| Author | Message | ||
     Bluelightning |
Got the old x1 back up an running, took it out for a quick little test ride last night. Forgot how fun this monster is to ride. All fresh oil, and timing shows its right, but it got hot really quick to the point it was steaming out of the catch can breather! Also at low rpm, I get lots of valve rattle/noise like the valves are bouncing. However, with a little bit of throttle and the rpms come up everything quiets down and sounds right (other than the crazy amount of steam coming out of the breather). Wonder if the lifters are collapsing/bleeding off under the lower oil pressure at low rpm or if the oil pump itself is the culprit. No dummy light on when running, and I can see movement in the oil tank when idling on the stand and pull the dipstick. Any thoughts before I start tearing into this thing? | ||
| Bluelightning |
Oh, and this bike has been converted to CV44 carb, zippers adjustable pushrods, major head work/upgrades (porting/valves/springs). The pushrods have been adjusted to the 24 flats (32 tpi) per Zippers instructions. Even tried turning them in more to drive them tighter with no success. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Are the lifters still hydraulic? Lots of steam from the crank case vent would worry me. Especially with fresh oil in there. Is it blow-by? Some blow-by is normal but my X1's breather never makes actual steam come out. What weight oil are you using? | ||
| Bluelightning |
Put Mobil 1 20w50 V twin synthetic in it and it already looks like its been run 3000+ miles. Lifters are still hydraulic. Not sure where it would be getting blow by, but I'll do a compression check tonight and see what it says | ||
| Ratbuell |
Also did you adjust the pushrods properly, and lock them down correctly? | ||
| Bluelightning |
Yes, adjusted them and locked down per the instructions from the Zippers kit. Have tried to drive them into the springs more to take up the slack, but no good. Think I'm just going to bite the bullet and order a new pump and new lifters while at it and go from there. 1 of the 2 is the culprit. It's either the lifters are collapsing at the lower rpm and not pushing oil or the oil pump just isn't pushing enough oil. | ||
| Bluelightning |
So another update, I bought a mechanical gauge setup to see exactly what the oil pressure is. Pulled the dummy light sensor out and put in the gauge, started the bike and had 28psi cold idle and almost 60 at 3000rpm. Warmed it up with a quick ride and was down 15psi at idle and 35psi at 3000rpm. Looks like the oil pump is good, now looking at lifters. Probably buy a set of S&S lifters to replace the fueling lifters I put in back when the motor was built and see how it goes from there. Any thoughts to which lifters to go with? Solid or Hydraulic? | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Well at least that's one thing you don't have to worry about. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Why did you go to the hassle of adjustable pushrods, out of curiosity? Milled heads or jugs? | ||
| Bluelightning |
The motor has a bunch of work done to it, to include major head porting, springs/retainers, and larger valves as well as a set of Woods Knight Prowler W9-BS cams (.630 lift!), new roller rockers, and Fueling lifters. The adjustable pushrods just made it easier to adjust everything. When it was all put together and dyno'd, it made a true 101hp to the rear wheel. Not bad for a little 74" motor. | ||
| Ratbuell |
If the heads or jugs weren't shaved, you shouldn't have to adjust pushrods - lifter to rocker distance should be unchanged because everything is still the same "height" from the base gaskets. Really the only advantage to adjustables is the ability to take out pushrods without having to remove rocker arms, and even that's not worth diddling with adjustable pushrods in my book. Get collapsible tubes and you can do a lifter change without pulling the heads, and you can use stock pushrods without having to muck around with pushrod adjustments and locking down. IMO, adjustable pushrods only open the door for maladjustments, which will absolutely cause valve noise and lifter noise and rocker noise. Unless, as I said, your heads or jugs have been shaved and you don't want to just get equally-shaved pushrods (.010" shorter to match a shaved head, for example). That said - if you have a high-lift Woods cam set, and harder springs...well of course you're going to have more valve noise. If its a steady tap, and a good rhythm (not erratic), you're going to just have to live with it - price of performance parts. Ride it for a while. If the noise doesn't change, it's the lift distance and the spring pressure, and throwing parts at it won't change anything. I did up an old Evo Road King years ago - stage 3 heads, shaved jugs for a 1 point compression increase, high compression pistons, bigger cam, performance lifters and springs, big valves, singlefire nosecone ignition, reworked/rejetted CV carb...I rode that bike for nearly 90k miles, and it was my "380" motor - 80", with 80hp and 80tq at the wheel. Screamed quite nicely, but was not quiet about it. | ||
| Screamer |
Some big lift cam sets use a smaller base circle which require different length pushrods - even though cylinder and head height dimensions might remain unchanged. I agree with Ratbuell that high lift cams and springs can often (but not always) create a motor that has more "mechanical sound". Adjustable pushrods require a certain finesse to get adjusted properly. Despite some instructions that suggest setting one intake and the opposite exhaust at the same time - setting each lifter at its lowest point and then adjusting only that pushrod - seems to be more successful. | ||
| Bluelightning |
The guy that put my motor together went with the adjustable pushrods because these are a little larger diameter than the stock pushrods. The goal was more along the lines to help reduce flex and still be able to pull them out without removing the rockers. My heads/cylinders are shaved some to up the compression, as this was really built to be a race bike but I'm riding it on the street. But I do have another update. Found my noise! The Fueling lifters are collapsing as the springs/check balls are not up to snuff for the stiffer valve springs, so a new set of S&S hydrosolids are on order just for good measure. I can now ride the bike with no fear of engine failure now, but more importantly I found the loudest rattle that I thought was the valves banging at low rpm. As we all know these motors vibrate a lot especially at lower rpms, well the inverted Y front exhaust mount has pushed the rubber bushings out some and left just enough slack that the front exhaust can mount was rattling in the Y. Put in a couple washers to tighten everything back up and all is good in the world. Feel kind of like an idiot as I never thought to check that because it sounded more like valve train noise than an exhaust mount.  | ||
| Falloutnl |
Tracking down a noise can be so incredibly hard. Glad you found yours though. |
