Spawn Build Continued

Here is the exhaust side of the same piston. Not bad, but not good either:

Here is the PTO side piston. It has (in my opinion) a lot of blowby past the rings. That leads me to believe this motor was really hammered before the rings had a chance to seat. The top end doesn't have many miles on it, but it was abused to be sure.

You can see (almost) the scoring on the cylinder walls down each side that runs along the edge of each side of the exhaust port. You can drag your fingernale and on the lines......again.....not good.

I think the original damage (the broken parts, impact damage, etc) was done due to a piston failure. My guess (and this is strictly a guess) is, by looking at the damage, that the original damage was done due to a lean down condition as there are signs of ring impacting the domes and inside the exhaust port. I think is what probably damaged the RAVE valves. They were reused.

The engine was then rebuilt last season. My guess is that the current rebuild was not broken in properly and ran too hard when cold.

Again, I don't what happened for sure. It is just my own speculation based on my own previous experiences.

I will be putting lighter RAVE springs in due to the higher elevation I will be running this motor. I am setting it up for 7,000+ feet.

Regardless of what springs should be in, they should both be the same. Otherwise one is opening sooner than the other.

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I just got back into town from Hay Days. It could be just me, but (to me) it didn't seam that as many people were there. There were a lot of people there, it just seamed a little thinner.

Stopped by Majors Friday night and said "Hey" to Jim Phelan and Mark Messinbrink. I also stopped by and said "hey" to Big John and Scott with US Chrome.

I got a bunch of repair parts, but only 4 sets of shocks to sell. I couldn't find any rear shocks for reasonable prices. People were asking more to sell than what I can get out of them AFTER I completely go through them. Most piggy-back shocks were set at $350 for the pair with no springs. C36 race shocks were being set at $250 each.

I did get some nice aluminum bodied, front ski shocks. I also found a bunch of used 90lb single rate springs. We got there at 5am to make sure we got a parking spot close to the exit. We ended up making 4 trips back to the truck to unload the wagon. Here are the shocks and springs I got:

I also got a ton of stuff for the mountain sled. I got the belt guard, the pipe, HPS can, recoil mounting ring, headlight, fender panels, oil tank, coolant tank, rear rack w/tail light, RAVE valves and an almost brand new set of shocks.

I also picked up a nice set of aluminum bodies ski shocks for the wife's 440 fan. I also have a mechanical reverse kit to install and a E-Start to install on that sled before winter.

Here is the stuff I picked up for Spawn:

I took $1500 with me, $220 for the hotel for both nights, $120 to eat at The Melting Pot on Friday, $10 parking downtown, $90 for gas, $30 to get in, $10 event parking, $60 to eat at Red Robin. $30 for food and beer at event.

I got all that stuff in the pictures, and when I got home, I had about $267 left over. I got all the above stuff for about $663. I don't really count the other stuff in as the wife and have been going to to this event for many years. It is a short get away for us. We would be going even I wasn't buying anything. We stopped as several quilt shops for the wife on Friday, had a nice dinner out at a nice restaraunt on Friday night. We don't get to do a bunch of stuff together for a whole weekend, this is one of our get aways. Do I have a great wife, or what?! LOL

The grass drags, the new models, the factory displays, the free-style jumping....open beer......it's all good.

The cylinders can be fixed. I dropped by the US Chrome booth and showed Scott. He can fix them. The guy I bought the motor from is paying for the pistons, rings, wrist pins, bearings and gaskets. I am paying to fix the cylinders. I am happy with that resolution.

I am going to drop in a rebuilt crank and new PTO and MAG seals.

Walking around Hay Days is a great time, except that you have to walk about 10 miles to get all of it. LOL. The place is HUGE. It took us about an hour and half to find Big John. If you haven't ever been there, it is really hard to explain just how big the place is.

10 miles may be an exageration, but my honest guess would we walked all of 5 miles. We left our hotel at 5:30a so we could get a close spot. We knew we would be making many trips to unload at the truck. The gates opened at 7a. We hiked all the way to one end. We walked up and down the contingency rows and it took (like I said) about an hour and half to find Big John. We only took a break for lunch, I had a foot long hot dog, and the wife had a corn dog. We walked the entire day. Up and down the rows. We left at close - 5pm. 10 miles may not be far off.

I know my knees are feeling it a little today. But my ankles (from the uneven ground and sand) are barking good. The new knees are stiff today, but not really hurting. Last year I couldn't even walk for 3 days. So the new knees are a definate improvement. They are getting better every week. They are only 4 months old right now. Monday I start my new schedule, and hitting the gym 3 days a week for the first month, then it is 5 days a week.

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Sorry about no updates, still collecting parts and I am just burried in shock work for customers.

Motor update:

US Chrome has the cylinders fixed and complete. They are at Big John's right now. I also sent him a dome to get the correct parts. I am just waiting for his new shipment of pistons to come in. I should have that stuff back in a couple of weeks - tops.

I am waiting on my rebuilt crank to get here from Bombardier.

I have the lower cases cleaned up, a new recoil retianer ring (from ebay) and a new recoil (from ebay).

I need to get the head off to Kelsey to get my stock head cut for the cheater domes.

I will get pictures of all the new stuff I have collected.

I have been swamped with shocks so I haven't had any time to start on anything.

I still have to get my trail sled's tail light figured out, the e-start and reverse in the wife's sled and the finishing touches on the old mountain sled.


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Here are the pictures to bring everyone current:

I just got the braces from Matt Santwire. He is having me try some more experimental bracing. This is a picture of all the braces, Matt's and Ski-Doo's. These are not only all the 440X braces, but additional, beefier stuff from Matt.

Here is the wiring harness I got from ebay, and the MPEM with DESS I got from here on Dootalk:

The RTI case ended up not fitting.� I called the company and he only made them for Polaris sleds.� I didn't feel like messing with all the Polaris stuff, so the guy I bought if from refunded my money.

These are the two chaincases I have. I will be cutting them in half and having them TIG'd back together to make a longer case:

Here are the pictures of the new airbox I got. It is from an 07 Summit. It has the larger opening and the new snorkel:

Here is the new wave brake rotor I got from my Ski-Doo dealer. Someone had ordered it a couple of years ago, and they gave me a smoking deal on it. I also have the Oilite bushings I got from Goodwin Performance. My trail sled also has these on them.

I got the steering stuff from ebay for a little bit of nothing. Everything is nice and tight.

 

I got a 440X console from the Dootalk picnic:

I already showed the shocks and springs, but here they are complete. I rebuilt and revalved them for my riding.

I decided to not put the controls on the old mountain sled. They work on the sled, I was just going to change them over. This will keep from buying it again.

Here is the engine in its current state. I am just waiting on the reman crank from Bombardier. Once that is here, the case will get new PTO and MAG side seals, new ISO grease and the crank trued to 0.001".

Hopefully, within the next couple of weeks, the motor will be complete.

I forgot - Casey (from HP Wraps) got the proof of the new wrap back. This is the actual finished wrap.

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Today was pretty productive. I have a few days with no customers' shocks to work on, so I needed to take advantage and get a bunch of stuff done before the next round comes in.

I got a new crank from Ski-Doo for a rebuilt price. I also got all the parts back from being hot tanked and cleaned. The Iso grease showed up today so it was time to start putting it back together.

I got the lower end all put together. I also installed the new recoil ring and the new recoil. I installed all new seals. The PTO and MAG main seals were replaced. The waterpump gasket was also replaced.

Everything was cleaned before being put back together. Here are the shots from today:

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Kelsey got the cheater done up. I should be getting that in a couple of days, he finished it up earlier this week.

The cylinders are done at US Chrome and at Big Johns waiting for the new pistons to get the correct base gasket.

Here are the shots of finishing up. I put the MAG and sensors and flywheel.

I got the RK Tech cheater head today. Kelsey does an AWESOME job.....

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I just spent 13 hours today in the shop cleaning and putting stuff away. I have the old mountain sled and the trail sled off to the side. I have a clear shop to start work on the new project.

I just have to put a new reverse chaincase in my wife's sled, and add E-start then I can start the actual build process.

I am going to be bending my own tunnel on the this sled, too. It is going to be similar to a VanAmburg Boondocker style tunnel.

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OK. As stated above, I picked up my pistons from Cool Concepts. Rick does excellent work, excellent prices and superior work. Kudos to him.

Anyway. I done with the shocks around 6p, so I decided it was time for a little "me" time. So I dropped Rob Zombie Dragula on the CD player and started to put the motor together.

This is a good shot of the quality of work Big John does. I can't imagine anyone taking of business better than he does. Big John and Sled Head Racing are top shelf all the way.

Kelsey's head machining is second to none. Everything bolted in place, everything dead on....and it still looks like an ordinary 800HO motor.....mo-ahahahahahahaaaaa.

I assembled the motor with Ski-Doo mineral oil. That is all the all the oil I use, even when riding. That is another thread at another time.

Here are the shots from this evening's build:

Here are the pistons back from Cool Concepts with the Thermal Barrier coating. Big John's pistons come with poly on the side skirts.

The old RAVEs were junk from piston contact. So I have BJ machine some new ones from a good set I had here.

These are the new caged bearings that went into the brand new 800HO rod:

 

Ready for final assembly with bearings, wrist pins and circlips in place:

 

This is installing the Boyesen reeds. I will get stainless bolts to hold them upon install in the sled:

I always use Nordloc washers on the Y-Pipe. I have the pipe installed for now to keep dirt and the like out. I will be sending that in to be coated in matte black high temp along with the expansion chamber and HPA can.

Done....looks completely stock.

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OK. So I got the garage rearranged today after finishing up the wife's sled. I put new shocks all the way around on that, HPG's in the front, and FOX in the rear, put new hyfax on it, removed (meaning had to press out the rear axle) and re-greased all those up, put an E-Start on it, put mechanical reverse in it and it is ready to roll.

I also did the once over on the trail sled and changed fluids, as I did on the mountain sled. I just have to hook up the throttle cable and put the axle bolts in that it is ready to roll.

The shock business, the wife's sewing room, her sled, my sleds have been keeping me hopping. I took off an extra day last week to get caught up. That gave me 5 days off from Toyota and I got a TON of stuff finished up.

I also got Spawn on the rack.

I put the chaincase on it, put the track under it and put the axle in place to check clearance. I have just short of a half inch clearance. I am going to run with that, then I don't have to make a new chaincase for the drop and roll. That made life a little easier.

This week I am going to work on getting it stripped down and the tunnel cut off. I can then get that over the powder coaters. Then I can do the tunnel in one piece and send that off then connect them when they are back.

Here are the shots from today.

After getting everything set up.� I wanted to see what I had for clearance with the chaincase, driver shaft and track installed.� All my preliminary measures said it would fit.� All the research I have done says it wouldn't.

After all was installed, I have 3/8" clearance with no tension on the track.� I am not going to make a custom chain case, and can use the stock chain case.

I did some test fitting tonight. I wanted to make sure the A-Arm bushings and aluminum sleeves fit the delrin bushings.

I also wanted to make sure all the West Coast Sled stuff bolted up. Of course it all fell right into place.

I have the A-Arms installed for fit, with the shocks and the titanium springs and the Pilot 6.9 skis (that aren't exactly in great shape like the seller claimed.)

Here are some shots of the test fittings. This weekend the bulkhead is coming apart and the tunnel is getting cut down so I can get the braces installed and to the powder coater.

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