Compression check.

Well, I'm able to tap things, wouldn't be a first by any means. The welding would definitely be out of my parking lot work capabilities. Unfortunately, this'll take a while. Don't really know any good shops in the area for doing something along these lines, and probably can't afford it at the moment anyways.

it shouldnt cost more than $30-40 to get it done, and just about anywhere that does machine work could do it. if they have to build the boss area back up with weld i would have them drill it so it's the correct depth since they have the machines to do it.

I suppose if it's already there I might as well have them do it, I consider myself competent, but hey, they do it all the time right?

That said, I'm still new to Ohio, I know I've seen some guys from the southwest Ohio area around here, anyone know of a good machine shop in the region. I'm in West Chester specifically if that would help in the advice giving.

I know I saw a KZ650 blast past me the other day , someone's around here.

$30-40 is in a reasonable range, it'll have to wait for a week or two, but shouldn't be forever. Guess this means I'll be taking the head off then. I suppose I could lug the whole engine over, not sure how much it'd be appreciated. Well, I sorted out my service manual (gave them the wrong address the first time), so it should be showing up soon, and I've taken off heads before. Only concern is the weather, since I'm in a parking lot, and I'll have to get a head gasket if I'm pulling it.

Really need a garage.

Just an update. It's been pretty slow going for me, been working 50-60 hour weeks, and it's been raining a lot, so it's been hard to find time to work on it (since I have to do parking lot work). But over this weekend I tore it down to the point where I just had one set of wires running to the engine, and the driveshaft before it was ready to be taken off its mounts.

At some point it basically started draining oil on the parking lot. It's kind of hard to tell where it was coming from because there's grime all over the sides anyways, but it looks like either the oil pan gasket or one of the side gaskets. So I drained all the oil, and a gasket kit should be getting in next week. I plan to just pull the whole engine. Take the heads to a machine shop, and redo all the other gaskets in the meantime, except for the base gasket. It seems to be fine, and I don't want to fool with all the piston rings and crud if I don't need to. Might have the machine shop redo some valve stuff as well while it's there. The bike's got 50k on it, so if they look kinda grungy, I figure might as well get that stuff done while it's off. Will depend on the condition and price. Any input on what specifically I should be looking at there would be appreciated.

I still can't get that f-ing shaft off the front bevels. That rubber boot around the shaft is pretty hard, so it's hard to get it pulled to get to that pin, which I still haven't found. Don't see anything in there that looks like that circular spring thing they mention either. If I can find a replacement boot, I'll just cut this one off, but so far haven't been able to find one, and I wouldn't want to run that without its cover.

While everything's torn down, I'll be going through the carbs with a fine-toothed comb. The bike didn't like to fire on cylinder 3 while idling, seemed to go when the throttle was on, so probably just needs all the circuits cleaned out, and they definitely need to be synced once everything's back together.

That boss can be built back up and drilled to accept a stud.....

So, I've been told, that's what it's going to the machine shop for. I don't have any kind of welding equipment, so they'll have to do that. Was considering have them fill all of them in like that and re-tap them all for OEM style exhaust studs, instead of going to the larger size. Depends on cost, but I figure if the one cracked, the others probably eventually will too if I'm going up in size, 8mm doesn't leave a lot of material around the outsides.