Putting things in places they ought not to be (250R Hybrid Motor build)

[C.J]

I meant purple power,,, lol

It cuts grime better than simple green, IMO.


92 JP Outlaw hybrid (in progress)

87 LT265R (not much left stock)

[Billy Golightly]

I meant purple power,,, lol

It cuts grime better than simple green, IMO.


92 JP Outlaw hybrid (in progress)

87 LT265R (not much left stock)

How much did you cut with water? Seems like that might give off more nasty fumes in the steam vapor than simple green (Could be wrong though)

[C.J]

I set it up outside my motor shop and let it cook while I worked on my frame,, every hour or so I would check on it and if it were getting low I would top it off with water. I did that until the water fairly clear and there was a decent amount of scum on the surface.


92 JP Outlaw hybrid (in progress)

87 LT265R (not much left stock)

[El Camexican]

After I did the case stuffing on my bike engine everything was full of aluminum and JB Weld dust.

I took a bottle of liquid dishwashing soap and lathered the engine with a tooth brush. Then I bolted the case halves to 2' X 2' piece of 3/4" plywood and went at them with a pressure washer. By the time I was done every bearing was sparkling clean and spun freely. It takes a while and you'll be best off to wear rain gear, but it works great.

Then just blow all the holes and bearings out with air and warm the cases with a heat gun to get rid of any moisture. The last thing is to lightly oil the bearings and your ready for paint.

[atc007]

Agreed^^ Purple degreaser in a spray /mist bottle. And a steam cleaner/jenny. You will be dirtier than the cases you started with. But they will be spotless. Getting closer!!

[onformula1]

Carb cleaner in a can is your friend, them spray & soak with foamy engine degreaser in a can, then tooth brush or better a small brass brush, then simple green and pressure washer her down, use dawn soap to clean off any residue, rise, dry with compressed air.

[oscarmayer]

your build is looking great sir! really impressive! looking forward to hearing it run!

[Billy Golightly]

Here is something I dreamed up at about 730am this morning - http://instagram.com/p/xw6r_0oaSW/

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

[Billy Golightly]

My scheduling has been awfully screwed up lately but I DID manage to get all my new bearings put in the cases yesterday. I now have to tear down the donor motor and start putting the trans and other parts into the rotax cases. We've had some really gnarly overcast and raining days here, and about half the ballasts in the shop lights are out, so it makes working on smaller intricate difficult lately. Hoping to get atleast the donor motor tore down today after running some other errands and taking care of things, maybe a few things put over into the other cases

[whitetail hunter]

one step closer, cant wait to hear that beast come to life.

[Billy Golightly]

Okay, big update after today, first big one in a while! Had some errands and other thing to attend this morning, so I really got started on this thing about noon time, and pretty happy with the amount of progress I was able to make given the time and what I was doing. So lets get this show on the road and let ya'll see what I was able to accomplish!

First stop, getting the welding/dissasembly/everything else table kinda half way cleaned off and somewhat organized!

I was able to press my bearings in one day last week, maybe it was yesterday, hell I don't remember Whatever day it was, I wasn't able to do much more than that. I used the Boss brand bearing kit off of ebay, I liked that it came also with the ones to rebuild the counter balancer which I will be doing also. Not sure why that one trans bearing has a seal on one side, the opposite side towards the clutch is open, I figured they knew better and more than I do about such things so I left it in there. After all the time and effort spent getting that center case surface evened back out, I tried to treat them like an artifact that was to be on display in the Louvre, lest I nick or damage them in someway. During bearing installation, I used a propane torch to warm and expand the cases. All but one transmission bearing just fell into place. Literally, not figuratively, I dropped them in the hole and they went to the bottom. I hate pressing bearings anyways, and putting crankshafts in bearings is worse yet. More on that later.

Here is my donor motor, with a Paul Turner top end (Believed to be circa old school, as its on lest bore and half way worn away with the etching, and it ran really, really, really good for a 250 top end). I'm gonna shelve the top end and I'm certain it will end up on something else eventually, maybe one of my other hill climbing bikes or something else entirely, who knows? I have a few oldschool cylinders like this in my collection/hoard. The porting on this one is really, interesting to me. Its rougher than hell in side, the grinding, but it ran awesome. You'd look at it from the bottom and be like "Da kinda hack job is this?!". Who knows.

Here is something below I want to show you guys, its what I call the "case splitting notch" on 250R cases. Most of you probably already know this, some don't. This little tab's specific purpose is to give you something externally on the cases to wedge them apart to aid in the process of splitting them. Basically you get it started, and then can go to the front and back motor mounts, and finish from there. Or you can use one of them $200 motion pro case splitter tools. I've used this method and never had issues. Don't be an idiot with the screw drivers though, your mileage may vary.

I just wedged a punch in there, gave it a little bit of a tug, and whop, first little opening of the cases. Yes they're dirty. You wouldn't believe me if I told you I already burnt a can of carb cleaner and hit them with the air nozzle for about 20 minutes before splitting them, but I did.

Moving on...

I get the donor motor split, get the trans out into my Rotax cases, pull the dowel pins (save I realized later reviewing these pictures I was short one and totally forgot about it...wtf). I installed my +4mm stroker crank into the one half as well. Speaking of that, allow me to rant for a moment. This is my second Hot Rods crank kit. For the money, I will keep the complaining to a minimum, but they fit RETARDEDLY tight into the main bearings. Every time I put a motor together with one I wonder if I am going to break the cases in two before I get the thing pulled together. The last one (not a 4mm stroker) I had to actually setup the tool post grinder on the lathe and trim down the right hand side of the crank journal because it just would not go in the bearings. Its ridiculous how tight they make these things, I know they dont want them to spin in the bearings, but I mean, really?


So, then this happened shortly thereafter -

I guess I'll express my ignorance here again for a moment. I always thought the 4mm stroker cranks were drop-in. I made no arrangements or had given zero thought to having to clearance anything. A paltry .090 difference in height, never occured to me. Especially seeing as how I had already machined and done so much on these things. I looked at it several times, ran it through, kept looking at the angle of the rod. After a while I decided if you kept the small end EXACTLY parallel with the crank during rotation it would clear. So I figured I would stick a couple bolts in the opposite case, set my cylinder on with a piston and run it through, see what happens. I hate pulling main bearings of a Hot Rods crank, did I mention that before? Some frustration later...

Aaaaand...nope This was as far as the piston would come to TDC before the rod started dragging on that top edge of the case. Back apart she goes.

It sucked that I already had all my brand new bearings installed, had cleaned the out of these cases, and here I was gonna have metal shavings all over again, of course. So, I tapped everything up, and decided I'd use some files instead keep from rapping a rotary bit up in the tape and getting crap all over in the bearings again, which would be my luck.

So, after taking a pretty large amount of material out, I figured that it would have been enough, but actually, it wasn't. And I had to take it back apart for a second time, and do some more because this is what I still had, after I bolted it together.

I did get smart enough to atleast mark out where the width of my rod was, and I made it bang around on the case enough to mark it well so I knew exactly where it was hitting and dragging at.

Taped everything back up, AGAIN!...and this time I got the rotary tool out and got serious.

And then I put everything BACK together again, for the 3rd total time. Did I mention how much I hate putting main bearings of a Hot Rods crank? It sucks.

Well hey, What'ya know! It made it to TDC this time after I got it all assembled!

And room to clear for my squish clearance and deck height even with the cylinder bolts snugged down, awesome! I had done some figuring with the 4mm stroker crank based off of the stock one and figured I'd be okay, but my math aint that great, so I don't rely on it until I see things actually put together.

When I was having the spacer plate made by Cometic over a year ago now () I had a couple different thickness base gaskets made also, so I could play around with my deck and port heights. It looks when I go to do final assembly, I can swap out the thicker gasket for another thin one to bring the piston closer to the top, and to also get the transfers better lined up with the edge of the crown on the piston at BDC, as it goes about that much below the bottom edge of the transfer ports right now. 2 thin gaskets should about do it. I can come back and really tweak things later on once I know it runs. I will still check the squish clearance, I don't want to run it too tight, or too wide right off of the bat. I do not want a high compression motor.


And now, for your viewing pleasure, some engine pornography.

[El Camexican]

Lookin good! Have you have a chance to shift it yet? If the drum turns you're home free!

I think that trans bearing seal come like that when they buy them in bulk. Have seen it on other engines. I'm guessing you could remove it if you wanted.

When do you hope to fire it?

[Billy Golightly]

I ran everything through the gears while it was in the one half amongst the rod/case issues, and everything cycled good. I have not gotten the shift star onto the end of the drum to cycle it completely through the gears since putting it together. I did thread the lock bolt into the end of it and turn it around some back and fourth (seemed free) so I should be good there but will know for sure once I can go through all of them.

Probably another week or two to fire. The list is getting shorter, but I still have to -

Install crank/oil seals everywhere.
Check squish clearance, adjust as necessary.
Put coolant line/elbow on my "new" cylinder (I have a plan, I think) and route hoses.
Rebuild water pump (I have to order a seal, because I'm dumb and forgot to get one before).
Surface the cylinder head.
Make some mounts for the pipe (I'll do this after it runs for me probably)

[El Camexican]

Once you get the transfer port height where you want it can you perhaps just skim the cylinder to the height (if not so much as to mess up the o-ring groves) so that you don't have to cut the head to keep the clearances where Rotax planned them?

I'm sure you posted this before, but rather than speed read 329 posts I'll just ask if that's the Rotax piston in there?

[Billy Golightly]

Haha, yeah that was back on page 1-5 somewhere...

Odyssey piston. Original Rotax piston has a larger diameter wrist pin, which means I have to go to a larger rod, which has even more clearance issues. Especially with a +4 crank.