about to tackle this head,ody 350,never taken off head before,I'm reading the service manual and wondering is it really necessary to take off all the stuff the manual says?
it says to remove right and left air guide and main maffler,what the hell is that?are they talking about the exhaust pipe?
also,the fuel tank,seat,drive belt covers,do they all have to come off?
thanks
gasket is stuck to top of cylinder head,don't know if that means anything,in manual its stuck to top of cylinder

FL350 CSI

Not sure what manual you are looking at,

My my FL350 manual on page 6-2

1. remove spark plug cap.
to avoid warping the head use a crisscross patern to loosen each nut 1/4 turn at a time
2. remove the seven cylinder head bolts.
3. remove the cylinder head.
4. remove the gasket from the cylinder.



Bob

besides being an ugly picture, that's an ugly picture


you will need to pull the cylinder too, broken piston parts and with the chunky chunks of metal that will be in there you should pull the whole Engine, its not that hard.

even still the seat is easy to remove and lets you work on the Engine way better, just keep perfect track of where bolts and other parts belong, use a bunch of sandwhich bags and markers to lable everything.

got that part,read a little further and it says what im talking about
thanks

i'm just doing everything it says,got most of it off now,once i get everything removed to get to the cylinder i'll probably need some help with that part,hopefully not though

Just a tip I learned from messing with an old atv's years ago....If the cylinder is stuck good,put the head back on,run a couple of feet of nylon or cotton rope in the spark plug hole....Use the pull starter to raise the piston and put some pressure on the cylinder...Makes getting the cylinder to pop loose much easier...This works better when the Engine is still mounted in the frame....It's quite a task with it sitting on the bench.....
redman

thanks,hope it doesnt come to that.
Just finished getting everything removed except the reed cage,pulled off the intake but the reed cage stayed on,I'm afraid to pry it off since i don't know what I'm doing.
Tried to get the 4 cylinder nuts to turn but couldnt budge them,I believe it takes a 14mm but my wrench is not very long and I cant get any torque behind it,sprayed some pb blaster on it and i'm done for the day,will get back to it wed or sunday

MOTION PRO MAKES A WRENCH FOR THE 350 HEAD BOLTS-I recommend highly getting it as you;ll never torque them down properly without it.Heres a link, get the wrench believe me it makes a world of difference.



http://www.motionpro.com/motorcycle/partno/08-0134/

good work!

don't pry on nothing, a nice tap with a soft hammer or block of wood should be all you need.

good tip on the MP wrench, you can also take a decent box end wrench and evenly grind down the box end to make it fit better, then use another wrench as a cheater if needed.

when you pull the jug don't twist or rotate too much and have a thick rubber band to hold the rod and piston from flipping around

thanks for the tips

Put the exhaust manifold back on so you can tap UP on it with a soft mallet to free the cylinder, no use trying to PRY on anything you will just damage something and don't even think about sticking something between the parts to pry them apart !!! if the cylinder wont come off report back here we will help you get it off without damage to anything.

When you do get this cylinder off, be aware of scammers that say they can bore it or hone it-usually a local shop will bore it and you'll lose a bore size in the process-it has happened time and time again on guy like yourself, it happened to me when I first got into this great community.Ask you Engine builder to write exact cylinder specs on the jug and post them here then ask him what size he is planning on boring to--do not allow anything till we see the specs and tell you what to do-not to be a jerk here but I would hate to see you lose a bore as we all have.
Hoser has done many bores for guys over the years-if you DO NOT have a reputable Engine builder PM or ask Hoser if he is inclined to do the process-he is cheap too!!!!

thanks

Cylinder nuts came off pretty easy after soaking with pb blaster,cylinder pulled right off very easily
ok,first question,in the last pic,isnt that reed cage suppossed to come off the cylinder? its stuck on there pretty good if it is suppossed to come off and I didnt want to break it if it isnt suppossed to come off.
2.not sure what I'm looking for,everything looks good,It doesnt look like any scarring on the sides of the cylinder,I don't see any loose metal shavings,crank looks fine,I thought maybe it was broke and that's what that metalic banging noise was I heard.I have a buddy coming over tonight to take a look that knows more than me,but that's not much

yes the reed cage will come out of the cylinder.

Go you have a feeler gauge to check the play in the crank?

There looks to be some wear on the exhaust side of the piston. Any more pictures of the exhaust port in the cylinder? From the one you have the bridge does not look to have been relieved. looks like a Honda piston to me though so you should have plenty of life left in the cylinder.

no feeler gauge,if i hold the top of the piston straight up like it would be in the cylinder and move it side to side,I would est about 2 to 3 mm of play
heres more pics

http://pilotodyssey.com/ExhaustBridgeRelief.htm

This applies to the FL350 also.

this doesnt look like something i want to get into,afraid I'd screw it up

ok,so my buddy came over and helped me,sticking the feeler gauge in where shown in pic had .028" clearance

so my buddy thinks the cylinder and piston look fine,he thinks it needs new rings.Sticking the rings in the cylinder we got a end gap measurement of .071 for the top ring and .060 for the bottom,looks like the manual says it shouldn't be 0ver .02.
The piston has a W on the bottom so I'm assuming its a wiseco piston,also has the # 533,so is there anyway to know what rings to order by that info or does the inside of cylinder and piston need to be measured? I might be able to get a caliper to measure the piston but not the inside of cylinder
thanks

Much better than the 2-3 mm that you thought .. I think 1 mm is the service limit so you are good. you will want to have the bridge relived the next time you bore it. I have never done it myself either, but most machine shops can do it for you. Whats was the compression before you pulled the head/jug off? it maybe time for a top end job anyway.

it was 90 psi,so it def needed something,hopefully the rings will do it

yeah, that's pretty low. I would go ahead and bore it. wiseco piston kits are usually around 100 bucks on ebay, that plus 45 or so for the bore and you will be on your way to having a nice runner.

With the compression being so low the piston clearance maybe so large that the piston slaps a bit while running, When you run a piston like that it will crack the skirt and drop metal chunks all in your bottom end. Then you will have a much more involved rebuild on your hands. The clearance on your crank is good enough to where I would just fix it right so you do not have to pull it apart anytime soon.

The cylinder and piston don't show any signs of piston slap,I'd hate to lose a bore that I don't need.I brought the piston to work today and with the mm gauge I have here I measured 80 mms,I thought i read somewhere that 82 is the last one it will take,so that only leaves me with 1 bore left,amI correct in my thinking?
thanks