Camshaft / shim gaps, noisy?

[Crofty]

As Rob says, the discolouration is normal. The two left hand buckets look a bit rough around the lower edge. I would take the head off and check the oil supply passages for partial blockage,
I thought the cam bearings may of shown some signs of poor lubrication too.
The sheet of paper seems to have less oil thrown onto the area above number 3 bucket.

[z1bman]

i would remove the oil pressure housing at the back of the cylinder & try blowing some compressed air into the oil ways in the camshaft journals this way if there is anything obstructing the oil gallery it might come out through the gallery at the rear of the cylinder. if this is not successful you will have to remove the cylinder head & do what i suggested in my previous post. as long as you keep the chain tight whilst turning it over it will be perfectly ok i have done it loads of times. don't be tempted to drop the chain into the crankcase as this will result in a broken chain & teeth broken of the crankshaft drive.


as for the fishing i live near the Severn i used to fish it quite regular in the early nineties best ever day was 150lb of barbel in one day but we had some bad floods & since then the Severn in general is very patchy for barbel. best place i have been for barbel was Trimpley but a couple of years back the car park & Severn valley railway where washed away & the only way to the river was a one mile walk down a steep hill & undergrowth

[warren3200gt]

Would it be reasonable to draw any conclusions from the oil colour and if so what conclusions? It has new oil in it as can be seen from the colour on 1, 2 and cam chain. The oil added to 4 from a syringe was also clean but has marked the paper as dirty?

I'll whip the cams out and try your suggestion before taking the head off.

A mile walk downhill is not too bad when your eager to get there. A mile walk uphill would be a killer after a blank day!

[warren3200gt]

Took the head off this afternoon, or I should say I played Debbie Mcgee (although I have better legs) to Kev Edwards Paul Daniels, with some alarming results. After trying to inject oil and compressed air both ways through every oil channel we eventually found two blockages. One each end of the cross oil way from inlet to exhaust on right hand side (3 &4) cylinders.
one was a partial blockage on the inlet end the other was a total blockage at the exhaust end. Both silicon. Pic below is of the total blockage or "plug" of silicon.
Not sure of the naming and shaming rules but if anyone is interested private mail me for the "engine" "builders" aka engine "bodgers".

Once the replacement gasket set arrives, the cylinders can come off and the verticle oil ways can be checked/cleaned.
Fingers crossed it'll be finally sorted and running sweet.
Thanks again Kev.

[z1bman]

good result. has the engine been ceramicaly cleaned? if the cylinder studs where removed the engine builder has probably used silicone on the studs to seal them which is ok but not on the outside studs as this is where the oil is distributed. it looks like someones ear plug

[pertonpc]

Hi Warren,

Very glad you seem to be getting on top of this problem at last.
I have learned a lot from reading about your trials with this - and full marks for your patience.

Please keep the pics and info coming as you get the rest sorted out.

If that engine was mine I would be wanting to drop the sump and check for debris and a clean and intact oil pump strainer gauze in the near future.

from experience flushing treatments and oil changes will not get all the sludge out of there - esp if your sump has the internal baffle plate (later bikes)

I personally cannot see why someone who has done this to an engine should not be identified - if they claimed responsibility and took money from someone for this rebuild.

From Mark

[Pigford]

+ 1 - what the Green Lantern says

[warren3200gt]

I don't know if these guys actually used the silicon when cleaning the head up or if it was whoever did the valve guides or it could have been someone before them who bead blasted the head. One thing for sure is that these guys did use grey silicon on the base and head gaskets and we found plenty of tiny bits of that in various places. Whoever it was, these guys had it in enough bits on several occasions that the oil paths should have been checked before reassembly.
Apart from that its not in bad nick!
Mods delete this post if its against any naming and shaming rules.