Zongshen 200GY-2: Top End Rebuild at 31,656 Miles

[SpudRider]

After riding my Zong for 30,000 miles, I noticed several indications I might need to do a top end rebuild of my engine. I frequently ride my Zong into the beautiful, remote areas of Idaho. Therefore, I always strive to perform preventive maintenance, in order to avoid encountering engine problems far from civilization.

I thought it was time to perform a valve job, since my intake valve was not holding its adjustment. The intake valve clearance was consistently getting tighter, and I needed to adjust the valve lash every 500 miles. 8O Obviously, something was wearing down on the intake valve, and I want to avoid trashing my bike’s engine.

Also, although I had good compression, my engine had lost some power, and I was noticing the engine would stutter a bit while riding at wide-open throttle. My good friend Andy, a professional mechanic, suggested I should also do a ring job while I had the cylinder head removed from my engine. Andy also suggested I should rebore my Zongshen cylinder, and install an oversize piston with the new piston rings.

Since I had received over 30,000 miles of faithful service from my Zongshen engine, I decided to follow Andy’s advice. I ordered the necessary engine parts, and started to prepare for the job by reading the Yamaha, TW200 Service Manual.

Spud