TOPIC:

Viton seals. There's a member here that sell them or you can go to eBay. I bought a full set of Doremi valves for a great price on there too. They are lighter than OEM so I didn't know how they would last. I bang the hell out of Bossie and she seems to like it. I bought Kibblewhite springs as well, glad I did with all the mis shifts I've done. Make sure he doesn't take out too much meat from the seats. Just enough for even color. Keep us up to date.
Steve

Yes! That's it! Viton seals. Thanks Steve!
Ness also said I should make sure the machinist knows about the valve stem height too. So, I'll give the shop a call in the morning just to make sure but Gary said they wouldn't do anything until after it ran through the "bath" tonight and they could give me an idea of what's going on. I'm definitely going to order those seals now. Like in 3, 2, 1...

Here's a link.
Steve
kzzone.com/valves.html

Nice! I swear KZR has become a new addiction (my wife is tapping her fingernails now, wondering if I'm ever going to get off this damn computer! )
OK. I see KZZone has about everything I could hope for, except maybe the actual valves or will the valves for the big boys fit my little 650?
Damn, I'm missing the shop manual by the minute. C'mon Mr.Postman! Hurry!

A quick update on the KZombie.
One week later-ish and so much has changed.
Turned out the valves were bent. Every single exhaust valve was bent according to the machine shop. They called me last Saturday after the head was cleaned and inspected. First. How cool that this machine shop is open on Saturday?!
I looked into sourcing replacement valves for the cylinder head and ran into many problems. I couldn't seem to find any. I resorted to ebay where I could find them but it was via buying 1 ex valve from seller "A", 2 ex valves from seller "B" and another ex valve from seller "C". I managed to find just one seller on ebay that had 4 intake valves together! When I added up all the valves and shipping I was over $300. That's depressing. I mean I know parts aren't cheap anymore but I couldn't stomach the idea of spending over $300 on parts, waiting a week for delivery and then machine shop services costs just to find out if this motor will run.
More hunting and I found a complete cylinder head, with camshafts and valve cover (earlier version without emissions reed valves) all for $100. Woot! The bonus is, this cylinder head had been ultrasonically cleaned. It looked pristine, so I gambled on it...
I figured, this way I'd get to side-step the later style emissions valve cover for a one piece and save almost $200 on the parts.
The new-to-me cylinder head combo arrived today and it was as good looking as the ebay pictures. It even came with the four carb mounts (with vacuum ports) installed and their associated clamps. I dismantled it and took it to the machine shop and spoke with Gary the motorcycle guy. Explained the dilemma with finding all the valves, in a timely fashion that I could afford to him and why I chose this route. He was cool with it. He said they'll get it machined no problems.
I'm still waiting on the viton valve stem seals so the machine shop cannot reassemble fully until I get them but at least things are moving forward again.
In the interim, I continued to clean-up the engine, drain the oil and was preparing to pull the cylinder bank for honing but I'm wavering on doing this now since everything else about the engine seems to check out even down to the oil draining clean, the clutch pack looking really good.
So I may just clean-up the piston crowns of carbon and go for a reassembly and see how it goes. If my compression readings don't pan-out then I'll pull it all back to the base case and have the cylinders honed and install with new rings. Still unsure on this though. I've read here that pulling the head means the seal(s) at the cylinder bank base have been compromised and so you should replace the base seals and gaskets (which makes perfect sense) so... motivation, motivation. Where are you motivation?

I knew KZombie wasn't going to be a quick restoration but sometimes I feel like I'm moving backwards 2 steps for every 1 forward...

Oh yeah, and then just to toss another wrench into the works; another lost puppy followed me home last night...

What do the bores look like and is there a ridge at the top?
Steve

The bores are smooth, no fingernail-dragging ridge at the TDC point. 11,000 mile motor....

Pour a little oil down the head studs and see if they'll seep. More often than not the barrels have to be pried off.
Steve

It's maybe lazy of me but I really don't mind pulling the cylinder bank off and replacing the lower seals and gasket because I already have them (I bought all the engine gaskets and seals back in 2007 expecting to need them). The issue for me is more about something that may seem silly to y'all and this is: I don't have 4 piston ring compressors here...

I've been trying to imagine the process of installing the cylinder bank, engine in frame, lowering the cylinder bank over the pistons and then ... FOUR freakin' pistons sitting there... How the hell do you slip 4 pistons and their compression and oil scraper rings into the cylinders all at once?
In the past, all my engine builds were done on the bench and I got to where I could install 4 pistons, one at a time into the cylinders and leave the skirts hanging out just enough so I could slip the wrist pins in through the con-rods and I'd use teflon wrist pin retainers.. It was a snap. But having the engine in the frame, cam chain to deal with and then loading 4 pistons so as not to damage 12 piston rings... I'm kinda' baffled. Do y'all use 4 ring compressors and press the cylinder bank down over all pistons at the same time?
Maybe I'm making a mountain of a mole hill here?

Two at a time. It should be in your manual.
Steve

When I did my CB550/4 I used tin cans ,topped and tailed ,then cut down the middle. Held in place with jubilee clips. It took a bit of jiggling about but it worked fine.( And I was a virgin at the time. My first full engine build ! )

A rainy day here in Central Texas so I couldn't mow the lawn. Darn.

KZombie's second head is still in the machine shop and so I thought I should probably get the sprocket off today so I could finally get on to cleaning up the frame for paint. I'm going to return this one to stock(ish) so no creative fab work or de-tabbing, just wire wheeling a few rough spots and sanding before prime and paint.
I actually started on this sprocket removal early this morning here on the forum. Reading through searched history for tips and tricks. I realized I didn't have a functional rear brake and I couldn't find the old chain but I dug through some of the tubs of parts and discovered my half inch drive ratchet stuff and finally in the last tub of parts at the bottom, the old chain I took off almost 9 years ago. Thankfully, I just rolled it up and put it in a baggie still with the removed link that I separated it by.

I put the chain onto the engine sprocket and wrapped it around the rear sprocket and prepared myself for some grunting to remove the 32mm nut. My 1/2" drive ratchet was waaaay too short to give me any decent leverage, so a quick trip to the store for a breaker bar. Problem is, I still didn't have a rear brake to hold the chain loop still. Took a little noodling but I finally came up with the idea of slipping two large pry bars through the mag wheel, rotating the wheel until it bound against it on the trailing arm. I sucked-up the rear axle forward so there was no slop and commenced to pulling. Puuulllling... Puuuuuuuuullllllling! Nothing. Nada. Not even a squeak of movement. I've been soaking that nut with PB for, geez, ever since I took off the engine covers.

Here's a quickie vid of what happens:


Notice the rear wheel compressing against the shock (there's only one shock on it; far side). I'd swear this chain will snap before this nut will let go. Guess, I'll be hauling the frame to the machine shop, when they call and ask if anyone there can lend me a pneumatic for 30 seconds?
I don't want to resort to heating up the nut with a torch for fear that I'll damage anything behind like the oil seal or whatever.

Now I know what Doktor Von Frankenstein musta' felt like in his lab. No good deed goes unpunished!