9/23/11 Waterlogged

The SV650 is a great bike. It's versatile, reliable, cheap to buy and cheap to run. It has one HUGE weakness though: water. More specifically, rain.

Lately my bike has been less and less tolerant of rain. Usually this means it turns itself into the dreaded SV325. An SV325 is and SV650 that is running on one of its two cylinders. This problem is fairly common, hence the name. This is usually caused by water getting into the deep spark plug socket of the front cylinder and drowning the connection to the front plug. Up until a month ago, I could just ride it until the water dried up and then my bike would come back to life again, like coughing out a cold.

Recently, it has been slow to come back to life. I figured I had run it on one cylinder too long and fouled the front plug, so I removed it. Looking at the plug, there was certainly grime on it, but it wasn't typical engine grime, it was to dry and dusty looking. Shining the flashlight into the plug hole I saw this.

Apparently the front wheel had kicked up a substantial amount of road grit up into the front cylinder. There is a drain hole down there for the water and grit to drain out, but it must have clogged. Because I had inevitably gotten grit and grime into the front cylinder by removing the plug, I took a step back and thought about how I was going to fix this without damaging my engine.

The next day, I made an extension for the shopvac out of a vaccum hose and very successfully removed all visible grit. I then cranked the engine for a while with the plug out and the vacuum running in an attempt to get anything that had fallen into the cylinder.

Satisfied that I had done all that could be done, I put the bike back together and started it up, hoping for all to be well.

But it wasn't.

It ran on one cylinder still, for a while, then on two, but poorly. The bike barely idled, and when revved it would die. I lifted the front of the tank to see that the carbs looked ok, and after about 30 seconds, it started to run well again.

Convinced that it just had to clear its throat, I dropped the tank back down, and started to get ready to test it out....when it started running like shit again. Then the gears started turning in my head. It ran well with the tank up, which raised the sump of the tank. Sounds like water might be in the tank.

I opened the gas cap, and the little hole that water is supposed to drain through was, again, clogged with grime. This causes the water to pool around the cap seal and find its way into the tank.

I cleared the drain, then pulled the tank so I could drain it, and sure enough there was a ton of water in there. you can see the denser, clearer water sitting at the bottom of this bottle. Before dumping the tank, I drained about half a liter of water from it.

I haven't put everything back together yet, but I am confident that the problem will FINALLY be solved.

Fingers crossed




-W.W. SBSS

9/14/11 Overdue Update

It has been entirely too long since I have updated my blog. I'd like to apologize to both of my followers (Hi mom!) for being away for so long.

That isn't to say that I haven't been in and around my shop lately. Last week I picked up another motorcycle. I may have an addiction. I found this clean 1979 Honda CB650 on craigslist. It is much better suited to the cafe racer treatment than the 1984 CB700SC I last purchased, so I jumped at the opportunity.

This also means that I am simply going to get the CB700 running well and sell it sooner than later. To this end, last night I cleaned and rebuilt the carbs.

Over the weekend, I went to the NYZCC (New York Z Car Club) BBQ. As always, seeing the Z guys and watching the finished, running cars lit a fire under me. There were some very interesting cars in attendance.

 In addition to the usual crowd, the first production Z ever sold to the public, VIN# 13, stopped by to say hello.

Also, this CRAZY little Datsun Roadster, showed up with no hood. This thing was SR20det powered, and put down 387hp at the wheels without the installed nitrous! This in a car that originally weighed 1984lbs and had 96hp from the factory. The owner said he could spin the wheels in 4th, and that when he dyno tested the car, it twisted the car enough to crack the paint below the rear edge of the door, which you can see in the picture. All this on stock brakes and 225 tires, scary!

I have also decided I need to make room for the cars in my future. I can't stick with my current rusty Z chassis, so I am pulling the last bits out of it in the next week or so, and getting rid of the chassis. This coming weekend I will be looking at a possible new chassis to work on. It belongs to the father of a friend, so I should be able to get a good deal on it. Here's hoping it's in good shape!

Also, I am going to sell my other Z. I bought this 77 280z 2+2 about 4 years ago. It is a pretty damn nice car...except for the fact that the chassis is so rusty that part of the frame moves when you brake. This will make an AWESOME parts car for someone, but I really have no need for it, and there is no chance that I'm actually going to get to fixing the rust on this one, since its worse than my 72.

This should free up some funds and space to dedicate to my new Z and the inevitable parts car that I pull the engine out of for it.


In other news, last night I also installed what's known as a 'Z tube' in my G35. The 350Z and G have the same engine but, as the G is a luxury car, it is expected to be much quieter. One change the engineers at nissan made was to fit an intake tube to attenuate some of the natural engine sounds. Some engineer probably spent months working on the shape of this tube, getting it to fit in the tight engine bay, as well as dampen the intake noises correctly, only for the entire sport oriented G community to go out and replace it with a simple tube.

Here are a couple comparison videos, the change is a little hard to pick up on the video, but there is more 'burble' now. Cheap and sweet little modification.

-W.W. SBSS