[ericjansen]

was actually ready to clean the garage and park the car inside yesterday, as I have to leave for a business trip.
Still ended up to take one thing off, then an other thing, then at the end of the day the bike seems pretty empty already

Spend few hours on cleaning out the clutch, just installed, got to catch a plane in few hours ... Can't wait to be back and really start working on this baby.....

 

[wazhazhe]

I'm looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Ben710]

Nice Eric,

love these kind of threads. How are you planning to clean the engine cases?

 

[spinoli1]

As an asisde, this thread illustates another thing - the 748 - 998 series look fantastic even when you take of the bodywork, wheels, subframe......

I've been working on my 998 this week-end and, compared to any other manufacturer, Japanese, Brit, or Italian, it is a beautifully designed device - right down to the core.

Spin

 

[ericjansen]

Nice Eric,
love these kind of threads. How are you planning to clean the engine cases?

I have no idea yet .... WD40, lots of elbow grease, and sometimes a bit of polish always worked so far. I know there are some magic liquids there, but I am not sure I can get them here.

As an asisde, this thread illustates another thing - the 748 - 998 series look fantastic even when you take of the bodywork, wheels, subframe......
I've been working on my 998 this week-end and, compared to any other manufacturer, Japanese, Brit, or Italian, it is a beautifully designed device - right down to the core.

Spin

I can not agree more. It is one of the reasons I looked for a 2nd 998 for a long time, and finally found one (they are very rare here here in China, I might have the only two 998S's in the country perhaps).

But working on them is indeed a pleasure. I love the little details they designed into these bikes, like the electric connectors to take whole parts off, or the sweet design of the rear swing arm suspension parts.
I am some time out of the country, but will surely really start this project and keep pictures of the progress from mid next month.

 

[ericjansen]

Radiator issues

By taking the bike apart before I left on a business trip, I have not found any mayor issues.
The smoking issue was caused by the vertical spark plug tunnel completely full with a mixture of grease, fuel, water and soap.
It most likely caused a shortcut, running the engine on 1 1/2 cylinder only, and dumping most of the mixture into the exhaust.
Cleaning up the mess let the bike run sooo much better, and the smoking disappeared. Guess good luck this time, and start to hope that the engine is good enough to be reliable in the future.

The mayor issue I have found is the cooling radiator. It is leaking on the left bottom side, seems where the lower 4 horizontal channels are connected to the big left vertical chamber. It leaks to such extend that the radiator is empty overnight.

Of course I am considering to replace the whole radiator (with oil cooler which needs replacement for sure), but was wondering how much good and bad those repair liquids can do for this problem.
I always see these little magic bottles of radiator leak-stop. Anyone any experience?

 

[Viper1]

I would replace the oil cooler after seeing what you have.....their cheap on flebay...maybe $150....I wouldnt run the risk of tracking it and having the cooler leak...it's a no brainer!

Boy, thats a pretty nice garage floor!

 

[Photon]

If you put a bottle of magic potion in your radiator, please remember that the magic will also be running through your cylinder heads, water pump, thermostat, etc. Probably won't hurt anything, but why add extra "goo" to an engine, when it already makes enough on it's own. The radiator might repairable, or if you have to buy a new one...that's racing.

 

[ericjansen]

I would replace the oil cooler after seeing what you have.....their cheap on flebay...maybe $150....I wouldnt run the risk of tracking it and having the cooler leak...it's a no brainer!
Boy, thats a pretty nice garage floor!

If you put a bottle of magic potion in your radiator, please remember that the magic will also be running through your cylinder heads, water pump, thermostat, etc. Probably won't hurt anything, but why add extra "goo" to an engine, when it already makes enough on it's own. The radiator might repairable, or if you have to buy a new one...that's racing.

Yup, so that makes 2 extra same thoughts as I already had. Bought a "new" radiator, oil cooler and some other small stuff from one of our site sponsors. Indeed don't want to take the risk to have all kind of bonding liquids into the engine parts. Thanks you both for the advise...

 

[Jyrki]

I think you might have explained this already in the previous topic, but I'll ask anyway. What has happened to the bike? Where does all that corrosion come from? Just bad storaging and humid weather or what?

 

[ericjansen]

I think you might have explained this already in the previous topic, but I'll ask anyway. What has happened to the bike? Where does all that corrosion come from? Just bad storaging and humid weather or what?

Yup.
Considering the sludge I found (even in the hole of the aft cylinder spark, causing electric shortcut), I think someone washed it with some detergent or cleaner, then just stowed it away (probably in a steel shed).
With temperatures of 38, and humidity in the upper 90th, it just takes some time to get this corrosion to start working.
The seller was very eager to sell (hence the still good price) that I guess he had it for a longer time already.

Still, nothing seems to be beyond recovery, just a lot of work, cleaning, re-plating and re-painting. Can't wait to be back home this weekend!

 

[ericjansen]

Almost nothing left

Spend some hours taking more parts off the bike, nothing much more left then the frame, the engine and the swingarm. Just need to remove the throttle bodies, some electricity and the expansion tank, then can get the frame off and take the swingarm from the engine.

did not find anything bad others then the earlier discovered radiator and oil cooler. New items for those are on the way.

Just rust, corrosion, and lots of dirt.

 

[Ben710]

holy mother of a corroded desmo engine, the previous owner deserves to be quartered.

Thanks for rescuing that baby and breathing new life into her.

 

[velocidave]

I dont think Ive ever seen a bike that bad that wasnt 40 yeas old. Wow...

 

[sargeott]

Eric,
I am glad you chose to not use some of that "magic sealer" in the cooling system.
I couldn't post this fast enough and after taking a look inside the water neck photo, that bike doesnt need any more gooo inside the cooling system.
Glad to see your cleaning her up and making her shine how she was meant to.
Makes me want to tear my 999 all down and do the same ( she doesnt look that bad) but then I cant ride her if I do that. llol

 

[ericjansen]

Eric, I am glad you chose to not use some of that "magic sealer" in the cooling system. I couldn't post this fast enough and after taking a look inside the water neck photo, that bike doesnt need any more gooo inside the cooling system

You mean it might block the piping....don't worry, blocked already... ?
Any suggestion how to clean the inside of the engine cooling system from all this shit?

 

[ericjansen]

No way back

The easy part is more or less finished. How easy is taking apart compared to the struggle to get everyting in the right place and correctly connected later.....

Need one more day of cleaning and de-greasing all parts, then hope that the "dirty hands" phase is more or less over.

 

[ericjansen]

Leaking head gasket or just dirt?

Then the last issue.
Is this a head gasket leakage issue, or just accumulated dirt in a place hard to reach?

Found it on the Right intake side of the vertical cylinder.
Belt side is completely clean and dry.

 

[sargeott]

Im not sure if you have CLR over there. It stands for Calcium, Lime and Rust.
the name is CLR and works great for exterior metal parts. For the cooling system, short of a full tear down and rebuild, look into some cooling system flushing chemicals. Run that through it a few times per the instruction and it might be about as good as your going to get.
Look into the CLR for cleaning off the corrosion and a good coat of aluminized paint in grey for the engine.

 

[ericjansen]

Im not sure if you have CLR over there. It stands for Calcium, Lime and Rust.

Thanks, will check on this.