Mav Head Installation

Last weekend I cleaned the block deck surface as well as I could with a plastic blade. I also vacuumed out the lifter valleys of any old oil or chunks of crud that could be laying around in there waiting to cause trouble.


Nice view of the 'before'. I soaked it down with oil because I wasn't sure how long it would be before I could install the head. Before I put down the head gasket, I cleaned all the oil off. It was 'clean and dry' as per the instructions. Opinions vary.

I tried to get a good shot of the cam lobes under there, but the focal length wasn't having it.

Here we see lifters soaking in au jus:

Obligatory shot of head gasket in place with some headless bolts to align the head. Sucker is heavy. Even heavier with the stupid exhaust manifold on it.

Head in place. We bolted up the exhaust manifold on the bench so we wouldn't have to do it in the car.

Valve cover in place and duct tape over the intake. I'm not sure when my rocker assembly will get here. Also, I'm not 100% sure on the pushrod length I'll need. Winter is coming, so I want it safe from rust and crust for now.

Mav Head - Ready for Installation

Got the head back from the machinist.

Here's some shots of the valve porting and such:

Nicely shaved deck.

He opened up the oil passage a bit:

Filled in the gaps in the ported area of the head

Here's a shot down the 3/4 exhaust port.

Shock Compressor

At long last, here is my rear shock compressor.

Parts:

A bit of steel

Properly-sized hole saw: 46mm or 1-13/16” Eclipse HSS Holesaw Bi-Metal Blade Cutter Drill Cuts Steel Iron (I bought this online because there was no way I'd find it locally without going insane.)

Threaded rods. I believe these were 3/8ths. God, I hate non-metric measurements.

Washers.

Nuts. The nuts at the top have the plastic thingies in them to help them stay put. The ones on the bottom are the extra-tall nuts so that I can keep my ratcheting wrenches on them easily.

The bottom brace was a bit trickier. I ended up just welding a nut on one side of the hole. Then when I screwed the bolt through the bottom hole of the shock, I left the socket on the head of the bolt so it would stay put at the right angle and not try to pop the weld off.


Here are a few websites that helped:

http://lostabout.com/s90/may_20_2008.asp?b=body#start

http://www.cttrailbikes.com/CT90Suspension.html#anchor_100

http://www.steves-workshop.co.uk/vehicles/hondas90/shocktool/shocktool.htm

http://slipstreamcycle.com/products/girling-shock-tool

Here you can see how it comes apart. Once it's compressed, grab the flat spots with a tool. I used a set of needle-nosed vice grips because I didn't have a 23mm (?) wrench handy.

Once that's locked in place, stick a large screwdriver or 3/8ths socket extension in the head of the shock and unscrew it.

Pics of the shocks all taken apart:

This is the 'factory-sealed' part of the shock that probably shouldn't be messed with. I messed with it.