Day 7 - Kawi engine reassembly

ok. So I went into the garage thinking I was only going to take apart and clean the rocker boxes. I figured the only other thing to worry about besides the HLAs was an oil passage and oil delivery to the HLA.

Well, when I got the first one apart, it didn't seem like a big deal.

I turned out the rocker shafts one at a time, keeping track of what went where.

Here we can see the holes in the shaft where the oil delivery comes from to get to the rockers. I use the compressor to blow out this passage, covering different holes as I test.

The rockers delivery the oil thru their body to the cavity where the HLA sits. I use the compressor again to verify these passages are clear.

Everything seems ok, so I am going to change the o-rings on the shafts and assemble the rocker box.

So, now I plunge into completing this cylinder, since everything seems so easy. I put permatex on the head and assembly oil on the CAM. [The permatex job would have went easier with a small brush.With my finger it was a pain. I hope I put enough permatex on, especially at the CAM bushing. It tacked up quickly on this warm, muggy evening.]

After torquing down, I install the CAM chain tensioner and the oil line.

Nothing left to do now but put the rocker box cover back on. This requires using the permatex to hold the rubber bumpers in place on the cover and put the gasket in place.

And the finished cylinder... though I still have to verify the cover is torqued properly. (I was having trouble reading the in-lb markings on the torque wrench)

This was another 2 hours.

Parts are in earlier than expected

I picked up the parts earlier than expected. Now if I can only make time to work on the bike.
I also should get manifold gaskets for the new exhaust.

Yee-hah ... the new exhaust arrived

I bought a Cobra exhaust for the bike on eBay. New pipes from a dealer but they did not have the original packing so it came in a plain box. They look great and they were around a quarter of the cost.

Also, I saw Mark's Triumph gas tank today after is had been powder coated. It looks beautiful, but I forgot to take a picture.

Day 6 - exercising the HLAs

Well, I decided to tinker a little more tonight. I took off the external oil lines to the rocker boxes, sprayed them out with WD40 and then blew them out with the compressor.

Then I decided to exercise the HLAs a little more, but this time following the tack I found on other websites. I took them out of their oil bath one at a time and put them in a WD-40 bath and exercised the check ball and then the plunger. I saw even more crud come out in little streams. Then I burped them again in the motor oil. This was much more satisfying.

And another hour spent on the bike... How many hours does that make?
Oh well, still waiting on gaskets anyway.

I will now suffer from parts lag

I just ordered parts and I probably won't see them for a week, unless I want to spend an extra $50 to get them sooner. Dang ....

Day 5 - Kawi engine rocker box removal

I started off removing the rocker box cover of the front cylinder.

 

 Turn the crank and get the front cylinder to TDC.

 There is stuff in the way, like the throttle body and airbox tube, so that we can get at the cam tensioner.

Remove the cam tensioner and disconnect the oil line.

 

Repeat this process for the rear cylinder.

Both cylnder cam bearings appear to have an O-ring coated with something, possibly silicon sealant. The manual stated there shouldn't be any sealant near this. hmmmmm

 Now, the funny thing is ... I did all this under the premise that one (or more, although it sounds like only one) of the HLAs on the rocker arms had air in it instead of oil from oil starvation. Interestingly when I remove the HLA from each rocker, I try to squeeze the plunger and it does not budge.
The test for defect is that the plunger would be down already or go down and stay down and not rebound. Yet I can not budge these. I put them all in oil. I then did a little research.

Interesting.. I find that the Subaru boxer engine has this design with HLAs. They show recharging an HLA by putting it in a 12mm socket and filling it with oil and then using a tool like a small allen wrench to bounce the ball in the HLA forcing air out and oil in.

I could not budge the HLA ball, just like I could not move the plunger. hmmmm... this wasn't supposed to be this hard. I put the HLA back in the oil horizontal and used the allen wrench and much more force and felt it finally give. I could feel the spring action and bounce it a few times, and would work the plunger while I did it. Dirty oil came out. When I stopped bouncing the ball with the wrench I could push the plunger one more time and it would rebound and then I could not push it again. This seems to gibe with how an HLA is supposed to work.

Here is a description from http://www.miata.net/garage/hla/index.html:

So just how do these lifters work? The concept is a self adjusting thickness lifter that keeps the lifter in contact with the cam shaft and top of the valve at all times.

Intentionally these HLAs (Hydraulic lash adjusters) are designed to let oil flow in between the inner and outer plunger assembly in only one direction.  The oil pump pushes oil past the check ball in the inner plunger.  This oil pressure (combined with the plunger spring pressure) pushes the outer plunger away from the inner plunger, which makes the HLA grow taller (the outer plunger pushing down against the valve, and the inner plunger pushing the lifter body towards the cam shaft.).

Then BAM!!! All of a sudden the cam shaft lobe is pushing down with great force on the Lifter Body, which transfers that force to the inner plunger.  This reverse pressure tries to force the oil between the inner and outer plunger back out the hole in the center of the inner plunger.  OH wait!  There’s a check ball that now gets slammed shut from the pressure.  The oil has nowhere to go.  The two plungers fit together so closely that the oil can’t even squeeze between their walls   The two plungers are immediately in Hydraulic lock, and the cam shaft forces the valve open  pushing all the cam force through the oil trapped between the plungers.  Works like a charm.

There’s just one drawback:  the oil never gets out.  Ok maybe a very small amount escapes around the walls, or past the check valve, but it’s still trapped inside the built in reservoir of oil that  the top of the HLA has sitting there ready for getting stuffed back in between the plungers.  And the HLA reservoir top is designed just like  plungers, one little hole flowing oil in (under oil pressure) and no holes out. So this oil is essentially stagnant inside the HLA.

Stagnant oil wouldn’t be bad, except for when it breaks down and thickens up.   Then the oil pump can’t force enough oil in through the three small holes and past the check ball to ensure  that  the chamber in between the plungers stays pressurized. Not enough oil pressure means that the chamber between the plungers shrinks by enough to allow a small space between the valve and lifter or cam and lifter.  This small space allows the metal to impact metal making our favorite HLA “Tick Tick Tick” noise.

 Another 4 hours spent on this. I am still not sure if this is the problem or not.

Any ideas?

Day 4 - The engine is out of the Kawi

The alternator cover is off. Time to disconnect all the electrical.

Those long lines run to the front and the starter.

 

This bundle needs to be disconnected, but most of the plugs are distinct in color and shape.

 

 

 
I disconnected these, but it was not necessary so I put them back.

You can see the cavity where the clutch slave cylinder goes. That dumped some oil out when I left it hanging.

This coolant hose to the rear cylinder is a bear.

    

 
 Disconnect the engine ground. This is the cable to the battery negative.

Next I removed the lower front bracket with one of the regulator/rectifiers. The lift is already supporting the motor.

Remove the right-hand side frame with the floor board. The electrical to the brake cylinder needs to be disconnected.

 

 
Start disconnecting the mounts.

    

   

 Disconnecting the engine from the shaft. This was a slight pain. I had to spin the back wheel until I found the lockpin. The I had to slide the engine off the connection, which I ended up using a large screwdriver at the connection to wiggle the joint apart.

   

I missed a couple vacuum connections.

 

 Disconnect the choke and throttle cables. Remove the brackets around the throttle body. I am not sure that was necessary just to get the engine out.

   

 

   

   

Oooops. This tie wrap is keeping the motor from pulling away. ( That and the oil filter, since I was so smart not draining the oil until the oil filter ended up being in the way. I finally wiggle the motor out.)

   

This took me about 3 hours to do. Quite a learning curve.