[fredgold52]

It has 5000 miles on it... according to the manual, it's just about time to decarbonize anyway!

It's a fun project. I'm just relieved the block and head look good.

Can I use a regular valve tool on the head or do I need to buy a special tool to remove and reseat the valve?

Decarbonize??!!??  Sounds more like a strip mine operation to me.  You gonna wear a helmet light while you work on it?   


I bet you are relieved to see all your major castings in sound condition.

I don't know what tool you would use to remove the valve keepers and springs.  Probably nothing special, but I haven't seen the valves for myself yet.  Maybe someday, but I'm not in a hurry

You're gonna love it when you get the engine back together, valves adjusted, ignition properly timed, carb cleaned.  Those first few putts are precious to the ears.

[Vince]

That amount of carbon is nowhere near normal. I strongly recommend taking the cylinder with piston, and the head assembly to a good machine shop. I know you want to do it yourself, but there is more hear than meets the eye. Problems I've run into are :
           Seizures that distort the cylinder so badly that no amount of honing will allow new rings to seat. You probably need a bore job with new piston and rings. This could be the cause of the oiling/carbon build up.
            Worn out or dropped valve guides. Last year I had a customer with a dropped   
      guide. It allowed a lot of oil into the combustion chamber. There was a lot of
      carbon.
            Rod damage caused by seizure.
All of these conditions require special tooling to even get to and measure. Do you have a bore gauge,  a valve spring compressor, and valve seat cutters in the proper angle? And specialized knowledge to properly interpret what you are looking at? The tear down and reassemble is straight forward. I certainly encourage your efforts, but these kind of projects are not fun if you have to repeat them.  A machine shop would be the difference between a 1,000 mile or a 20,000 rebuild. I would be happy to talk you through some of this stuff. Call me toll free at I 866-VINCEMC. I'm here 10 to 6 Pacific time Tues - Sat.   
               

[Peter]

Go to the Royalenfield and Bulletech Yahoo Groups and start reading the archives by using the search function (start with "lapping" or "honing", you'll probably be surprised). That will keep you busy for a few days. Get an idea about general concepts of rebuilding and get a sense about what is an acceptable risk financially.
You absolutely need Pete Snidal's manual and the factory workshop manual to cover the basics.
Look at the situation as an opportunity to build your own.
I bought a Bullet with a seized piston because I wanted to have a different than stock setup. And I'm way too cheap to do such a thing with an engine in perfect working order.

Peter

[geoffbaker]

There's a shop here in town I will take it to for cleaning and measurment (and repair if it needs it.)

However, I should add that I plan on replacing this whole engine in less than 1000 miles, so my goal right now is to familiarize myself with the bike's systems, clean and fix anything obvious, and get it running so I can get it inspected and stickered. Then I intend to put in the other engine.

The only thing I see that is wrong apart from the carbonization is one valve cap is very worn and easy to remove; the other does not want to come off at all, which suggests to me that the tappet clearances were way off.

Thanks for all the great input... every bit helps!

[geoffbaker]

Latest Update:

Head, cylinder and piston in machine shop for measurement (and repairs if needed). As I mentioned earlier, lots of carbonization.

I've stripped the carburetor and found that it was very dirty overall, with a film of black on most surfaces, and the starter jet was partially clogged (which is why it would typically only start if you had the throttle at least partway open). Main needle was set to the lowest position (clip on the lowest setting) for the richest mixture.

Emptied the fuel tank and found lots of junk in it (including half the tank cap washer).

All in all, almost every system I've worked on so far was in pretty poor shape. I'm hoping when I get it all put back together it will start right up!

[Peter]

I hope you have a good machine shop there. If you do, check out having the valve seat "radiused". Asking a question about that would likely give some interesting feedback on the Yahoo groups and would be interesting to all of us.

Peter