Engine Cleaning/Maintance

Well, I have completed the frame and the painting of those parts so far, so now it is onto the engine. The engine is completely off the bike and I want to renew this beast cosmetically and routine maintance you think I should do while I have it completly off the bike. So any tips on 1. Cleaning, getting ride of 26 years of grease build up and 2. What do you guys think I should replace/check while it is completely off the bike(I know I should look now, even if I dont want too). Any advice would be awesome, thanks!:laugh:

I've had lots of luck with Mother's Metal Polish if you're going to go the direction of polishing the aluminum. Another option would be to paint everything. Now is a good time to do either.

lots and lots of scrubbing and more scrubbing and when you think its done scrub some more!then you rub and rub and ..... smell what im stepping in?bwaha welcome to the anal retentive world of kawasaki building.i just got the ok from the wife to bring another bike into the house to put it together in the dining room she must be wanting a vacation or something out of this deal,i better hurry up and buy my rims and tires!:whistle: after about 30 years of being around this things you think i would learn to just ride em,but i think i have as much fun building them as riding them!goodluck,happy wrenching!

Hey Peachc - Take your time. Wireman is dead on! The more effort you put in the better the results. I had my jugs and cylinder head bead blasted. These brought out a beautiful rough cast aluminum finish. To keep this look I give the bike a little wipe with WD-40 once a week.

For the engine cases, mine were totally oxidized. Most guys would have replaced them. I took a wire wheel with a fine brush on a variable speed drill and with very light pressure slowly removed the oxidized crap. I then moved to the wet sanding stage using 180 grit (coarse) then 220, 600, 1000 and finally 1500 for the final sanding. I put about 80 hours into the cases (including sanding, polishing and buffing) moving the parts around so not to stay in one area of the part for too long of a time. You want to have a smooth finish that is even and consistent.

I tried Mother's Aluminum Polish but found that it didn't work as well as Autosol Metal Polish (sold in Canada) which I scrubbed in with my fingers to pull the dirt out of the pores in the metal. The final stage was using a buffing wheel on an electric drill that I mounted in my bench vice.

By following these steps you will have cases that look one step short of a professional chroming job. For the frame and other parts, use some elbow grease, a very fine scowering pad and finally a good wipe down with WD-40 to give the painted parts a nice shine.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

1) Cobble something together to hold it about 18" off a table and leave room for a big plastic basin underneath.
Buy a pack of El-Cheapo assorted size paint brushes. Stiff is bad for paintin gbut good for cleaning.
Pick up a few Gallons of Kerosene AKA Parafin in other former colonies.
Dump about hald a gallon of kerosene in your basin and go to town. When it gets real nasty replace it.
Best way I know of to get that crap off. In the beginning, when gunk is really thick, bast it like a turkey for a while so it can soften up and use some chopsticks to deal with recalcitrance.

2) If you're gonna paint it's much easier to mask and spray with engine off the bike.

Post edited by: Duck, at: 2006/02/11 19:31

see what youve started!bwaha ive got this thing down to a frame and engine,dont take long once ya start stripping parts off.so much for a quicky cleanup looks like ill be scrubbing and rubbing for the next couple months i guess i shouldve started back in november!this one is the closest thing i have to a daily driver in the collection so i better bust ass before it warms up again!:whistle: goodluck,happy wrenching!