mikstr

I realise this is a (very) long shot but alas, if anyone is sitting on a pair of said pistons and is looking to part with them, give me a shout.

In the likely event that the above fails, I will likely have to get a custom batch made and, as these require a minimum order of 4 units, will be looking to part with a pair. So, if anyone else here is looking for a pair of these let me know and we can split the cost...

Thanks in advance.

scottiemann

Don't have a pair but will soon have most of a second engine to pick away at, so in the unlikely event you have to order 4 what's the going rate these days cuz if I have the money at the time I may want to split it with you

scottiemann

And what happened this time? First you snap some cams so now what?

mikstr

The nightmare seems to just keep going....

The engine had been knocking for a while and it seems that the source was the piston/pin/rod combination. So, I am now in the unenviable position of having to replace both pistons, pins and the brass bushings at the top of the custom Carillo rods. Hopefully that will be the end of my current streak of ****-poor luck.....

Back to the original matter, I am currently checking out a few leads and will be in touch with some costing if I do go ahead with a custom order......

scottiemann

Well mikstr I know your bike is one of the most built bikes on the forum and I'm sorry your having such bad luck, I hope it turns around for you...

I'm not in a rush to find oversize pistons as I'm hoping one of my engines can be honed within factory spec, however I would like oversize on one of them eventually.

Good luck and if you end up doing a custom order let me know..

mikstr

Thanks.

BTW, it seems I may have lucked out and sourced a set of pistons. In fact, I have tracked down two new sets so let me know if you want the contact info for the second set and I can forward it on to you.....

FL02SupaHawk996

Mikstr, I looked and couldn't find the Ebay supplier we bought these from, but I did find another autorized dealer in case you need to place a special order:

JE PISTONS 149139 HONDA 1997-2001 VTR 1000 98mm | eBay

Either way I wish you luck with the rebuild my brutha!
RC

mikstr

Thanks Rick.

Good news: I tracked a pair down from a fellow forum member and they have the same set-up as those I had before (moly skirt coating and ceramic top coating) so my piston needs are now met. FWIW, I located a second set from another forum member too so if anyone is looking for a non-coated set let me know and I can forward you the contact info.

Thanks to everyone for reading and helping.

cheers

scottiemann

Yea send it to me... gonna need them eventually

By the way what do coatings like that cost and have you seen any benefit?

mikstr

PM sent with e-mail address.

As for the coatings, the moly skirt coat is to reduce friction (many OEm engines come set-up with suhc a coating so there must be some benefit). As for the ceramic top coat, it is to protect the piston from overheating and to help keep heat in the combustion chamber where it can do more good (improve efficiency, in theory anyhow). As I have never done back-to-back testing with coated and uncoated pistons, I cannot comment on how well they work. However, to pick up on teh point made earlier, the tech rests on sound principles and is becoming much more commonplace, so there must be some value in thtem.

cheers

scottiemann

thanks for the contact info..

sounds about right on the coatings ill have to look into having that done.

RCVTR

That worked out well! I'm glad to hear it.
What was the problem with the wrist pin? It sounds like the clearance with the rod bushing must have been too tight and it couldn't get sufficient lubrication.

Just take it step by step and get it built back up. These things happen. I had some crappy pump gas at a track day, with high-compression pistons, decked heads and too much ignition advance with an HRC ignition. I was having some detonation ont he front straight, until I put pump gas in.

After my wreck, I tore the engine down, to get the dirt out of it. Hard to do one-handed. The ring land for the top compression ring was bent and pinching the second ring, which then scored the cylinder. It had been running like that for a couple of months. I ended up with load of scrap. But since the frame was in two pieces, it didn't much matter.

mikstr

Pistons arrived today (thanks Martin, aka zmaniv). Now I only need the upper conrod bushings and it's rebuild time (hoping it lasts longer this time around.....)

zmaniv

Your welcome.

mikstr

Connecting rod bushings arrived from Carrillo yesterday and everything is now in the hands of the shop. I was told they should have the engine back together in the next day or so..... can`t wait to get my VTR fix again

scottiemann

Me too... mine is for the most part stripped I'm just working on disassembling the engine now (build thread soon)...

Once I split the case and measure the bores I might just get the STD bore JEs

mikstr

I must admit I am curious to see how strong it runs with the stock cams. Hopefully I won`t lose too much (although truthfully the Yoshi cams I had in it were quite mild). Also, given that I ride mostly in the mid-range (bike seldom ever sees over 7000 rpm as I let the torque do the work, besides, I need to keep my driver`s licence), it may actually run better with the stockers, we`ll see.....

Assuming it all goes together as it should, the engine should be good for 200K+ km trouble-free (virtually everything that was replaceable was replaced last time around).

I am not, however, looking forward to seeing the final bill......

scottiemann

I think that might be one benefit of doing it yourself, there is no final bill...

If I don't have the money for the parts upfront I can't build it. And my project is quickly becoming a feat of budget management...

I hope your final bill isn't too much mikstr

scottiemann

At the moment I'm trying to figure out what my options are for cams and grinds...

Because that's twice the expense of the pistons and my last BIG expense for my rebuild. Deffinitely don't think I have enough money to throw around for rods

HRCA#1

There is an SH forum member that is running 4 exhaust cams. Seems the stock exhaust cams are fairly hot with slightly more lift than the intakes.

He's running them at 101 degree IN and 106 degree EX lobe centers. It's som ething I plan on trying when I get to it.

You might also consider the old school way of raising compression by milling the heads 1mm should get you to about 10:1 or slightly better.

scottiemann

yea I was just reading that thread on my cell but i dont think he posted any dyno results did he? I am interested in this to cut my budget a little bit

as for pistons I will be going with JE high comp...

BTW HRCA#1 My wheel should be here today for my new forks