Ott's 1VJ

[j0epere]

A stuck connecting rod or out of round cylinder sleeve would be some things to consider as the culprit. Looks like you got front and back scoring. Does the con rod look like it got too hot? Kinda blueish? Or was it a tough fit to begin with? What about the cylinder? Did you press in a new sleeve or bore/hone an old one? Can you test the cylinder for roundness now that it’s apart?

I'm suspecting a stock connecting rod, the Cylinder was measured before bore and it was quite good and well within spec. The sleeve was original to the head. The piston pin I could fit wihtout any issues.

Once I get my hands on equipment I will measure the cylinder.

Currently I'm between sending the head/crankshaft to Motoritz for repair and between buying a full bike in Estonia(with supposedly good engine) and taking the engine from that and parting/selling the rest.

[j0epere]

Unfortunately missed my chance to buy the full 1VJ, So calculated the costs for overhauling the current engine once more. Considering the fact that I just had another kid, I don't have too much time on my hands then the cheapest option both time and money wise would be to go for another engine. Secured a TT 4GV engine (supposedly 35K km's and unopened) from Italy which should arrive in 1-2 weeks. Not planning to do much with it before installation, I will install the flywheel, stator and stator cover from my 1VJ engine to keep the original CDI. Also must remove the clutch basket to install the kickstarter assembly and will swap my painted clutch cover for the looks. Of course check the valve clearances, but that's pretty much it. Checking the price for a full engine, not sure why I didn't think about that beforehand.. Worst case scenario I will have buttload of spares to keep/sell, best case is that I will have a proper engine and another one for spares.

Is there anything else I would need to look into when doing the swap? Checking myself the only difference is the igniton system, but never know..

[donnybach]

Good luck bud. That’s quite a low mileage so fingers crossed it should be smooth.

[j0epere]

Thanks Donny!

The engine arrived and by the looks of it, seems that nothing has been opened yet. I removed the clutch basket and installed the kickstarter assembly, ran into a problem that I could not remove the Kickstarter spring stop pin from my old crankcase. I'm definitely not a fan of macgyvering engine internal bits, but I found a exact same dimension drillbit, which I milled to shape and inserted to the case with plenty of the strongest loctite.

The flywheel seemed quite stuck at first, but in the end still popped out, the puller that I created from a knackered flywheel has given me a pretty good success rate so far. What I do, is I leave the crankcase nut and socket in place when installing the "puller", this way I don't damage the end of the crankshaft. Then I screw in the threaded rods and install nuts, screw the crankshaft nut out a bit to have it finger tight and start tightening the nuts on threaded rods quarter turn at a time until it jumps off. Having the crankshaft nut installed also give the benefit of the flywheel not jumping too far then it finally comes loose.



I still need to check the valve clearances, install the decomp lever, remove one stuck and broken exhaust stud. Also I will remove and grease the front sprocket while the engine is out since it seems to have been there for a while and looks corroded.

I read somewhere that when adding oil to a completely dry engine, you should add some oil through the valve cover, Is that correct? Since this engine has been standing dry for a while I would like to avoid any issues with lubrication since I don't know how long it will take me to prime the oil pump.

In other news, I have the below parts left over so if anyone needs something, feel free to let me know. Would gladly sell as one KIT.

[donnybach]

Good work. Regarding the oil, the book tells us to fill the tank, and to loosen the oil pipe, bottom left of engine, and tighten again when the oil flows, to prime it, then do the bleed screw above the oil filter. Sounds quite a good idea to put some in the head to let it flow down before start up. Not done that before. Maybe an oil spray on the rockers etc just for those first few moments?

[j0epere]

So I got the engine installed and everything went more or less smooth. Pretty tricky to get the engine between the frame if the head is installed..
Once everything was connected, it started on first kick and everything seems to work nicely. At first It only ran on choke(died immediately when choke disengaged or gave throttle), but after this cleared so assume there was some blockage in the carb.

For filling the oil I did the following. Added approx. 1 litre to the oil tank and bled the oil pipe. Added rest 1.4lt through the intake valve cover and kicked it over until oil came out of the bleed screw, took awhile. To help with that, I shot some compressed air to the oil tank, seemed to work.

Now can't wait to take it for a test drive, but considering the whole street is covered in ice, will have to wait another month. Seeing all the riding videos coming from the southern Europe makes me go green with jealousy, Lucky bastards!

[cadno]

MotoForms fuel tank?

[j0epere]

Nope, it's the acerbis one. I think Geoff also used one for his 1VJ project.

Luckily got this one with the bike, seems to be fairly rare. Will use it for offroad riding as not to damage the metallic tank.

[donnybach]

Well done. It’s looking good. The fender looks mint too.

[j0epere]

Small rides have been done and the overall picture is pretty good.

I cleaned the carb and as expected, the pilot jet was clogged, after that it ran pretty great.

Did both of my rides with around 0 degrees C and noticed the following problems that still need sorting:

1. During cold starts (choke engaged), the engine starts on 2nd-3rd kick, runs for a second then dies. It does that until I manage to keep it running for around 5 seconds, after which it starts gathering RPM and keeps running. Pilot screw is 2,5 turns out and haven't adjusted that yet. When engine is hot, then the Idle RPM is around 2000, so don't want to adjust the idle knob on the carb any further

2. When putting the bike on 1st gear after starting the engine, quite often the engine stalls. When this has happened, the starter won't also engage(while holding the clutch lever). When trying again 2-3 times, I usually get first gear in without stalling and can start riding. I would like to suspect the sidestand switch, will short the switch to be sure.

3. Sometimes when in a higher gear (4th-5th) and opening the throttle fully, the engine starts bogging down. Doesn't happen much on the lower gears. I assume it's connected to the second carbs diaphragm piston, when moving it by hand, it doesn't move 100% freely and sometimes gets stuck for a split second. Will install the piston from my spare carb to rule that out.

All of these are relatively small issues and glad to have the bike running. I went to a local metal workshop and they will be bending me some racks so I could use my Giant loop style saddlebag without having the bags touch the fairing and hot exhaust, should finish next week..