New Hawk, new adventures.

[Megadan]

So, not to get your hopes up, or mine for that matter. My flywheel puller departed the mail distribution center in Indianapolis today, which puts it a solid 10 hours from Omaha. Hopefully that means it gets to the main hub here Friday and maybe, just maybe, I will get it Monday.

If that is the case, I will plan on starting my cam installation Tuesday night or Wednesday, depending on how my girlfriends surgery goes (she is having her gallbladder removed).

I am pretty confident I can do the entire thing in a solid few hours of work. If the cylinder and rings look fine I am going to skip installing the new ones I have for now. I even bought a head mount for my Gopro to try and document everything.

[duck9191]

I have 3d printer parts that departed Detroit (60 miles away) April 23rd and I haven't got them yet so don't get too excited lol.

Hopefully both surgeries go well for the hawk and the gf.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by duck9191

I have 3d printer parts that departed Detroit (60 miles away) April 23rd and I haven't got them yet so don't get too excited lol.

Hopefully both surgeries go well for the hawk and the gf.

Don't rain on my optimism! I am 90% confident it will arrive Monday or tuesday.

[Megadan]

So a little side bit of information. I decided to order a TT250 seat to replace my Hawk seat after getting a chance to sit on a new TT250 and discovering the seat is waaaaay better. Put my order in today and got an e-mail back immediately that they are out of stock and they are looking at a 60-90 day wait for the seats to come in. I was given the option to cancel, but I figured I would keep the order in. Sometime in July I will hopefully have a new seat.

[Megadan]

So, amazingly my flywheel puller showed up today. Annoyingly, my cut to length chromoly pushrods won't be here for at least another week. So that kind of leaves me with a complication. Think I should just go forward with the cam install and then do the pushrods down the road? It wouldn't take very much work to swap them out really. Valve cover and rocker box removal and switcharoo. I just hate repeating work, so a small part of me wants to wait.

[China Rider 27]

You've waited this long a few more days make no difference. I would wait and do it the way you want to, take your time, and be done with it.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

You've waited this long a few more days make no difference. I would wait and do it the way you want to, take your time, and be done with it.

Strangely, I am not that concerned about it. Swapping out pushrods would be a very quick affair, and I can measure and cut them ahead of time. I have waited so long to do the cam, and the original pushrods aren't really that bad to begin with, the chromoly ones were just a measure of insurance. Since I still have the factory rev limiter, I can get away with it for now. I think I will go forward with installing the cam tomorrow.

[Megadan]

This is my teaser pic for now. I did record some stuff for a video, but I am just too pooped to edit it. I have it mostly back together at this point, just need to add the fuel tank and exhaust back on it to try and start it up.



Oh, and just to show my plug to demonstrate what my jetting was like before the cam install.

I rode my bike yesterday for 86 miles to try and empty the tank below half so it wouldn't weigh a ton. Temps were right about 80 degrees, give or take. This was with the 38 pilot and 130 main.

[Megadan]

So after buttoning it up, and fixing a stupid mistake with the starter gear shaft and a thrust washer... lesson learned, I fired it up initially with the 38 pilot jet and the largest main jet I have on hand at the moment which is a 140. Right away I figured out my pilot jet was rich because it fired RIGHT up, and then proceeded to slowly bog down as it warmed up. Ended up at 2 1/2 turns out on the air screw before it would start to behave, so I dropped back down to a 35 (Feels like a yo-yo) 1 7/8 turns out seems to be the ticket. Main jet is an unknown, but hopefully the weather stays clear tomorrow and I can take it for it's maiden voyage after I button a few things up. I did order a 142, 145, 148, and 150 main as a precaution, but they won't show up until at least Friday. I don't think I will need them, but we shall see.

I did not end up using the new cylinder and piston. I will keep them on hand just in case, but there was not any significant wear on the cylinder other than some very light scuffing on the intake and exhaust side of the skirt, and the cross hatch was still visible even through said scuffing.

I did decide to not use the thinner MLS head gasket. A part of me debated on trying to chase that extra couple of tenths of static compression to make up for the loss in dynamic compression from the cam. I decided that for the sake of thermal management I would take the slight loss.

Some observations.

-It does seem to favor a slightly fast idle (1600-1700rpm), but it will idle lower if you want to go for that lumpy uneven sounding kind of idle like half a harley. The draw on the carb at idle is definitely increased, which would explain why I am back down to a 35 again.

-Exhaust note is definitely louder/deeper at idle. (and probably everywhere else). I have some muffler re-packing material on the way as well as a baffle/spark arrestor to hopefully tame the beast a little bit.

-I have the valve lash set to .06mm intake and .08mm exhaust, which is my normal. The valve clatter is definitely more pronounced. It doesn't bother me much as I was expecting it after reading the article that lead me to the cam on Do The Ton.

-The amount of force that the exhaust gasses expel from said exhaust is also almost comical. I wouldn't doubt it if an increase in exhaust size would be to my benefit now.

-All of the misinformation I got regarding the cam followers was... misinformation (go figure). To be fair, the followers I ordered did have one part that did not fit correctly, which was the shaft that they mount to and pivot on. Luckily the one that came with my bike was in perfect shape, not even a slight hint of wear, so i reused it. I did end up utilizing the roller followers I ordered after all.

In all though, it all went pretty smoothly. I think if you were not trying to record videos and had everything ready to go, the cam install from start to finish (complete tear down and reassembly of the entire bike) could be done in just 4 or 5 hours no problem. Maybe even less if you had some practice with it.

I did also install the little red "performance" CDI with the missing rev limiter. I may swap back and forth between it and the stock one to see if I notice any difference.

I figure I can do the pushrods and muffler repack another day. I just want to clean the chain, put all the panels back on, give it a much needed bath, and go for a ride. The weather gods have other plans though, and it is supposed to rain almost non stop for the next day and a half. Luckily, I have lots of other things I can do until then.

[JerryHawk250]

I'm patiently waiting to hear the results.

[China Rider 27]

I second that "hear the results"! Been wondering, you use any break in lube on the cam? Special RPM break in such?

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

I second that "hear the results"! Been wondering, you use any break in lube on the cam? Special RPM break in such?

I'm curious too. On my HotCam I had to keep it above 3000 rpms for break in which meant get on the bike and take her for a spin.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

I second that "hear the results"! Been wondering, you use any break in lube on the cam? Special RPM break in such?

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

I'm curious too. On my HotCam I had to keep it above 3000 rpms for break in which meant get on the bike and take her for a spin.

No assembly lube. Most assembly lube contains high levels of Molybdenum Disulfide. Instead, I used what is essentially a thin smear of calcium sulfonate grease (a basic non-lithium grease essentially) on the cam lobe. This step isn't even entirely necessary, but it is what most cam companies recommend doing with roller cams.

I also did not follow the standard flat tappet camshaft break in procedures, I don't have a flat tappet valvetrain anymore, I have a roller valvetrain.

Roller lifters/followers biggest enemy is actually metal particulate, so aside from a high level of zinc, the best thing I can run is the slipperiest oil I can, which I am. Rotella T6. I soaked both roller ends in T6 for several minutes before install, dumped oil on the head and down the pushrods before putting the valve cover back on, filled it with oil and cranked the motor over with the spark plug out for a couple of minutes with my little impact driver to prime the oiling system before starting it.

Other than that, I did basically what Jerry did and rode it around for 20-30 minutes keeping the revs up around 2500-3500 and moving and then parked it, drained the oil again, and refilled it with fresh oil.

One thing I will say. The CG is still nice and torquey even in the low revs. It chugs along just fine at part throttle at 3000rpm, even in 5th gear at 25mph lol. Also climbed a small but steep little hill at about 20mph in third gear with little effort. So, race machine it is not, still very tractable at low throttle and low revs.

[OneLeggedRider]

That sounds uhmm.. a little disappointing. Time to graft an XR400 in there to save on front tire wear.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by OneLeggedRider

That sounds uhmm.. a little disappointing. Time to graft an XR400 in there to save on front tire wear.

What's disappointing? I haven't had a chance to ride it yet to actually open it up lol.