Yeah I am thinking your probably going to find all the black head gasket coating in the cooling system.

You can take a plastic hammer and tap up on the exhaust manifold to break a cylinder loose from the bottom end, sometimes you even have to tap it up on the intake side GENTLY on the reed cage area.

I am going to have to really clean out the radiator good. I moved it around the other day and black nasty crap came dripping out of it. I wonder what the lower end and water pump are like? I will get that stuff cleaned out best I can.
Pics of head gasket...

This project is comming along pretty good so far. we took the suspension off last night and inspected all the bearings and bushings. everything checks out good. so we started sanding things and i sprayed some of the front and rear suspension back to the stock silver.

I should be able to get the rest of the suspension painted up by the end of the week so i can start working on the "goodies" for this pilot. well since nick intends to race this pilot its gonna need some protection.

Made some more progress. all the suspension has a new coat of paint so in a few days ill start to reassemble the suspension. we first have to touch up some spots on the frame first. i half way done with cleaning the ports up on the cylinder.

Picked up a few parts from SoCalgii this past weekend, 2 used fenders, a new drive belt, some misc hardware, some stickers, and an intake elbow. Also got some sanding done today and Shoubadaba got all the suspension painted, next is getting the frame patch-painted, pressure washed, then back together. Shoubadaba also got the cylinder ports cleaned up for me and is almost done with modding the reed cage. I snapped a few pics of the progress. I have the cylinder in my garage, I will clean it up and get it slapped back on the lower end soon. I also picked up some dzus tabs and fastners for a the side panel project we have cookin up.

Closer and closer...

more

Hey Nick, I have a nice 300 degree steam cleaner that makes prepping for paint easy. You can come up & use it anytime, just bring a 5'r of diesel fuel with you!!!! :) You can do your truck Engine too ( most pilot guys neglect their tow rigs) Doug

that's awesome! I will see if I can get a time hammered out. Thanks man

Got the base gasket areas cleaned up on the jug and case. The pics suck, but you can kind of see them. Whoever built this thing before me, it looks like they took a damn center punch and tapped a bunch of divits in the case all the way around on the inner most sealing surface.
WTF??!?!??!?!?!!!?!?!?!?!
So it takes me almost 2 freakin hours to clean off the green gasket from these stupid divits, get it done, the mating surface on the case is absolutly HORRID! TONS of scars, scratches, chunks gone, man, whoever did this is a moron-douche bag-caveman-ass clown-ankle biter AND a bag of chips! And to top is all off, THE FREAKIN BASE GASKET COMETIC PACKAGED UP IS THE WRONG ONE!!!!! Dunes in 2 weeks, I need a gasket PRONTO!
... love my pilot

It's OOOK Nick, Turn that frown right-side round! Personally, I find solace in the fact that this pilot, through fate & adversity, has found a new owner, someone with skilled convictions to make things right! There, now do'nt you feel better? Doug

The dimples are a old school way to prevent gaskets from blowing out or sucking in its a shame they were not smart enough to do it on the bottom of the cylinder where you can easily clean it off while setting in front of the TV in your lap.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2050&start=0

What I do is put some yamabond or Hondabond on the gasket but only on the cylinder side, then I oil the gasket surface on the Engine side so the gasket will come off easily next time, if you want to get trick you can install the cylinder and only snug the nuts let the sealant set a few hours then remove the cylinder again and trim the gasket that is now stuck to the cylinder for a perfect fit and so it does not block any flow, you also can remove any of the extra sealant that may have squeezed inside, sounds complicated but its fast and simple, never had a gasket blow out since I moved up to my yamabond procedure and its standard practice on all my rebuilds.

Yeah, that was my only rant so far LOL.

My main concern was getting the gasket replaced within 2 weeks because my source for gaskets and parts like that is SLOW most of the time, and he has not been answering his phone so far this morning.

Hey if all else fails I did clean out the local honda dealer of there pilot base gaskets just before they were discontinued :)

I guess cometic packaged up a fl350 base gasket by accident. I have a new set on the way, free of charge, and will be shipping the other gasket set to cometic. Am also on the hunt for another UNI filter for the pilot, I bought one at a local shop, and have been calling several other shops but nobody has one. I might have to get one on ebay and hope it gets here in time. It SHOULD be shipped on time if I go that route

If you do the prefilter mod the filter in the box will last you the whole riding trip.

pre-filter mod is planned for the lid for sure. The other uni is for a buddy's pilot, I am hunting one down for him. I am going to take my filter to the local yamaha shop and see if the filter from a rhino cvt will work, does anyone know if it will?
UNI pilot filter is... NU-4114ST
UNI rhino filter is... NU-3259ST
They look very similar in the pics i have seen online, and the 4114 UNI I just bought had "also fits rhino cvt" written in pen on it

Thought you could order a UNI filter right off the UNI filter website?

I also think they are in orange county so that's only 30 miles from home buddy. Right off the 91 close to sonics

Yup just looked them up. They are in fullerton so go down and pick one up.

I took my 4114 filter to Yamaha and sized it up to the rhino cvt filter 3259 and it was identical save for a slightly larger rubber opening, not even 1/8'' so I went ahead and got it, saved myself a few hours of hassle since yamaha is right down the street. Sooooo, if anyone needs a filter in a pinch and the UNI 4114 is out, get the 3259 it will work.

that's good to know. glad you got it taken care of

Went to casa de Shoubadaba yesterday and got some more done on the pilot. I finished sanding it and we pressure washed the frame. Got it all nice and clean, wiped down, and Shoubadaba shot it with primer/paint/clear in the needed areas. My plan for now was to just patch paint the areas that needed it and later in a year or two, depending on how long it takes me to save up enough money for it, we will be doing a complete tear down, adding long travel suspension, and having the whole thing sand blasted and powder coated. We also started putting the rear suspension back together. The shocks and rear skid plate still need a good cleaning, and the shocks need a rebiild, but I think the first trip on this pilot will be with the shocks as is.
I am still waiting on my new gaskets, time is ticking down, I sure hope it gets done in time for the Dumont trip!

Another thing, Shoubadaba thought he had a right front fender in his attic, so I bought a left front fender from socalgii, well as Shoubadaba was digging the fender out of storage, I hear him yell out a bad word, it was the wrong side! He had a left front fender, no biggie, he said he will be up that way sunday and will try to get it swapped for the right one. I laid all the plastics out and took a photo, you can see the fender in the wrong spot...

One last pic for now...