Rebuild engine from boxes

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Excalibur
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#211

Post by Excalibur »

Finished intake manifold. I machined the sleeves from solid extrusion round bar.
Looks like it fits heads well.
ups1.jpg
ups2.jpg
Another step closer...
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Mongrel505558
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#212

Post by Mongrel505558 »

Very nice work on the manifold.
RooDog
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#213

Post by RooDog »

Excalibur wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 1:11 pm Finished intake manifold. I machined the sleeves from solid extrusion round bar.
Looks like it fits heads well.
ups1.jpg

ups2.jpg
Another step closer...
I don't understand what you are doing here....
That SU manifold should already fit a Shovelhead with rubber band heads....
....RooDog....
Last edited by RooDog on Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#214

Post by RUBONE »

Looks great. I have one of those old SU manifolds around here somewhere as well.
Excalibur
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#215

Post by Excalibur »

RooDog wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 4:57 pm I don't understand what you are doing here....
That SU manifold should already fit a Shovelhead with rubber band heads....
....RooDog....
RooDog, that manifold started out life as one of the Evo variants. I'd bought it local along with an Eliminator SU and at first glance I believed it was Shovel. Once I discovered it wasn't going to fit, I researched manifolds in general and found it appears to fit Evo engines use '84 -'89 27019-83. Its' hosetails were about 1/8" smaller OD and about 1/8" longer. Luckily it was otherwise identical. My solution was to sleeve and trim length. Looks like a nice fit to heads but anyway we'll see.

Hoping to get time for some more tinkering this evening. It's Panhead riding time today and Murray is bringing the '52. Will snap a pic or 2..
Excalibur
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#216

Post by Excalibur »

Pushed ahead, now it runs:

Shovel first start up vid

Couple of days work yet with wiring, seat, tanks etc. So far so good.
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#217

Post by nmaineron »

Good Job! That's a great feeling! :D
RooDog
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#218

Post by RooDog »

Excalibur wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 10:47 pm
RooDog wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 4:57 pm I don't understand what you are doing here....
That SU manifold should already fit a Shovelhead with rubber band heads....
....RooDog....
RooDog, that manifold started out life as one of the Evo variants. I'd bought it local along with an Eliminator SU and at first glance I believed it was Shovel. Once I discovered it wasn't going to fit, I researched manifolds in general and found it appears to fit Evo engines use '84 -'89 27019-83. Its' hosetails were about 1/8" smaller OD and about 1/8" longer. Luckily it was otherwise identical. My solution was to sleeve and trim length. Looks like a nice fit to heads but anyway we'll see.

Hoping to get time for some more tinkering this evening. It's Panhead riding time today and Murray is bringing the '52. Will snap a pic or 2..
OK, I see it now. The groove in the spigots should be the tell that it is not for a Shovelhead. There are always manifolds listed on eBay for Shovelheads that are, like yours, actually for early Evo Compliance Fitting Intakes. There are many vendors who are either ignorant, or simply lying about what their parts are and what they fit. One must be careful there, and at swap meets too. When shopping one must have educated oneself about this stuff we here deal with on a daily basis.
I't good that you have machine tools to make parts fit. That why the parts are called "cussed 'em"....
....Best Wished.....RooDog....
Excalibur
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#219

Post by Excalibur »

Finally got the Shovel completed enough to get it off the table. I rode it in 5 or 6 short rides each time coming back to make adjustment, tweak or improve something. Engine runs fairly well. It has much longer legs than the Pan. Gears a little whiney. Clutch is fair with room for improvement.
Handling is good. It's very stable and steers well. Front suspension needs improving. Haven't even looked at the fork oil yet. Brakes improving with each outing. Neither wheel has any balance weights and the rubber is somewhat over 10 years old, something I want to address sooner than later.
Starting is easy. Engine behavior excellent. Feeling satisfied at the moment but there's a few jobs to attend to as I get bike into proper roadworthy shape.
ss1.jpg
Behind are our Pans ready for a ride. Plan is to get these bikes out Friday for another run. :D
ss2.jpg
Next mission is to get bike Vinned.

Hope this is interesting. Thanks to all who helped or wished me well. The tips and encouragement were well appreciated. Thanks!
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#220

Post by nifty »

Excalibur wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 10:28 am

Next mission is to get bike Vinned.

Are you saying neither frame nor engine has a legit VIN?
I like the jiffy/sidestand :lol:

Nifty
Excalibur
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#221

Post by Excalibur »

VIN? As the rules are, because registration has lapsed, it will mean an aluminum VIN tag will be fixed to the frame, mandatory. VIN tags have only been in existence for about 25 years so all vehicles prior to that were rego'd from their frame/chassis/engine number.
Bike has an old license plate, rego label and Warrant-of-Fitness label and just as well because without verifiable history, the amount of hoop jumping necessary would drive you nuts. As it stands, I may still need Police clearance, Vintage car club cert of authenticity, brake cert, lighting cert, Justice-of-the-peace clearance, previous owner declaration, ABS exemption cert and I can't wait to find out what else.
Am feeling fortunate there's not much in the way of modifications because that's a proper can of worms. Am even considering reducing front end length so it looks less modified. I could do that by removing/reducing preload spacers.

Jiffy stand? Yes that's a very impromptu solution hurriedly devised as we brought the bike out.
Can't imagine carrying that around, strapped to the pillion seat :P
Excalibur
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#222

Post by Excalibur »

Happy days, bike passed inspection. Just had to improve front brake.
Turned out paperwork was relatively easy. It needed a brake certificate and a statutory declaration of ownership. Though it wasn't requested I added a Police clearance certificate because it was easy and free.
VIN inspection fee $260, elapsed time 4 days. I have 2 years to license it. Good news is on Jan 1st bike becomes officially 40 year old so license fee goes down from $600/yr to just $53/yr. (NZD)

How it looks now.
fm.jpg
Taken about a year. Still work in progress
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RooDog
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#223

Post by RooDog »

Does that bike retain the OE VIN, or did NZ assign it's own numbers? Just curious.....
....RooDog....
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#224

Post by Panacea »

The tags here in MN are $10 bucks a year for bikes
Excalibur
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Re: Rebuild engine from boxes

#225

Post by Excalibur »

RooDog wrote: Fri Sep 09, 2022 1:07 pm Does that bike retain the OE VIN, or did NZ assign it's own numbers? Just curious.....
Looking at the string of numbers on the tag, the last few digits vaguely resemble the frame number. Unique to the vehicle would be all they'd be concerned about I suppose. I'm so happy to get it through the process. Worst part for me was having to leave bike there for 4 days..
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