Powder coat is the best but it's also the most work. Since the coating is baked on you have to remove everything that could be affected by the heat, so the job would involve splitting the cases. It's not like paint where you can just mask most stuff off. But if I were to do it again, I'd do the work and coat it. The engine paint doesn't stick the best, powder coat would probably last a lot longer.
Thanks for all the advise and the pictures, it looks really nice!! My crankcases are already opened because the shift axle was worned out, so I had to replace it, hopefully I had a spare one in my "collection". I will probably have to remove all the gasket and oil seal anyway, the bike is 43K and was use in a urban environment, the place where they spray Salt on the road during winter time, so the Engine is quite corroded... I hope I can find these specific paints in Europe though!
It is indeed quite cheap, the additional one I bought with two engines(without camshaft) was tagged 300euros, I bought mainly because the side panels are very rare and You always need little parts wich are missing or damaged here and there...
The used cylinder and piston that I bought off Ebay arrived today. It was listed as an xr xl cylinder and I wasn't really paying attention to the xr part of the description being all excited over the xl part. I started measuring the cylinder for out of round and taper, but the first thing I see is that the bore is right around 97mm. So now what I am wondering since the cylinder seems to be in great shape, is it possible bolt it onto the what I believe is the xl connecting rod? Just to confuse the issue further, when I disassembled the engine there were three head gaskets stacked up under the head. Also the case to deck height is about .1mm taller ( as best I can measure ) on the xr cylinder.
I can't really tell from the photo, but that looks like an '88-90 XR600 jug that is Nikasil-plated aluminum. It's an unusual part to have, but no, it's not practical for use on an XL600R. Aside from the bore being only 97mm, the head bolt threads are larger than '83-87 engines have. All the production cylinders are the same height, so really only the head bolts are a problem.
Had my LMF 18 months now and She is finally ready for the trip. Starting to love this bike somewhat........ www.xllentadventures.co.uk
Ebay sellers... They always list xr and xl parts as interchangeable when not many parts are. I'd complain to the seller and make them give your money back. It's not right to list a part under a bike name that it doesn't fit. No excuse for that sort of thing. Learn something about the parts your selling you dumb lazy ebay hacks. Weird, like an MX bike motor. Also the connecting rod is the same between the XL and XR but the wrist pin height is set different in each of the pistons to make up the stroke difference so you cannot interchange them. You may be able to hog out an XR bore to take a 100mm XL piston (which isn't very practical), but not that Nikasil plated jug you have. On a side note I wonder how much less that Nikasil plated cylinder weighs vs a regular iron bore.
I have a 1983 XL600 cylinder for sale. Only had 9,000 miles on it. Light surface rust that I can hone off if needed. PM me.
The precision scale I have now doesn't read that high, but I will take it to a friend in a day or two and post the weights.
Flipflopdog.... Nice lookin' ride ya got there, if it runs as good as it looks you are ready for anything.... Except riding in the dark with that roll in front of the headlight! (sorry, I HAD to find something wrong with it). Is the roll your tent? If you do get caught in the dark it looks like it would be easy enough to tie it in the back on top. You DO carry extra straps don't you?
Wish I had seen that a couple of months ago. The two bikes we bought where missing most of the plastics, lights, exhaust, just lots of small stuff. I am sure that we spent well over what you are asking buying it all piece meal like that. At this point the bikes are complete, that is I have all the pieces except for the two exhaust heat shields of one bike and the license/tail light assembly for the other. The revised plan on the cylinder is to buy a new oversize piston and then talk to Engine Dynamics in Petaluma ( as recommended by mcma111 ) about re-boring the original.
