Time for Stage I
 

Here's the doner engine I picked up today for a song...

2002 with 13K miles. 11.5:1 JE Pistons ordered. Anybody got a set of cams for sell?

This will be my 1st engine rebuild, so any and all advise is greatly appreciated!
RC

Let the games begin :)

It's been a long time coming my friend...RC

wow, looks clean, and has APEs already. Good luck. I did the same thing - found a good price on a used one so I didn't have to have any down time and could take my time. Learned a lot - lots of valuable help on here as you know. Just be organized taking it down - lots of baggies and I found a digital camera pretty useful during disassebly. Are you doing anything to the heads/valves? Good luck on finding the stage1 cams. There are still some out there but rarely at a great price.

bill

what all mods do you plan on doing to it?

What did you pay for the engine?

Thanks Bill, I'm planning on flowing/porting the heads, but not sure what to do about the valves & springs. Any suggestions?
RC

Anything and everything I can and still use pump gas:)

93 octane is my limit for this rebuild, so JE Pistons 11.5:1 plus STG1 cams plus flowed/ported heads and more...RC

$400 on Flebay...RC

Nice! Post a lot of pics as you go through the rebuild! :D

Will do...here's some of the teardown:)

Make sure you read the procedure completely a couple of times to familarize yourself with it, before you just start taking it all apart.

You will need a flywheel puller ~$40.
Use a clean shop rag to jam the primary gears. The bolt is reverse-threaded.

Remove the clutch pressure-plate, but leave the clutch plates in place. The will provide enough friction to knock the nut holding the clutch basket loose with an impact wrench. (Make sure you unstake the nut first).

New con rod bolts are a must. Do not reuse them.

Thanks Rand, I'll get a puller this week. I appreciate VERY much your time & help with this project.
RC

Also.
I bought a bunch of plastic containers. 1 for the parts from each head - to keep them separate. 1 for the transmission and related parts. 1 for the timing gear. 1 for the pistons and rods. Put a paper towel in the bottom and keep the lid on it. They are stackable and keep everything clean.

Identify the lifters, valves, etc. with a Sharpee.

Was using plastic baggies for the small stuff those containers are a great idea!
RC

Why is this? Does nobody make stage 1 cams for the Hawk anymore?
________
ILoveLove

I paid $11 bucks for my puller. I'll mail it to you and you can mail it back if you want to.
I can't remember anything that was reverse threaded on mine.

Thanks Killer, but I think I'll buy one cuz he who dies with the most tools wins, right? :banana:
RC

Rand will know better and can edit as needed, from what I remember from Bob H's advice was just light port work/blending/matching was all that was suggested, but a 3-angle valve job was worth doing. If I can find the notes I made about his advice for porting I'll add it. He emphasized not overdoing it, gentle reshaping and matching inlet with carb outflow/spigots. I don't recall that he mentioned the exhaust ports at all: as for flowing the heads everything I've read indicates its as misleading as not done in isolation and without a lot of correlation with performance on the bike. its easy to go in the wrong direction: higher risks for not so clear gains short of a lot of trial/error/experience. Stock springs are fine with stage I or stock cams: they are cheap and replacing them seemed reasonable to me but probably overkill.

OK, I Found the notes on advice for porting:

"Let me know when you have the codes, crankshaft, cases, and rods. For the street, the port work should focus on a few things. Do not make major changes to the port area, work on blending the bowls, slight flattening of the port floor around the short radius of each port, matching the carb manifold spigots, and to a good 3 angle valve job. The valve seats should be moved to the outer perimeter of the valves without going all the way to the edge. Total seat contact width should be about 50% of the overall face area."

Thanks Bill, after discussing with Rand, I've decided to let a pro flow the heads for me, but the 3 angle seat advice is good cuz the manual suggest putting seats in the middle as opposed to the outside perimeter...RC

New pics of progress...
currently waiting on new valve spring compressor to come in...

sorry I don't know how to load full size pics:(

when does the porting begin? I just finished doing mine.

if you cant find cams you can always have yours reground, just another option

As soon as my new spring compressor gets here, I'll drop the heads off to a local tunner who has a flow bench...I figure he can make short work of them as opposed to my busted nuckle attempt;)

Oh, I found some, but will have to sell off my rabbits foot collection to buy them:( But I do know what you're saying cuz both Megacams & Webcams will hard weld and regrind them for $500-700 if i send them my cores...saving that as option B:cool:

ok. My spring compressor is a big C clamp with a thin piece of tubing brazed on the foot. About 1/3 of it is missing so you can get to the keepers. Ive found it works as good or better than all the fancy ones ive used.

DAMN

Bill is right. The most important time for flow is early and late in the valve opening and closing (low lift). Outright port flow with no valves is of little or no value in a street engine.

The low lift flow is more a matter of how much the area around the valves is shrouded in the combustion chamber and the valve area. the main reason for moving the contact area out on the valve face is to increase the valve area. The combustion chambers are well designed for low-lift flow.

Rick, like I stated in our other discussion, the ports are already very well desinged analyzed and tested. If you were going super radical with RPM and cam timing you would want more port volume.

For your purposes, porting does not need to be a science project. Blending, removing the casting grains and widening the floor a little bit is all. I didn't feel the need to pay someone else, who may not have as much patience as me to tool away with a die grinder. I enjoyed it. When I got tired of it or ran out of time, I just set it down and came back to it later.

I can do a good 3 angle valve job for you. Stay away from the guys who use a form tool that cuts all 3 angles at once.

http://i44.tinypic.com/s43mlx.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/104rkgy.jpg

Thanks Rand, those look sweet! I know you're right, so I'll give it the ole college try...
RC

Here are some examples of really bad ports and combustion chambers that required significant radiusing, blending and reshaping. In the end, they look like Honda ports.

These are from an early Toyota MR2-SC engine:
Note the abrupt, almost 90 degree entry into the exhast port and shrouded valve area.

http://i44.tinypic.com/wums03.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/8x6c7p.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/98h5vo.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/331nazr.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/14b5idl.jpg