Put your wrenches down...take a deep breath...and step away from the motorcycle.

 

Sounds like you got lots of motor work ahead of you..

Good luck.

 

okay so for anyone's reference, when installin a big bore kit for someone UNSURE, that ask's themselves "What's the worst that could happen?"

1. Used the wrong head gasket
2. Dropped a valve shim, reinstalled head without knowing.
3. Installed piston ring upside down.
4. Dropped a head bolt washer down the timing chain area.
5. Broke the timing chain (not while running thank goodness).
6. Broke stock piston while reinstalling.
7. Lost head install guide pin and lodge in between camshaft lobe and spring cap. Crushed but no damage to head or components.

So you got a good deal on a big bore kit? think again.

Big bore kit with new piston and rings and fresh bore and hone. $200
Head gasket overnighted $70
C-Clips $12
Valve Shim $12
Cam Chain $77
New stock piston and rings and c clips gaskets $160

What almost happened:

Head and valve destroyed along, possible rod/ cylinder $1500 +/-

 

Woooowww.. Jesus man! How did that all happen? Were you just rushing? Or just bad luck? How do you break a piston? How do you break the timing chain?

That's just nuts!

 

did you have to install the rings on your bigbore kit? I would have thought the kit came with rings installed? Did yours come with a ring upside down?

Did the engine run long with a missing valve shim? I would have thought that would ruin a cam also.

Look at the good side. You probably learned a lot about turning wrenches.
Cheers Jim

 

just bad luck and a hot garage and other factors of WTF. Well the rings I removed to check and reinstalled. The stock piston somehow I must have smacked somewhere and broke it off and didn't realize. I found the piece on the floor. I dint run the motor for more than 3 seconds during the ticking from valve shim missing. I broke the timing chain by dropping the head bolt washer down by the timing chain. I found a low hour one for1/4 of the price. But i know everything about the bike except for the transmission.

 

Well I'm reinstalling the big bore and getting new gaskets and all that. And the it just sounded like valve tick. But loud. I'm bout to tell Kawasaki how hardcore their materials are.

 

That's awesome. You definitely gained some experience with this motor You should be able to tear down and rebuild quickly now. I did it a couple times as well, it goes faster each time

If you don't have one, get one of those telescoping magnets. They come in handy for fishing things out of dark holes.

 

.

I found it handy to put the valve cam bucket on top of a magnet insert the shim and then use the magnet to place the bucket on top of the valve. Then Slide the magenet off to the side to remove. That way ship is sure to be installed in the right place. As I recall there is one or two of the cam buckets that are much easier to line up this way.
Cheers Jim

 

I timed myself one day, plastic to rod/crank in 15 minutes no lie.