I would like to peer at the cylinder walls and am wondering how much camera can fit through the spark plug holes. Installed a hammer 1275 kit 65 miles ago, noticed a reduvtion in power yesterday. Will do a full inspection and fluid/filter change this week. Want to peek at the bores without pulling heads.

 

Can't help you on the boroscope, but I may be able to provide some insight into your issues. From the "been there - done that" department I've smoked two Sportster conversions and one Evo, all three times from running too lean at highway speeds. The telltale sign is aluminum from the piston scoring the walls of the cylinders really bad, often times requiring a rebore if bad enough.

Not trying to scare you here. What carb do you have and what's your jetting? If it's FI, who did your tuning?

 

That's frightening! The bike is carbed, and i had the local dealership tune the carb after I did the conversion. The first 50ish miles were real gentle "in town" miles, then last Friday the weather got real nice... and I took it to the county line and back (about 10 miles at 50-55).

About halfway through that ride i noticed a bit more noise, and shifting gears got a tad rough. Checked oil after i got home and it has a grey sheen to it.

Therefore it's parked pending a checkup on my next day off of work.

 

Do a compression check. If your cylinder walls are scored bad enough your compression will be down. Front cylinder first, for some reason that one's leaner than the rear. Is there a pronounced knock when you lightly accelerate from a stop or around town light acceleration?

Also, tear down the carb and let me know how it's jetted. For reference, if you're using a CV40, my last 1200 conversion was with Weisco 10:1 pistons and my tune was 45 pilot, 3 turns out, one shim under needle, and a 180 main. You should be around there with maybe two shims and a 200 main to start.

Yea, I babied the hell out of all my builds but the second I started getting into the midrange at higher speeds things went way too lean and the piston got too hot and expanded into the cylinder wall.

 

10-4 on the compression check. Will do that first thing.

 

One other thing I've done to feel the bore is bent a piece of TIG welding rod at a gradual curve so the tip would hit the cylinder wall, then I'd spin it around to feel for gouging. It's slight, but if the aluminum stuck to the bore wall is thick enough you'll definitely be able to feel the difference between the smooth sides of the bore and the f#@ked up front and back of the bore.

Good luck man. On the plus side you're gonna learn a lot about your motorcycle. Get it done before you get too deep into the riding season.

BTW, I grew up in Northern Wisconsin about 100 miles north of Wausaw right on Hwy 51 in Mercer.

 

Depstech works excellent - good value, great visual quality. All over Amazon for extremely reasonable prices.

 

I have an ebay Chinese cheapie,,, with 6 LEDs, a USB to mini USB adaptor,,, use CameraFi app, works great!! good hi def pictures... most all are comparable,,, some have 5 LEDs some have 6...

 

Thanks folks, today is finally my day off (before my 8 day stretch). After the kid's doctor checkup is done, i can work on the vehicles. Cars are getting oil changes first, then the bike (oil & primary), then the bike gets everything inspected per the FSM (including cylinder compression).

will let you know tonight how I did.

 

"Grey sheen" in the oil sounds like aluminum.
Doubt there is any left to bore in those cyls.
Scott