Re: New Member Post

[peter.elling]

Thanks for the welcome!

When I said 90k, I meant 90000 miles - thereabouts.  The previous owner replaced the original instrument cluster a few years after buying the bike, and the clock currently reads 76.  It's had a good run thus far, and hopefully, it has more to go.  I've posted pictures of the bike at: http://picasaweb.google.com/peter.elling and a short story on my blog: www.elling.blogspot.com .

Currently, the carbs are retooled, installed, and the engine sounds better than ever.  Things look are much cleaner, which helps my wife feel excited about the motorcycle, and the fact that it runs makes me feel really excited about the bike!

I plan to follow the manual's suggestion and check valve clearances, ignition timing, and a few other checks prior to synchronizing the carbs - I want to make sure I've done a thorough job of it.

An airhead guy at the BMW dealer, as he overheard me buying parts, suggested something I thought I'd run buy you all.  The engine ventilation system typically is routed through the airbox, and ultimately back into the engine for another go.  I was looking at replacing all the vacuum hoses and internal airbox rubber, but was told to seal up the vacuum ports on the carbs, and route the engine vent to the ground (after plugging all the various holes in the airbox).  I was just wondering if folks had any experience with this.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Peter,  

Welcome.

In response to your crankcase breather question (I think that is what you were referring to), there are a number of options for venting this to atmosphere.  I did mine a number of years ago.

This is a thread from the technical page.  The airbox design on your bike and mine is different, but the principle is the same.  Scroll down for my response with pictures.
http://suraklyn.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1184038818

[peter.elling]

Yes, the question was referring to the crankcase breather.  As I understand it, there are two options for my bike - route the breather directly into the air box (with the blow by oil issue) or to run it through the emission control valves to the ground (by drilling them out, or some other such hacking).  In either event, one has to seal all of the valves, holes, et cetera that the crankcase breather was previously running through.  So, at both carburetors, both cylinder heads (with a ball bearing, as per suggestion), and at the air box itself.  I haven't figured out quite how to plumb this, and am uncertain as to the effects on the engine.  I'll keep you posted -

peter

[Bob_Roller]

Peter, a common method of plugging the holes on the cylinder head, is oil pan drain plugs from an oilhead bike, they have an allen wrench hex to tighten them up, as there is minimal clearance with the cooling fins for a normal plug. I think you can use rubber plugs to close up the holes in the air box, and a couple of vacuum system caps  for the fittings on the carbs.

[Justin B.]

I think there is a fairly decent pictorial writeup about this at http://www.webbikeworld.com/Motorcycle-technical-articles/pulse-air/

[peter.elling]

The photo write up looks great - it definitely helps direct me.  I've already managed to remove the intake manifolds (a little PB blaster and some time), though not the inserts.  The oil drain plugs sounds like a very tactful solution to plugging the holes, although the techs suggestion to place a ball bearing between the insert and old manifold nut may look interesting as well.  My guess is that the plugs would work best as, a.) more parts can mean more points of failure, and b.) hex driven inserts would be much easier to remove with all those cooling fins than a ball bearing sandwich.  I'll check out both options and see what works best.

peter

[Justin B.]

Well, the oilhead drain plugs look "cleaner" - in my opinion...

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

We have to tread lightly - this is rapidly becoming a technical thread...

As it happened, I have a 1980 engine in my '79 frame (ugly story).

I had my heads rebuilt last fall, and the tech plugged the exhaust ports for me.  



This first picture shows how I "fixed" mine, long ago...



This is probably what you are looking at right now (maybe cleaner?)



And this is how it looks now




Click on the pictures to enlarge.

[peter.elling]

Well, the parts I had waited for finally arrived, and the bike is back in running condition.  Things need to be tweaked a bit, as it seems to have a few adjustment issues, but nothing a Sunday afternoon can't fix!

My folks were visiting over the weekend, and because I wanted my dad to at least hear the engine run, I picked up a few things from the dealership to bring it up to speed.  So, if anyone is considering modifying their airbox and routing the engine gases out to the ground, I have a few parts for you.

The vacuum screws (13 11 1 259 869) and oil head plugs (07 11 9 919 117), including crush washers are up for the taking. They weigh in at just under 2oz.  If you send me a SASE, I'd be happy to drop them in and send it off!  You'd need a few other items, but at least you'd have a start.  

I'll need to take apart the airbox again to replace the engine vent hose, and will post pictures of the final product after that.  Thanks for the help!

peter