Project Frankenbike

[WRXtranceformed]

Haha

[SlimKlim]

Quit bickering and buy my laptop so we can get this project lubricated.

[V1GiLaNtE]

Is this the bike that you had it out with your dad about?

I don't wanna talk about it.

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ooooooooo...... It's those few glorious moments in parenthood where "I told you so..." really completes the sentence.. J/k you'll figure it out dude! :thumbup:

[.RJ]

Maybe the "i told you so" is true, but this is a great first bike and looks like its turning out to be a fun project.

[Apoc]

this is a great first bike and looks like its turning out to be a fun project.

Two things I couldn't disagree with more... but I'm allergic to work and tools. :lol:

[Ken]

How dare you speak ill about your own people.....you have been warned, next time you'll be banished from the island.

Haha I felt the pang of betrayal a bit but ultimately, a decent joke that insults Joey won over.

[CaptainHenreh]

[SlimKlim]

Just took the motor apart.

I wish there was a less profane way to say this, but there just isn't. Dude, my shit is FUCKED UP. The left piston commited suicide and started eating into the wall, possibly because of this, there is damn near half an inch of play in the OTHER rod. Which means its possible that not only is that bearing shot, but there is damage to the crank or rod as well. I'll never know though, because the parts to repair it are $400, not including having the cylinder machined.

So now I just need to list what parts I have for sale, get my computer and pistol sold (both have fairly serious prospective owners) and sit on my big fat pile of engine cash and hunt one down. The guy at my favorite little shop here said he had some connections and could help me find one, but I'm not going to call him into action until I actually have money in my hand.

So now we wait... Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the carnage, and possibly start taking that motor out.

[JustinG]

Needs a tiny little turbo on the new motor

[SlimKlim]

^ Dude you don't know how much ive already thought about it. Its been done, you either have to hombrew some FI, or run a fuel pump for the carbs. Three things stop me. 1.) I still haven't managed to reliably put together a stockish motor. 2.) I fit this bike like a bear on a tricycle, better to ride it for a year and move on. 3.) Sure id have 4 cylinder, 600cc power, but I'd have 500cc 2-banger with a fucking TURBO powerband. So I'd have a slow bike until 7k, and then I'd have a pants shittingly epic wheel lifting run to 13k (I'd theoretically build and cam the head) and then do it all again in the next gear.

[V1GiLaNtE]

but I'd have 500cc 2-banger with a fucking TURBO powerband. So I'd have a slow bike until 7k, and then I'd have a pants shittingly epic wheel lifting run to 13k (I'd theoretically build and cam the head) and then do it all again in the next gear.

sounds like the way you should be riding a bike.... WITH A TURBO! :thumbup:

[SlimKlim]

The third coming of frankenbike draws near. Mwahahahaha

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[SlimKlim]

The carnage.





And the other cylinder is the one eating up the rod bearing, but thats hard to photograph.

[SlimKlim]

The bitch lives again.

Okay, lets see where we left off here. About six weeks ago I decided to eat the bottom end out of the motor I just put a top end on, and so our story begins.

I sold a laptop and a pistol and misappropriated some funds to justify buying a motor, and bought one from a 1989 with 10k miles from a junkyard in Florida for $585 shipped. For those keeping track, yes that is 58.5% of the original purchase price, and yes, I'm a damned fool.

Thinking that the motor would show up ready to go in, I started disassembling.



I like to think of this as the rock bottom of the project.



I spent the long nights waiting for the motor by stripping down my two bad blocks and salvaging every good part I could. The amount of stuff i threw away is mindboggling. I had shredded cranks, banged up connecting rods, melted pistons and one of the transmissions was apparently in the process of esplodin.





I also built a clever little indicator panel that I have yet to actually connect to anything, maybe this weekend.



I'll have to get the pictures off my phone later tonight to illustrate the next part of the story, but here's how it went down.

The motor showed up at work on a Friday afternoon, I cracked open the wrapping and gave it a eyeballing, then signed for it and went back to work. When I got home later that night, and pulled it off the palette, I realized one of the intakes was sheared off, and it had a 0% chance of holding a vacuum. Frustrated only scratches the surface of how I felt.



My main goal was to get the bike working, so I filed a complaint but wasn't sitting around to work out the paperwork. I took the one good head I had and cleaned it up, and in a fit of questionable passion I cleaned and recoated my head gaskets in copper gasket maker.

When I tore down the motor I got another surprise, it arrived with spark plugs in it, but somehow water had gotten into the cylinder and made a NASTY mess. I was about to flip my lid, but I took a few deep breaths and went through everything with simple green and a selection of brushes. It all turned out to be surface rust and I got everything shiny, smooth and clean. I went in and cleaned out around the rings, took off the oil pan and cleaned out the bottom end as much as possible.







No pain no gain.



Then I built the motor back up with my ghettogaskets and negotiated it back into the bike. This is now approximately 7 business days before I leave for school, and I'm still working 6 days a week. I rolled the bike out of the garage and fired it up and, and, and... it will barely run.

It seemed like a carbuerator issue, chugging and bogging, refusing to rev, but I'd gone through the carbs and made them clean enough to eat out of, so I was at a loss. Broken, I put it in the truck and took it to the small shop near mine. Hours later, and going through every single system on the bike, we determined it wasnt making spark, but there are almost no testing guidelines from Suzuki for the ignition system.

I borrowed Channings ECU and that seemed to smooth it out, but when I bought one it made no difference (figures), we tested the coils and they were fine. We only figured it out when he inadvertently stuck his test light into one of the pickup wires and added some resistance to it, did we realize the coils were going bad.

This was the Friday before I left for school, so I packed up my pile and took it up here. Tuesday morning I ordered the pick ups, expecting to wait a couple of weeks, and Thursday night they were in my hand. I scooted on over to pop them in, then spent the rest of the weekend screwing around with the jetting and fuel mixture screws to get it to return to idle.

But it works. Its filthy and my engine is a couple different colors. My new paint is bubbling up from my swiss cheese gas tank, and I have fake indicator lights. My headlight is dented and my grips are pathetic and I love every last little bit of it. The project will never be over though, hopefully this is just the biggest chapter.

[CaptainHenreh]

:thumbup:

[SlimKlim]

Updated with more pictures

[ScottyB]

you're a trooper. i'd have pushed it onto some train tracks long ago. not many people can say they're that experienced with the construction of their bike after such a short ownership period though, right :dunno:

[SlimKlim]

you're a trooper. i'd have pushed it onto some train tracks long ago. not many people can say they're that experienced with the construction of their bike after such a short ownership period though, right :dunno:

If this bike gets hit by a train it will probably be right after I say "Hey, watch this!"

Believe me, there were, and probably will be times where I seriously considered walking away from the bike. I even made a for sale listing. In fact, in another bout of perfect timing, someone contacted me about it after I had gotten this motor, had they found it two weeks sooner it would be a distant and somewhat tender memory.

[SlimKlim]

And she comes full circle. We had a good run though.

[WRXtranceformed]

Apparently you missed the memo where when you sell something here you have to take a pic of the cash spelling out RJ LOVES COCK