While the motor was being shipped, I removed the old race motor, and had the rear shock rebuilt adding a heavier spring too. I also bled all the lines with fresh DOT 4 fluid and cleaned the frame.

The engine arrived basically intact. I inspected it and found that all parts were there, but there was some trash in the #1 and #2 intake ports. Mainly pine needles and some rust. The engine had been stored for more than four years in a barn. The other two intake ports looked fine. Might I get lucky? I removed the pine needles and cleaned the rust off as good as I could. I really didn't feel like removing the head.

I sprayed WD-40 in the intake ports and turned the motor over by hand to make sure there were no funny noises or binding of any sort. While doing a valve adjustment, I found that ALL of the valves were loose. Better than being tight, but still out of tolerance. I retorqued the head while doing this (should retorque the head on these at regular intervals).

The crate motor had a standard Vance and Hines ignition advancer. I removed this and installed the one that went with my V&H Power Pack. I also installed the Yosh side cover on the left side (my right side cover wouldn't work due to the early motors NOT having the brass plug in the case. Later motors had them). I added NGK-JR9C race plugs to help my coils perform to their full potential.

My next dilemma was the carburetion. Mike wrangled me an airbox along with the motor, but I was still short a set of stock carbs. Because the plumbing was in place for the Mikuni RS series, I decided to purchase a new set of RS-34's from American Performance Engineering. They were a bit pricey for use on a stock bike, but I knew I could adjust them, and keep the plumbing intact. For the Accel coils + Power Pak, you need to jet stock carbs anyway.

A real man's fuel intake system.

Besides, I have rebuilt around a hundred sets of carburetors. Having to pull out and reinstall them from an airbox with those fuel hardened boots SUCKS! Knowing this, I ordered nice, new PLIABLE 34mm intake boots for the motor.

The original 1985 motor had 29mm carbs. They were updated to 31mm in 1986, and 34mm in 1987. I had to drop the needles all the way after I installed the carbs. The main jetting was fine. It still runs a bit rich though. Real flat between 4,000 and 6,000 RPM. I will adjust the fuel/air mixture and the pilot jets later on.