. It was nice to learn more about what to look for, since this is something I will be doing fairly often (every 500 miles or so).

Here is one of the cylinder heads and cylinders as they looked when I pulled them off. The cylinders measured out fine, so alex did just a quick hone job since we would be using new pistons.

 

This is the power valve area. Since the power valve assembly on the bottom cylinder is underneath the cylinder, the housing collects oil. I may add a drain tube to this at some point, otherwise I may just open it up and drain the excess oil out occasionally. The next two pics are after spraying with cleaner and then pulling the valves out.

 

Here are the power valves before and after a good cleaning.

 

Here are the old and new pistons installed. The pistons that were installed before were starting to show some wear, as well as some carbon build-up on the tops. We installed some new pistons that he gave me with the bike, though the old ones will be fine for emergency spares.

 

Here is a new beefier c-clip compared to a stock one. Alex gave me a set of these to use, which I believe are stock TZ clips. I need to find out for sure so I can order more.

 

Here are cylinder parts laid out, a cylinder reassembled, a head before cleaning and a (different) head after cleaning.

 

I installed some new plugs after the rebuild, though the old ones will be fine as back-ups. This was also a good time to clean the carbs, since they were already out.

 

Here it is as I was getting the last of the engine parts installed.

 

I got the bike back together and running on 8.14 and was able to test it out a few days later at a track day on 8.17. The bike ran great with no problems :)