Engine swap or rebuild donor bike?

[Kijona]

Pay no attention to the naysayers. There are a couple of prick-headed mofos on this board.

If you feel confident, go for it. If not...hey, try it anyway! How else are you going to learn?

[sledge]

Its not rust holding it in, its galvanic corrosion....dissimilar metals and all that and another one of the reasons why sensible engine designers specify studs and nuts to hold headers in place.

Even if you do manage to get the bolt out there wont be much of a thread left.

Get yourself a helicoil kit....you are going to need it 

[Raydr]

Despite the cold weather, rust and stripped bolt head, I actually had a very easy time getting the bolt out once I took the heat gun to it. Perhaps the Liquid Wrench finally made it in, but once I used the heat gun on the surrounding area and got it to around 150 degrees (according to my IR thermometer), I used a pipe wrench plier and was able to get the bolt out within minutes. I really should have tried this first. Live and learn!

New engine is mounted and after attaching the carbs and injecting some gas, the engine fired up. Despite not having the airbox, exhaust, or the hoses properly connected, I was surprised at how the engine came to life on the first try. My project tonight is to figure out the hose routing on this new engine/carb seeing as how it has some extra parts I'm not familiar with. This one came with a PAIR Valve (which was easy to figure out) but something just seems off with the connections and the diagrams I can find don't seem to answer all of my questions.

I do have another question. While cleaning up we found this little piece laying around. I don't recognize it and it might not even be part of the bike, but anyone recognize this thing?

[bombsquad83]

I don't know because I've never seen it in person, but I hope that's not the pin that goes in the end of the crankshaft for positioning the timing rotor.

[adidasguy]

Did you remove the neutral sensor from the left side of the engine? It looks like the pin for the neutral switch. If neutral light comes on, then you didn't or if you did, then the spring that pushes on the pin is making contact.

[Raydr]

Did you remove the neutral sensor from the left side of the engine?

Ding ding ding! I bet this is it. When I was removing the bad engine I removed "something" from the left side of the engine (just above the sprocket) before I realized it was easier to disconnect the wiring on the other end. When I get home I'll verify.

Gracias!

[Snake2715]

Wow you guys are awesome and obviously have experience with these. To me it looked like the jets out of my banshee carb.

Good deal, glad it fired up thats a good sign and motivational for sure.

[weedahoe]

As for the PAIR system, you can disconnect the vac lines and remove all of it. You can take the ends that mount the the head and cut the pipes off, weld closed the holes and put them back in place as block off plates. You also could use something like liquid steel which is a 2 part putty that works well.

[Raydr]

I decided to keep the PAIR system in place. One thing I noticed is that with the PAIR all hooked up, there is absolutely nothing left unconnected on any of the hoses (unless I screwed up.)

Some notes from the work I did tonight:

• The new engine already had a exhaust gaskets crushed in there. I tried to get them out for a minute before I remembered that Budda sometimes will put two in for a better fit or something. Decided to do the same. No issues so far.
• I noticed the exhaust had 3 connection points but I couldn't figure out how to connect the middle to the frame. I may be missing a piece and will look at some diagrams later.
• I decided to leave the 16T on instead of my 15T. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up changing this.

So, after putting it all together, I shot this video for my girlfriend who had to work late and wanted a status update: does it run? 

Took it around the block a few times and it feels NICE, but it does "seem" to have a little less power than my old engine. I'm 70% certain it's due to the 16T.

[adidasguy]

The exhaust connects to the bike at the engine and the rear passenger peg.
What may look like a place for the bolt in the middle gets a rubber bumper. That is the UP position stop for the centet stand.
Watch my video on changing the exhaust. You'll see. http://youtu.be/4eMGNolMuEU

[Snake2715]

sweet deal man. nice quick turn around.

[Raydr]

I appreciate everyone's help.

Took the bike for a long ride and have discovered a major flat spot / loss of power after reading approximately 5K RPM. Seeing as how I used the donor bike's carbs/airbox/air filter/fuel petcock, I'm fairly sure it's an issue in that area. I had too much housework to do yesterday so I wasn't able to work on the bike, but next up I'm going to try, in order:

• 1.) Running in Prime
• 2.) Removing Air Filter -> Replacing with my K&N
• 3.) Carb Cleaning/Rebuild

I've been thinking of sending the carbs from my old engine out to Buddha for a rebuild. Might be a good idea to get on that so I can perform a swap later if necessary.

[Snake2715]

You just swapped the motor. The carbs are really not that hard. I say go for the rebuild yourself or swap yours onto it and see how it goes.

Most likely a dirty carb issue if they sat for any timeframe.

[gsatterw]

why not just swap your old carbs over if they worked well?

[Raydr]

why not just swap your old carbs over if they worked well?

Mostly because they'd been sitting since April and I figured the donor carbs would be in better condition than my old carbs.

I haven't had time to work on the bike this last week but hopefully can get it all wrapped up this weekend.