Hey Devin

I never experienced any sparkplug tapping with that piston. We put clay in the cylinder and turned the motor over by hand, then removed the head. We had a good 1/8" of clearance at the thinest point.

That is really strange............

Ron

 

That is strange if you had 1/8".... I could kind of see it only being the outside plug, as I remove that one more often than the inside one just for the fact that I hate dealing with the inside one all together, so the outside one gives me a pretty good idea of whats going on anyways. But it is sometimes the inside plug that taps, and sometimes the outside plug. I will admit most likely overtightening the plugs now and again attempting to "face" the gap of the plug towards the center of the cylinder or trying to position the strap away from the upsets of the piston or whatever. I'll make note not to tighten it in too much tomorrow and see.....As far as the coolant temp, I haven't checked it yet, but I have a feeling it's getting too hot, but I don't see how with running alky....and it's pretty cool here still too...like 10-20 degreec C.
Time will tell

 

Well, it's over now. At least for the time being anyways. I installed a coolant temp guage last night, and set out today to see what the results were. I was unable to actually take the thing out and ride it, so I parked a bit out of town with the DS in the back of my truck and fired it up. After idleing a while, it wasn't blowing coolant out yet...so I gave her a few revs. Still nothing, so I jumped on it, put it in gear, and while holding the brake, proceeded to feather the clutch a bit and rev it to put a lieele bit of a load on it and make it work. Watching the temp and waiting for the coolant to once again start spewing, i continued to work the old girl. Then all of a sudden, it seemed to lose all power, and bam, it stalls. Piston is locked up solid as hell. Temp only hit 220 degrees F, the coolant was beginning to make a little rumble noise, but had not yet started to spew out the overflow.

The piston won't move at all, even with both plugs out, and in 5th gear pushing it against the tranny......It still rolls in neautral, and I can shift through all the gears. But it seems the more I work the clutch, the more free play it gains. It's losing action, kinda like I blew the clutch apart.....So I'm about to go drain the oil and take off the clutch cover and see whats goin down in there.....So I'll report again soon.....
This really sucks *****...
Oh and my plugs were clean, with a little hint of a white/tan powdery residue on the ground strap. They were NGK DR7EA's and running alky. 1/8 inch main, 95 needle in the richest position, air fuel screw 2 turns out, and pilot is about well whatever a 60-some numbered drill bit is, I forget and don't really care right now. Oil is good, and coolant is good. I was running redline top end lube for alky as well. Now...on to that fishy clutch situation....

 

I am curious to see if the motor is still seized when it is cold.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

She still locked up when cold as well. I drained the oil, there was some minor chunks of what looked to be cast...and some flakes of what looked to be clutch fibres. Upon removing the clutch cover, there was a large amount of the same cast material, and finally when I removed the pressure plate and started pulling out the steels and fibres one by one more cast pieces were falling out until I found a fibre that shattered. Looks like it twisted it right apart......Now as for the piston, sounds like some cast chunks may have gotten through the system and perhaps jammed in the crank teeth or something???doesn't make sense to be a siezure from heat etc....I'll try and take a few pics and show ya what I'm dealin with.

 

Wow; Sorry to hear about your troubles CO. Man, that just sucks.
I hate tearing down a new motor. But on the other side, none of the bolts will be rusty!!! And far less clean-up to deal with!!!!
Lets us know what you find out and be very careful dealing with the head gasket. Look at it very closely.
Sorry again.

 

I probibly won't be tearing into it any further until I get back from work in a few weeks....but I added some pics of the clutch situation in my bio for everyone to enjoy....Thanks

 

what about rod bearing or timing chain being loose ...plug hitting .......just my 2cents

 

I got into the motor more today, only to discover it is worse than I thought. The piston and cylinder are fine, no sieze there, however the crank is locked up solid. I haven't split the cases yet, but right away I'm gonna, but the rod won't even budge, and the counter balancer weights look a lieele blueish....

My conclusion: As the clutch began to break down during the run, flakes of fibre and crap plugged off the oil screen in the tank. This caused a restriction and reduced oil flow, causing lack of lubrication for the crank and clutch, causing the clutch to completely tear apart, and the crank to sieze. As soon as it happened, I checked the oil, as that is the first thing that comes to mind....The level seemed a kinda high, and that would make sense due to the reduced flow from the tank.

Good time to stroke it I guess......

 

Sorry to hear of the engine lock-up.

I assume that you now attribute the piston tapping the plug strap to over crushing the plug base washer.

Is it also safe to assume that the coolant overflowing was caused by the excessive heating of the internal engine parts (due to a lack of oil)?