Hawk Resurrection and Revival.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by J4Fun

Sorry my response was for post #40. I have to say smile because emoticons don’t for me. Dan reach out if things aren’t going good!!!

You would never stop hearing from me if I did that. It's just been a rough couple of years. Hell, the last 6 months even. Lost my last grandparent a few months ago and we just held services Monday for my life long friends mom who was pretty much a second mom to me when my own family life got turned upside down.

Been a lot of loss and a lot of personal struggles. I am just focusing on breathing at this point.

[XLsior]

Keep making progress Dan, every little bit counts...

[Megadan]

So, somewhat of an update. I haven't had a chance to touch the bike a whole lot up to now. I went ahead and ordered the big bore cylinder kit and ported head from motocult since they were both on sale. I got the head because the jug is decked on the motocult cylinder and my own head is already decked. I could have purchased and ported another head myself, but for the price I am only spending a little bit more and getting something that has been flow benched and the valves are also back cut. 415 bucks for both delivered.

[Megadan]

So, after doing an overdue oil change on my VFR I spent a little time working on it. Finally got the headlight situation figured out and installed a new cheap fender. The little winscreen was a whopping $8 on Aliexpress, but it really makes a difference in how the front looks.



The fender is surprisingly higher quality overall compared to the wonky one i got last time. It still sits a bit funky front to back, but I can solve that by enlarging the front or rear set of holes a little so I can tilt it back a bit more.



Better view of the tilt



My plan is to start stripping the bike back tomorrow to remove the skid plate, tank, and plastics. If I have some time left I will remove the exhaust and test fit the KPR exhaust I bought and see if I can make it work.

I am torn on permanently removing the tank plastics or not. I kind of like how i looks.

[Bill Hilly]

Have you tried turning the fender around? I figure you have.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Bill Hilly

Have you tried turning the fender around? I figure you have.

I did. The fender is square. I think the mounts on the forks are uneven front to back.

[JerryHawk250]

Drill new rear holes so that you can pivot the fender back.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Drill new rear holes so that you can pivot the fender back.

That's the plan, the issue is that the new holes will be a little too close to the old holes. Makes more sense just to slot them or open the hole bigger.

[Megadan]

Naked and filthy.



Bad news on the exhaust. it won't work without some real work. The head pipe is so much bigger than the aftermarket system, but it gets wider right at the downtube, and since it comes out straight that means it just barely touches. That's the easy thing to fix with a ball peen hammer.

The real issue is it needs to be about 3-4 inches longer going down to go under the frame. I had a feelin it wasn't long enough but sheesh lol.

I don't want to give up on the idea, but I am going to shelve it for now and just clean up the current exhaust. I may take the mid pipe in to have the adapter welded on for the muffler I bought.

[Megadan]

Update.

Got my cylinder and piston last Friday, but the head shipped from a different location and they took a few days to send
it out. It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow, so I can hopefully get that all done this weekend.

On the exhaust side of things, I am sad that the kpm exhaust won't work out without a good bit of modification, but I can either sell it or keep it for a later project.

Until then, I want to upgrade the size of the pipe for better airflow at higher rpm, and I think I found a good solution for a decent price. The pipe seems to expand in stages after the little expansion chamber, and has a proper clamped slip joint for the mid pipe with a flared end for a larger 51mm inlet muffler, which really opens up options for mufflers. It also has slotted flange holes so it shouldn't need to be drilled.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09FS...HAXH5HO1&psc=1

[Megadan]

Update:

Head arrived without issue. The porting work is excellent other than the exhaust could use a touch more polishing for my taste, but it will work out fine.

One little detail I neglected to mention previously is that I bought a DLX head. It gives me a nice spot to add a head temp sensor if I so desire, and was also cheaper than the standard head by 35 bucks to boot.

I was waiting on the exhaust to do all of the work, and now it too has arrived. The turn around and shipping times seem to be back to pre-covid levels now.

It's shaped a bit differently, but the pipe diameters are bigger. The old mid pipe fits inside of the new header with room to spare. The union between the header and mid pipe is clamped with a T-bolt clamp. The header and mid pipe are also shaped a bit differently, and should actually have better clearance for the airbox and on the clutch arm and engine case side of things. The flange is also slotted and fits the studs without any modification.

Obviously, I won't know for sure until I fit it, but it looks promising. It also looks pretty good with the muffler I bought for the KPM exhaust, which is what I want to run to try and keep the noise down a bit. The muffler the exhaust comes with is teeny tiny and would be rather loud.

[Sport Rider]

are you going to gut the cat before you install it?

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

are you going to gut the cat before you install it?

There is no cat in it as far as I can tell. I can double check with a wire, but it's fairly light which suggests to me it doesn't have one, much like the stoneman system.

[Megadan]

Scratch that, it does indeed have a cat in the header pipe.

Why must every single thing just lead to disappointment. Le Sigh as they say.

[Megadan]

The last couple of days after work, for a couple of hours each day, I have been trying to plug away at getting this bike done.

On Sunday, before I had to go run errands and the like, I decided to test fit my new exhaust. The mid pipe mount is the biggest single cause of most of my fitment issues. It needs to be rolled up to a better angle, and maybe tweaked a bit front to rear to mount properly and get the muffler angled away from the tire. Otherwise, it works out pretty well. I just need to make a short bracket for my chose muffler.

Keep in mind that nothing is tightened down, this is all a loose test fit.



The header pipe tucks up closer to the cylinder than the Stoneman exhast, but also aira higher over the engine so everything clears with room to spare.





Yesterday I went ahead and tore the top end off the engine and installed the new big bore cylinder and matching ported head.

It took me a scant 15 minutes to get to here.


And an hour or so after that to get it all back together. Gratuitous shiny parts picture was taken before I put the head back on.



Today was mainly just buttoning up the rest of the engine, mainly setting the valve lash and getting the valve cover on. Followed that up with remove some wiring I put on with the set of fog lights I decided to get rid of.

Finished up with a full tear down of the carb and a 20 minute session in a heated ultrasonic bath and a blow out. These cheaper US Cleaners are quite handy for doing medium to smaller carbs (and some firearm parts). I just do a gentle bath of water with a bit of Dawn soap in it, and it does a surprisingly good job.



I hope to be able to button up the intake side tomorrow and finish with a couple of wiring changes, chiefly installing a blade fuse holder for the main fuse. I used to have a small fuse block inside what is left of my hacked up airbox, but with the elimination of the fog lights I can convert it back to a single 10 amp unit, That little fuse box I was using was more trouble than it was helpful.

Hopefully I get it done before this weekend, but I suspect not. Plus, they are calling for rain most of the day Saturday anyway, so I can probably get it finished then if all else fails.

I have decided to try the new exhaust completely as-is for now and see how it performs. The new pipe having a cat made me sad, but after looking at it with a bore-scope I am a little hopeful as the passages through the cat are quite large compared to the stock catalyst, and the pipe opening up after it quite a lot means it should flow at least halfway decent. I have a couple of extra exhaust gaskets for the head, so if I feel it is holding me back, I will swap it back out and work on gutting the cat from it in the meantime while I ride the thing.