Kawasaki KLR Forum banner

Eagle mike piston kit installation

6K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  pdwestman 
#1 ·
Hi!, let me introduce my self, my name is francisco, im from Guatemala and i recently bought a supposedly 16k miles klr 05´.

I saw a post on the internet and it was quite cheap, but it was kind of far from where i live so i asked an uncle to buy it for me. So he did, but didnt pay much atenttion to some certain detailes, like the fact that never got a service on time which lead me to making just the oil change when i first got it and then i tought it would be ok for the next 2 or 3k miles.

But, surprise!! it was burning oil, and it got consumed pretty quickly, which caused it to began making some nocking on the engine bay.

After i realized about that, i wanted to try something before accepting i was gonna have to change various internal parts , so i made a full service and schedule the next one on the 1k miles mark. When i reach the milleage and drained the oil, i just got a little bit over 600 ml.

It was then when i started to think about a way to fix it and try not to spend a huge amount of money, due to the fact that i cant get spare parts for the bike in the "away from all civilization country" i live in. And stumbled upon various piston kit´s from eagle mike that went from 685 cc all the way to up to the 719 cc´s.

Now, i have the money and a way to get it, for another uncle of mine, which happens to live in arizona and its in his disposition to buy that kit and all the parts i need for the bike and send them to me.

The only problem i have is that i dont even know what parts i am supposed to buy, i mean, i should get the piston kit, but then what else? new valves? and if a get the new valves, should i get the shims?

Also, i know the doohickey its the weak spot of the bike, so i also like to buy one of those kits, as well as a stiffer spring for the rear, a progressive spring for the forks and try to keep it in the 1k price range for all i want.

I would really appreciate if somebody could give me an advise on how to do it, even more, have some patience on me due to my total unknowledge about this.

Pd: i totally hope i expressed myself properly, i havent yet perfectioned my english.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Sorry that there has been no response to your post.

Like you say yourself - “I don’t know what parts I am supposed to buy”.

At this point I would say not to buy anything. You could be throwing your hard earned money away.

Engine noise can result from a number if issues. First thing you have to do is to tear down the engine to determine the problem. You may find internal damage that would make it unfeasible to investment in repairing it. Sounds like the person you bought it from knew it had issues and was looking to dump it quickly.

Good luck and keep us informed with your progress. Sorry this happened to you.

.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Reading your post again concerns me. Getting only 600ml of oil out when changing it is not good. You need to check the level on the sight glass regularly.

You have likely starved the top end of oil which will result in camshaft and head damage. Easiest first step is to remove the valve cover and inspect the camshaft and head. If there is damage it will be very expensive to repair, especially in your part of the world. Used heads are very hard to find.

.
 
#4 ·
I'll suggest that by running your engine down to that low of oil quantity even once for even 5 minutes of run time, that the cylinder head camshaft bearings have been severely damaged, therefore the knocking.

Useable used cylinder heads are extremely hard to find for Exactly this reason. Too many owners neglect to check their oil level daily! The oil burning may have been caused by a melted hole in the bottom of the air box allowing un-filtered air to enter or by lack of properly Oiling a freshly cleaned air filter.
 
#5 ·
Ya that’s correct - USEABLE heads are almost nonexistent. I should have stipulated that.
 
#7 · (Edited)
There are lots of folks that will assist you with advice. If your head is damaged it doesn’t take too much experience to see it. Surfaces should be smooth. When you have melted and gouged metal you’ll see it. Do you have a repair manual to assist you in taking it apart? A mechanically inclined friend?? You can find a lot of info on You Tube too.

When you take it apart take lots of pictures. You can’t post pictures on the site until you have 15 posts but we can work around that.

Good luck with your disassembly.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I took my bike yesterday to my trust mechanic, and he took apart my engine.

He called me and told me that he had already done it, and that he will be seeing me today.

I went today with him, he showed me my engine, or what it was left and after gettting pretty anxious about it, i found out that it was in quite a well shape.

The previously owner totally knew the engine was failing and tried to fix it, to which he did not succeed. The piston was covered in oil all the way to the top. The cylinder head was, well, i´ll show you a picture.

So far, i guess ill be able to install an oversized piston as i was initially planning, but id like to hear your comnents.

as i cant yet post any image or url, if theres any body willing to see the pictures of my engine, i uploaded them to flickr, so all you have to do is enter flickr page, then add a (/) after the (.com), and then copy and paste what i just put below.

photos/183546950@N03/with/48553442716/
 
#11 ·
The cylinder head camshaft bearings look surprising great , with the minor exception of the radial scar on the RH intake journal. Amazing, considering your 1st post about Only 600ml of engine oil left.

But now your mechanic needs to remove the cylinder & piston and using a dial indicator, measure the Vertical Movement of the bottom rod bearing, in search of your knocking noise.

Have you read anything about the doo-hickey? ie the Engine Balancer chain Adjusting Lock Lever and spring system.
 
#12 ·
im in the process of buying a doohickey replacemente kit, so far i know, it does work at up to 50 k miles, and the clock says the bike has just 19k, so i guess i still have some time.

Anyways since i bought it 10 months ago i just put 3k miles on the clock, its about 300 per month.

My mechanic took the cylinder heads to the machining shop, they told him that they could repair it, they measure the piston, and disassembled the valves, and said that my valves needed to be replaced but that they could still use the same piston and rings because they are pretty much new( i guess thats what the previous owner did to the bike).

So, they will put a new sleeve in the cylinder that fits the piston( this one will be fabricated by them) install new valves, and fit everything in.

They are asking me 200 $, plus my mechanics paid. I can estimate it will be something close to the 300$ ( by the way, we do have really low fees when talking about mechanical services)

Id like to know what do you guys think about it
 
#13 ·
Personally, I'd rather over-bore & hone the existing cylinder sleeve to the 100.50 mm size than to replace the cylinder sleeve and have a chance that they damage the o-ring seals between the sleeve & the water jacket and create a coolant leak Into your engine oil.

Many Gen 1 oem doo-hickey & springs have been know to fail much earlier than 50 k miles. Some of those failures may have been caused by failure to rotate the engine in proper direction of rotation to TDC before attempting to allow the system to adjust. Thus adding slack to the chain system rather than reducing chain slack.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top