Damned heavy that is. I have pulled the engine out of the GSX for open heart surgery and thought I would weigh it (as you do). It comes in at 89kg on the bathroom scales. This may explain the back pain. The gearbox alone weighs 5.5 kg. They built bikes of this era on an industrial scale all right. Leads me to wonder what the heavyweight king for a production bike engine would be. My guess would have to be a Goldwing, but what would a Z1300 weigh. Classic-Zed? On a lighter note: Want to see my crack? I presume the bike has thrown a chain at some time as the sprocket cover has been welded, but I discovered a decent crack by the starter motor housing. A non critical area, but it would have been quite a bang as these things are built along battleship standards. I will be splitting the cases tomorrow to check out the gearbox so who knows what further discoveries will be made. Stay tuned for further news as I explore yesteryears technology.
And after much fluffing about, I found how to insert the images.
Good stuff Dadpole, nice crack BMW and Guzzi engines are featherweight by comparison. And they kindly give you sticky out bits so you can cuddle carry them and not use your back as a crane CBX is a bit of a whale beast engine, how about a Muinch Mammoth for obscure lard?
The Munch used a car engine. NSU from memory. Don't count for car stuff. Well past using the back for a crane, but it still hurts. The GSX has sticky out bits! 2 x 1 metre bits of reinforcing rod through the engine mounts. Means two people can lift the thing out easy-peasy. I have removed and installed these things on my own, but that was 25 years ago.
the munch mammoth is featured in the jan bike rider!
My LC road bike in full road trim and I had just gone onto reserve weighs 149.5 kg. I weighed it at the kart track and had to switch to resevre at the gate going in. The race bike is 120kg(not weighed yet) I weighed the "spare bits" i took off it and it ,30kg Will weigh the complete engine and report back I only have one set of cases with out the "throw a chain" crack Must be a 80's thing aye I had a gsx1100 years ago. 12/79 build date, I had a few scares on it chucking it in to corners and forgeting it wasnt the LC. Both fast fun bikes but in completely different ways.
Old Baz has lost about 4 inches (incl bolt holes) along there
thanks for posting dadpole, it's great to follow somebody's work on their bike, very inspirational and you can learn a lot! keep us posted ps. there's an gs850g being sold in bits on trademe (by "steelrider") due to an internal engine damage, one of the camshaft "brackets" (i doubt this is the technical name, lol), i mean those caps that keep the camshaft in place - one was split in half! but gsx engines had an improved oil flow compared to the gs's so hopefully you find all is in order
i would think a cbx would be heavier than the z1300, by looking at them. just a guess...
Oh dear. So Baz now comes up four inches short! Does that make him a Kwaka? RDjase - 30 kg is an impressive amount to get off a LC. They were a trim little number to begin with - or did you use a hacksaw?
Hi Psyguy. I bet all sorts of grief could be caused by a cam cap splitting. Nasty! All mine are good (touch wood) but my spare engine is missing them. Bloody annoying as they are matched and bored at the factory so a simple replacement is a no-go. (Unless the bike is for sale straight away)
iirc, my manual says that the cam caps can be replaced with new parts but to use molly paste on the cam journals to help with breaking-in. not sure if they're available though. people have sucessfully put new cams in using existing caps and i would think that's basically the same as old cams and new caps?
Interesting!!! There may be a new life for the spare engine after all. One wiring harness, exhaust and a few minor bits would give me another GSX. Time for a little bit of pondering...
You'd want to check the replacement cam bearing cap with engineer's "blue" by doing a trial assembly with the cam. If it locks up, you may be able to scrape the bearing surface *very carefully* with a bearing scraper and emery cloth until the cam is able to spin effortlessly without binding. There's some patience required, but it's quite do-able. This would be easiest to carry out if the head was completely stripped of all valves first, but it could be done if fully assembled too. The correct method would be to use a line-boring machine, which few engine reconditioning shops have these days.
I was wondering if line boring could be done. First I have to lay my hands on replacement caps though. Should be do-able though. Other than that, the engine needs new pistons & valve guides but those are all available in the US. Meanwhile, any contenders for the heaviest engine? Google comes up with 97kg for the 1500 Goldwing
