i really want to do the 350 kit and i dont want to pay somebody to do it. My friend kevin works as a mechanic at the local kawasaki dealer and he could probably help me if i need it. but i really want to do it on my own. I like working on my truck and my bike and i have some snap-on blue point tools. and i will be getting a torque wrench soon. Anybody have any input on what are some of the more difficult parts of doing it or what to really be careful with or pay attention to? Thanks guys!

 

It's really not hard if you take your time, read the guides, and have a basic understanding of how motors work, and how to disassemble/re-assemble.

The torque wrench is needed for the head bolts at minimum.

Really there's not much to it.. In a nutshell - not mentioning little details: Drain fluids, remove plastics, gas tank, carb & exhaust, remove valve cover, cam cap, cams. Tie up cam chain. Remove head (6 bolts), remove cylinder. Remove old piston, put rings on new one and put new one in, put new cylinder on, put head on, torque, put everything back together, fill it up, and enjoy.

It took me about 5hrs to do it the first time. Now I can get the head off in under an hour. I could probably do the whole big bore swap in about three hours give or take.

If you have the right tools, clean garage, and the inarwebs - there's no reason to pay anyone to do the install... Unless you're jhoffy. What ever happened to him?

Good luck!

 

cool thanks larry. how do you get the piston disconnected from the con rod?

 

THAT is not hard...removal of a circlip. However, make SURE you have the guts of your engine covered completely. My first one popped off to anywhere....although I had rags over the engine, I should have had it better covered. Lucky for me, it hung up on top of a radiator hose! It could have been bad news. Read up on all the 351 exchanges, take your time, don't do anything you don't understand, and you'll be fine.

 

gotcha.. just so i get a better understanding on these motors. it has a overhead cam i imagine.. so if you take off the cam chain then the hole top end should pretty much come out right? and how do you install rings on a piston? i see that they sit around the piston all sprung out?

 

Double overhead cam.

The piston rings must be in the right order, in the correct groove, and the opening should be in the correct orientation. The directions make it simpler than it sounds.

Go to the sticky section and study every post on Big Bore swap-over. It's very valuable in determining your abilities to tackle this. It's not THAT hard.

 

ok great. thank you!

 

I recently installed for the Kawi 300cc kit with a mechanic friend. Having done it once I would say it would be pretty simple to do again. However at a minimum I would have your mate check everything before closing that engine up.

I pulled the header pipe, drained coolant, plastics, fuel tank, radiator fan and the rocket cover. My mate arrived and he had the new piston in and idling an hour later.

In retrospect I would have found getting the rings in (and in on the correct way) the hardest part. I really wanted to do it myself, but most likely I learnt more watching someone do the internals that knew lots of little tricks, and the right way to do it.

 

cool thanks for the info. where do you guys get new cam chains from? i found oem ones from bike bandit for 88 bucks. Think i might start tearin it apart soon even tho i dont have the kit yet..

 

You might want to until you have your new parts on hand,before you tear down the motor.that way it will be all fresh in your mind.
I have taken stuff apart before and for some reason or another...its been a couple of weeks until i getback to the project..........sometimes you can forget the sequence.

Might be just me though