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I put the top end back together tonight, kicked twice, started fine. Cylinder was replaced, new Wiseco top end, RB head mod ready for break-in. Almost 3 weeks since the initial tear down. I did thoroughly clean the cylinder after the honing and ran it through a cycle in the dishwasher. Sparkling clean and no water marks!

That Jet Dry is awesome stuff! Good job on the work.

Great to hear Brad... new Wiseco and all!

Okay, I don't get the diswasher trick... Whaz up with dat?

After a honing you must get all the oil and stone residue out. There is residue in the ports as well. The dishwasher thoroughly cleans and rinses the entire cylinder. A quick compressed air blow out, lightly oiled, followed by a stint in the oven at 250 dried it right up. I waited until it was "golden brown". No wait, that was the pizza! Anyways, it came out "spotlessly" clean. One warning, the oil sorta evaporated in the oven into a smell that made the whole house smell like a Arena Cross starting gate. Ummmmm mmmmm, it was heaven. The wife was soooo happy about all this. Not to mention all the work I did on the kitchen table before hand polishing the port openings and assembling the KIPS. Why does she insist my mother was never married?

Makes sense to me, thanks for the tip. However, I doubt I will ever be allowed to use the kitchen appliances to do this type of work. I guess it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission in cases such as these.

My wife saw me empying the dishwasher and told me how sweet I was to help out. I just smiled.

LOL!

And then you asked, 'Honey! Which cupboard does this go in?'


Why a 'replaced' cylinder?...I fergot if you already said.
I know yours was 'toast'..but you got a new one instead of boring/replating the old one?

Was any thought given to getting a 200 cylinder (if 'replaced' means 'new')?

I suppose answers are in some post I missed....

My cylinder and piston was shipped to Kawi so they could inspect for warranty. They shipped a new cylinder back (220 for 220). I installed my Wiseco piston. I didn't care that I didn't get the piston back, I was never going to put it or a new OEM back in. My dealer had to put the hone in though.

No kidding!! I knew there was a question about it..but didn't know it was resolved in your favor.

Any explanation? Excuse?

What a deal. Boring/replating is expensive enough. Buying a new one is ridiculously expensive.

Free is good! ;)

I'm not saying that the two enclosed e-mail's I sent had any sway in this issue, but...both Jeff Fredette and Ron Black sent email responses back to me saying exactly the same thing...and that is that Kawi has serious issues with their cylinders, both had seen this before and that Kawi should eat it. Jeff stated that virtually every cylinder he has seen has scratches that he attributes to "dirty assembly conditions". And also as we all know, the plating can break off around the ports. Even on a brand spankin new cylinder I found casting areas that needed to be filed off before they fell off. I suspect there could be sand left over from the casting molds up in the ports. There are sand specks in the cylinder paint on the exterior. This is why Kawi says in the owners manual to pull the top end off after 2 hours. If you do, and find something, they will take care of it if they deem it severe enough. If you don't pull it , and it breaks, you may or may not be covered. I was lucky mainly due to the emails. And this doesn't even cover the piston problem.

I bought the cylinder that I put on my bike off eBay. What was rather odd was that the plating looked perfect, no scratches of any kind and the ports were chaffered nicely. I thought it was very odd that the cylinder looked as good as it did. Even the runout was only .010 microns. I would say I got really lucky on that cylinder if I don't screw it up somehow after my rebuild!
I have no reason to believe that this cylinder has ever been touched because of the original plating.
Now, I have 2 other cylinders that the ports aren't chaffered at all. I don't know why these are so different except for maybe the year of production. But, there is absolutely no difference in the castings so I don't see why the year would make a difference. Any chance that Kaw outsources these?

Any chance?

Does anybody make anything anymore? It's not like a 'Ford' is made by 'Ford.' It's largely assembled by 'Ford' from a bunch of different parts made by lots of folks.

Which was the whole point of what Henry started years back. He made nothing new...just put stuff together.

No reason to think Kawi doesn't make their 'own' cylinders. But, no reason to think they do, either.

bradf:

In any case, good to hear things are back ontrack for 'ya!