Engine woes - solved!

[V8Pinto]

Well I thought I was going to need a new motor but nope!

For a while now I have known that my cam chain tensioner was bad.  I've been listening to those noises and just taking it easy on the bike.  Then I start hearing this REALLY BAD noise sometimes.  Like if you dragged a section of 520 chain across the rocker cover really fast.  Definitely evil noises.  I was considering all sorts of options.

I dug into the motor yesterday, pulled the tank, battery, carbs, and cam chain tensioner.  Replaced the tensioner, pulled one of the carb float bowls and recorded the jet sizes (127.5 and 37.5).  Also checked the valve clearances which were ok.  The neat part was when I pulled the air box.  I heard this tin rattling sound when I shook the airbox.  Not good, not supposed to be like that.  I also took this opportunity to reroute my throttle cable to cure this annoying rev-up when at full-lock-right steer.  

Anyway, the metal end of my Uni filter had popped off and was rattling around in the airbox in time with engine rpm!!!  The engine was just breathing through a tube, no filter.  I cleaned it up real well and sealed it back on with RTV and let it sit overnight.  Rode to work this morning with no worries (except the normal ones).

The bike sounds great now, I am not worried about it blowing up and I know the valve lash now so I'm not worried about that.  And the cam chain tensioner thing is solved with reduced noise AND fixed a leak.  Boy it's just a happy day!

The best part of it all is that since I'm not spending mucho cash on an engine, a K&N air filter and re-jet already has spousal approval...