XB12R Rebuilding Story and Customization

[Thorivola]

So in September of '09 my firebolt started making a 3-part clunk-slap-chirp sound combination thing, it had 20007 miles when I finally dropped the engine and split the thing into little bits

Here's the story (it will have many pictures):

I stopped by Hal's H-D during Milwaukee Bike Week and the oh so "knowledgeable" service manager offers to do a free inspection

so he drug it back and claimed he got their race team to look at it, w/e, and they claimed it was a bad link the primary chain

I had previously that day already inspected the chain, done a roll test to check tension and all the links, etc. and he told me there was a bad link and I had the chain over-tight which was just making the sound slightly less noticeable

I told him bullshit right there and demanded my keys back, promptly leaving absolutely pissed that they refused to believe I could possibly manage to be able to service my own motorcycle

SO, I have some outstanding connections and brilliant people who previously worked in the Harley-Davidson and Buell factories and PDCs that offered to help me figure this out

I drag the bike to a race shop one of them owns and we pull the primary and check everything out in detail (previously I had only done inspection cover removals to attempt to diagnose this current issue)

anyway, primary is perfect, no excessive wear all good bearings, primary chain is like silk, and so on

reinstall the primary, fill up the fluid, and onto farther diagnosis

on the right-hand side of the engine is an inspection screw-plug that can be used to check connecting rod side-to-side free play, we let the bike run and used a little metal rod touching it to try and get a better idea

jump ahead a little bit, the noise pointed directly to the flywheel or one of the case bearings touching it and most likely a split was needed.

so, I do this:

bike set up post engine drop

the engine(primary and starter removed):

I pulled the top-end apart to see if it might be a collapsed piston, no that was fine, inside rockers good, cylinder heads looked good, damn

then I pulled the gear-cover off (cam/timing cover) and all is well inside there as well! great, only the flywheel left phooey

sure enough we got the flywheel pressed apart and then come to find the roller-bearings on the crank-pin are basically gone and the connecting rods were shredding the pin itself, debris is stuck into the two flywheel halves, the pistons, and some in the main roller bearing (yay! good news right?)

obviously we have come a long way from a "bad link in primary chain" as Hal's Harley-Davidson would have liked me to believe.

now that I knew the problem and already have everything apart, why not just rebuild how I want? Just this last week (last week of March, 2010) I finally got the parts all order up. Got a big discount through Milwaukee H-D, Hal's refused to give me any discounts at all even given my grossly large order size.

one of the main customizations I wanted to perform was a custom powder-coated engine in specifically the style I want. So April 2nd, 2010, I run off with all my mostly cleaned up parts down to my buddies who can powder coat all this for me

Here are some pictures of the prep prior to going to my buddies to powder coat:

Stripping the primary cover, also where/how I stripped everything else:

close up of the stripper bubbling the coating right off

crankcases after a little cleaning, ready for me to have the bearings get pressed out (got bearings remove the next morning)

mostly cleaned up gear/cam cover:

cylinders, from isolator, top motor mount, all somewhat cleaned up:

pieces almost completely prepped for sand blasting to clean them a little more (this was about 4 weeks before this post):

I made sure to use a LOT of heavy duct tape, it held up great

I also did cover/fill all the screw holes and everything, the sand blasting went great. It took about 5.5 hours total to do a really thorough job, but good prep gives amazing results right?

so now that the pieces are mostly prepped and ready, I dragged everything and a bunch of acetone down to my buddies place

here is a picture of the over we used, he made it from what was previously just a shelf rack:

here are the helper-cats that kept bothering us and getting in the way:

here is my buddy, Allen, working on prepping the cylinder heads:

Prior to this step we did an acetone bath and a heat cycle, followed by another acetone bath. After that 3-step process, all the extra oil we could possibly hope to get rid of either burned off or seeped out and we cleaned up with the last acetone bath.

Here is a picture of a hanging parts post prep heat-cycle, second acetone bath, and precision surface prepping.

once we made it to this point, it was time to powder coat! In that last picture you can see the powder-gun sitting on the motorcycle lift (acting as a workbench) there. We used an engine lift to hold up the parts

here are some parts of the powder-coating process:

just as he started, with helper dog in the background:

finally almost done with the cylinder head:

and the cylinder head post-curing picture again, curing was done at 450F for 25 minutes:

Working on crankcase:

and drive sprocket post curing:

Couple pictures of completed cases:

I think everything is looking great so far. The stuff isn't perfect, but hell you see where we are working. It looks really good for the most part, just a few little bits here and there that got scratched or had powder knocked off before curing (these things were my fault, but I didn't want to make Allen redo anything)

I plan to bring my race muffler and headers to Allen and we're going to try doing a ceramic coat on them. A two-part primer and chrome that should withstand ~1900 F and look awesome is the goal. After I'm the guinea pig on that, if it goes well he said he would be willing to sell his labor to members of this forum.

The total cost to me so far for powder coating (note I did about half the prep myself in person there, and this was the first attempt so he's charging me almost nothing for labor) is $160 and about 10 hours of final prep and coating labor, plus the 5.5 hours prior for sandblasting and whatever time it took me to disassemble and clean the engine

we are using a high-temp powder that is meant to withstand over 500 F, and the chrome coating is a super-durable that is suppose to last ages under normal conditions. We'll see how it holds up against the drive belt.

the most of me you see in this entire post is my left hand! I plan to keep updating this thread as my build progresses.

 

[dave_xb12r]

Holy $hit that's awesome! You're doing an awesome job! Apparently you can put the updated oil pump(2008-2010) and timing cover on if you wanted to. If you did that, no one would ever know your engine isn't a 2009.

 

[Thorivola]

I considered it, I could have gotten the pump and lines free even, but the difference isn't huge and as long as I don't rev to over 3.5k before the engine runs for a minute or so I won't have any problems with pressure (the reason they switched pump and cover was because the pressure was getting so high with the cool oil that it would act like sandpaper, minimally, on some parts)

I just didn't want to spend any more money on the timing cover, even though that piece isn't really all that expensive anyway.

 

[onelogue]

Dude amazing write up!!!! I know eventually im gonna have to drop my motor since im a DIY guy, so this helped a lot. I got a pretty good idea of what to expect now.

Keep us posted as you put the cylinder heads back on.
[up][up][up][up][up]

 

[firebolt020283]

looks really good[up]

 

[wiznut]

Holy shit man, that is seriously impressive

 

[Thorivola]

some more pictures of the engine pieces back together now that it's not in the super-early AMs anymore

I think I might buzz the edges of the cylinders and heads, and I'm currently choosing what to do with the rocker boxes. Might just flat-black 'em too.

example of buzzed edges:

you guys think that would be too gaudy? I'm making all the plastics flat-black as well, so I think the contrast could be awesome looking if I do it right.

 

[firebolt020283]

I have mixed fillings about the polished fins. I think it looks good when first done but after a few years (at least the ones in the picture above) the black paint starts coming off not sure if it has anything to do with the tips being unfinished or not.

 

[1stxb9r]

IMO buzz the edges, and polish/chrome the inspection covers, exhaust and headers. Should give it a good contrast with the plastics, engine, and frame being black! Should look GOOD when your finished!!![up]

 

[303xb]

leave it all black looks amazing

 

[BuddhaBuell]

mad props, +1 for your work and effort!

 

[ArmyMP09]

Looks awesome! I'm unsure of the polished fin edges. But amazing writeup. This was something I was considering years down the road when my engines needs some tlc.

 

[meetch]

I say all black... I think the polished fins might give the wrong look. Great work by the way. [up]

 

[dustin_usmc1]

I see that your bike is red. My suggestion would be to strip the black off the edge of only 1 or 2 fins at the top of the cylinder and heads and then paint the edge of those fins to match the plastics of the bike. It would be a nice custom touch and would stand out without being to "bling".

 

[Thorivola]

it is only red temporarily, I've already updated the WI registry to say the bike is black

also, we didn't coat these hot so the powder coat didn't get a good heavy layer on the very insides between the fins due to how the voltage charge distributes on these specific pieces

I think because of the light layer on the inside, it looks amazing when you move around the engine because it has almost a shimmering silver look between the fins that is just really cool in person

 

[dustin_usmc1]

Yeah man , sounds good. Black and red always go good together.

 

[xtremelow]

Looks amazing[up], now you are going to have to do some custom body work to match up to the engine, otherwise IMO it will be lost and look plan with the old red plastics.

 

[captainmorgan]

Nice job! I just pulled my engine and stripped it down to the case and sent everything in for powder coating. I was going to do the case too, but it looked like a lot more work for not more benefit. I sent all my stuff in to the place that did powder coating for Buell, Classic Coatings in Sheboygan, WI. Total cost of 20 Pieces was $600 and change, which I thought wasnt too bad, since they do all the stripping, blasting, and masking as well.

 

[Thorivola]

I got ALL my parts in today except the gasket set, which should come soon

total came to $642 for the crankshaft, all bottom end bearings (including transmission, but not the needle ones on each individual gear), set of engine mount bolts, and a pile of other various bits and pieces (including the updated belt, my old one was pretty well eaten up)

I received about a 32% discount on the end purchase cost of the parts, initial cost was $956 just to give you guys a number that is more likely what anyone else would pay. I also received the gasket set free through sponsorship (it's aftermarket).

assembly will start tomorrow, but not much will actually get completed for probably another week

I'm putting XB9 pistons into my XB12R, this gives it an 11.2-11.5 compression ratio and beefs up the torque curve a lot, especially in the low-end

I was considering porting the cylinder heads, but I don't know if I want to wait another 2 weeks or so until I have time to get it done (and access to the proper equipment)

 

[SpiderM]

cant wait to see the end result