Good day all, Not long bought my first 916 and have decided to give it the full makeover.. This thread will just cover the engine restoration, which will be undertaken by myself and this is probably the biggest engineering challenge I have ever taken on and my first engine strip down and rebuild! Could go disastrously wrong!! My plan is to do it as cheaply as possible and as much as possible by myself, not sure if I'm just dreaming and will have to admit defeat and let the professionals takeover. Today's jobs were to fix the engine to the engine stand and remove the timing belts, heads and alternator cover..
Bit of advice, I had my 748 engine completely stripped and painted. Unfortunately the painters didn't do proper preparation and a few thousand miles in, the paint started flaking again. This broke my heart as the whole inspiration for the rebuild was to eliminate the flakey paint on the engine . If I could turn back time I would go for ceramic coating on everything or at least ensure the best products and practices are use by the painter as its not a job you want to be repeating.
With regards to the engine paint. I've used cerakote. I've been rebuilding a Suzuki Gt750, even though the casings are polished, I've then had them clear cerakoted to protect them from tarnishing again. Theres a company called flying tiger coatings, I think they are the main dealer for cerakote in the UK. Might be worth having a look. Good luck with the rebuild!
Good man - cerakoted my hypermotard engine a couple of years back....nothing has flaked atall....although its hit or miss if cerakote takes to magnesium....one side of mine did (the clutch cover) the other side didnt so had to get that powder coated...
if your going all the way into the engine i would suggest swapping the gearbox out for either a 748/9 standards were close ratio, or a 996 sp/sps, 999 the starter gearing can be swapped out for a 749/999 ratio for weight saving and beter starter ratio a lightened, balanced crank/stator wheel for a faster rev up and if your budget extends to it titanium con rods! the main problem you will have is when you come to reset the load on the engine cases! in order to measure the shims required you need a flat steel plate and a micro measure compression gauge (this cannot be fudged) any movement of the crank shaft or gearbox will result in said part exiting the engine case in the worst possible way! the clutch casing and stator case can be swapped out anytime for mag/ or simply better condition ones the mag case is nice and all i have a vented factory race item on mine! as you come up through to the heads you can reduce the squish on the cylinders! (the metal plate the barrels sit on) this will give you higher compression without compromising the heads! the heads, re seat the valves, take them out! clean and de coke everything to restore full gas flow, if your feeling flush have someone gas flow them (its a dark art) re shim the valves pay specal attention to the small split ring that holds the closing shim up! get them the right way up! or they dont work!! have the barrels honed! replace the piston rings and clean the top of the pistons make sure you get the piston rings the right way up and the gaps are correct! put the piston in the barrels first make sure the piston is the right way round! (small ring cut outs on the top of the piston is the exhaust side) (very important) the last thing you can do is put in sps cams and larger racing valves but this reqires having the ports machined! if you go with the gas flowing you will need a larger exhaust and intake trumpets whatever you do get it on a dino to get the most out of your re build lastly the engine timing sensor will need to be air gapped, possible tps adjustment. regards rich
@comfysofa did you have to give the empty cases to the vendor for Cerakoting or could they do the coating with the internals in place?
Depressingly its gotta be stripped down to the crankcases (for me anyway)....but if youve got a good engine builder behind you (i used ducati john) then itll literally be like a new engine. John had my complete engine down to the cases and in the boot of my car inside 2 hours....
Very Nice pal, hopefully I can get mine looking like this At first I was going to get it powder coated until I saw an engine done in cerakote, this altered my end vision Many thanks for the info and something to note down. Wow many thanks for the informative post, this will be my go to list of jobs that I need to complete along the way of the rebuild.. Many thanks again Jamie
