[open_road]

Hello forum.

Dont know much about this place but i hope someone can help me. I hate to make this my first post, but I really have no place else to go.

Story.

I origionally had bad decks on my road king. The bike had about 50,000 miles on it. Couldnt keep a head gasket without blowing it. Instead of fixing it for the unteenth time, I decided to upgrade to a 95 bore kit. Except it was more of a low budget frankenstien kit. I bought new Screaming eagle pistons, and I got a set of 95 jugs for an indy shop they origionally had some scrapes in them but not knowing to much by me, the mechanic told me that he would hone the jugs down to accept the new pistons and rings. I got a set of heads from a friend of mine of a realitively new roadking that had been similarly upgraded except with Screaming eagle heads. I did a little polishing of the heads myself to both ports on each head. I had done it on my 88 with no problem.

I put about 7000 miles on the bike with the new build. along the way I would hear a clingnging sound in the front of the motor which I chased for a good 5000 miles never finding it. Recently I blew another gasket this time it was a metal cometic gasket. When I took the heads off to change the gasket this is what I found (Pictures)

http://www.v-twinforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67857&stc=1&d=1316968073

http://www.v-twinforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67858&stc=1&d=1316968097

http://www.v-twinforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67859&stc=1&d=1316968125

http://www.v-twinforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67860&stc=1&d=1316968147

http://www.v-twinforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67862&stc=1&d=1316968453

http://www.v-twinforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67864&stc=1&d=1316968491

I cant look and diagnose the damage need some verteran eyes. I know there is some scraping on both the piston and the side of the jug wall. Some scrapes were there after the honing. I dont know if the pistons are any good. I rather not buy new set. but the jugs Idont know. If you look close in the photo, it looks like the piston is too close to the wall is this normal. as you can see there is no problem with the spark plugs.


Questions:

Jugs are probably bad?
Could my head polsihing and have caused this?
can I tell if the pistons are reusable There are the only thing I care about. Ill get new jugs if need be?

any help or advice would be great. oh yeah the guy at the indy shop wont help me out. gee i wonder y

 

[Don Dorfman]

Others can and will comment but it appears the #2 ring is upside down

 

[strokerjlk]

Jugs are probably bad?
Could my head polsihing and have caused this?
can I tell if the pistons are reusable There are the only thing I care about. Ill get new jugs if need be?

any pics of the jugs?

your head polishing looked ok to me.? dont think it hurt it.

you could use new pistons/rings,if you stay with 95 ci SE cast pistons you might be able to have the jugs bored to +.010. or if you have your old jugs,have them bored to 95 ci . find someone with tq. plates and have them fit the pistons to the bore.

low low budget...if the pistons aren't hurt real bad?? smooth them out some ..ball hone jugs ..use a set of .005 over rings and file fit them to spec.

or there are 97/98 ci forged pistons that would work with re-boring the jugs you have now. this option is what I would be looking at.

 

[wfolarry]

Did you wash the parts before assembly?
Your pistons are junk. That whole top end needs help. Take it to a good shop & get it done right. If you are doing the assembly make sure to clean those cylinders good.

 

[strokerjlk]

deck the heads a few thousands,to clean up the gasket surface.
carb or EFI?

 

[schmeg]

Piston skirts indicate a dirty build when it was assembled. Not sure about ring orientation. If I recall I thought on SE cast, the second ring was not directional,can't remember for sure. As stated, soak the jugs in scalding hot soapy water, then "white towel" them using lots of paper towels and Marvel oil. Check your deck height, and chamber size to get an accurate comp ratio. Don't leave any stone unturned, take your time. As stated, pistons are toast. I'd go .10 over from 3 7/8ths. As a WAG, the plug indicates it's lean.

 

[95280]

Piston skirts indicate a dirty build when it was assembled. Not sure about ring orientation. If I recall I thought on SE cast, the second ring was not directional,can't remember for sure. As stated, soak the jugs in scalding hot soapy water, then "white towel" them using lots of paper towels and Marvel oil. Check your deck height, and chamber size to get an accurate comp ratio. Don't leave any stone unturned, take your time. As stated, pistons are toast. I'd go .10 over from 3 7/8ths. As a WAG, the plug indicates it's lean.

second ring does have an up(dot) on the cast pistons, the top does not.

 

[BVBOB]

More than dirty assembly on the pistons, like Larry said they are toast, the last time I saw a set like that it was due to the hardened big end of the connecting rods flaking. I am willing to bet the crank is toast.

 

[KingofCubes]

@gree:
I would dig deeper. The detonation is probably from oil contamination.

 

[UnSafe]

Think I have predetonation need advice (photos attached)

Maybe a mildly numbing lubricant and focus on baseball stats?

 

[j michael]

Think I have predetonation need advice (photos attached)

Maybe a mildly numbing lubricant and focus on baseball stats?

I have no idea what this means, however building an engine is not rocket science, take your time next time and if I may echo the words of some of the others CLEAN is the name of the game! Probably need crank, pistons, lifters, re-bore, etc. expensive school, but you can do it!

 

[qtrracer]

Think I have predetonation need advice (photos attached)

Maybe a mildly numbing lubricant and focus on baseball stats?

I have used this technique with moderate success.

 

[jam65]

At first I read,"maybe a mildly numbing lurbicant and focus on baseball bats".Not my thing but you would forget about your issues for a while.

 

[LowRiderCustom]

The piston doesn't look bad to me. It's not going to look brand new after 7000 miles. All pistons that have been used have lines in the sides since they go up & down in the cylinders. Aluminum is softer than the steel cylinder so there's going to be some signs of wear. Oil doesn't stop the engine parts from wearing, it just slows it down tremendously. As long as there's no deep scoring they'll be ok.

 

[Dyna Ryda]

Think I have predetonation need advice (photos attached)

Maybe a mildly numbing lubricant and focus on baseball stats?

I lol'd for a few minutes on this one

 

[Dyna Ryda]

I have no idea what this means, but you can do it!

this made it even funnier, I'm still laughing

 

[95280]

The piston doesn't look bad to me. It's not going to look brand new after 7000 miles. All pistons that have been used have lines in the sides since they go up & down in the cylinders. Aluminum is softer than the steel cylinder so there's going to be some signs of wear. Oil doesn't stop the engine parts from wearing, it just slows it down tremendously. As long as there's no deep scoring they'll be ok.

I will go take some pics of some pistons I just took out with 48,000 miles on them, they have no lines like that, its like stated above, dirty build.

 

[guydoc77]

Gotta agree. Tore my 103" down at 13000 miles to do new heads and 107" last spring at BvBob's. We were amazed at the unused appearance of both the pistons and the cylinders. I think he was even more amazed That those parts looked that good later this year in August when we rode over to Sundance and around through Hulett. (lol).

 

[UnSafe]

Humor aside, the question is not what caused the cylinder/piston skirt damage, it's "where did the metallic debris come from?

Sure, failure to adequately clean the jugs after boring & honing could be a cause, but those scratches are large. As mentioned above, rod surface finish flaking off could be a cause, as could a bad bearing or plain old sloppy assembly. Maybe time
To send the bottom end off to be bored out and crank inspected.
You wanted a bigger motor anyway

 

[Mother]

You wanted a bigger motor anyway

still laughing!!!!!