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X-Pect Air Box
The Airbox is very well done! Stands out in comparison to others I have seen. It is three pieces, the box, a top lid with filter mount, and a filter cover. I was very please to see it seals tight with rubber gaskets at all connection points, the box cover, where the air filter fits on the bottom and the filter cover all have rubber gaskets. The box has two drain tubes on the bottom, one for the engine crankcase vent and the other for any liquid in the box itself sealed with plastic which will need checking periodically. The filter appears of good quality. Air tight box likely a requirement for EFI and pollution control. Good dust protection is an essential requirement for the backroad and no need to modify this box to make it so.
https://i.ibb.co/PCLHHP0/Airbox-inside-1.jpg https://i.ibb.co/KbGkYT4/Airbox-snorkel-filter-2.jpg https://i.ibb.co/PZw3tqP/Airbox-drains.jpg |
I nominate this thread for Thread of the Decade.
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Ha Hah! But only in the running for X-Pect owners.
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X-Pect exhaust, exhaust gasket bubble weld
Something the Team has seen on all the China Bikes they have worked on is the restriction of the bubble weld in the Exhaust Header Pipe and therefore we could not rest the tear down until we investigated that issue and sure enough it does have a bubble weld in the header pipe that is slightly restrictive. The opening at the bubble weld measures 24.47 mm roughly across. The Head port exit diameter is 26.73 mm so roughly 2 mm restriction. I used a Dremel tool with a carbide cutter to cut the bubble weld back to pipe diameter with a slant toward the head exit opening with a final I.D of 27.7mm.
SAFETY: If you choose to do something like this be very careful and use protective eye and mouth protection. You can see those small sharp shards, very small, that will stick to fingers etc and you would not want to breath them in or get them in your eyes. I usually get one or two in my fingers and have to use a tweezer. https://i.ibb.co/TqhKbrH/Bubble-weld-1.jpg https://i.ibb.co/s5b5NXz/Bubble-weld-removed.jpg The header pipe O.D. at the head is 39.47 mm and the tail section where it enters the muffler joint is O.D. 31.9mm and I.D. 29.63. The Muffler joint is I.D. 37.38mm and there is a graphite gasket. https://i.ibb.co/cwF6rqR/Muffler-end-2.jpg The muffler exit I.D. is 19.32mm so maybe this exercise has no final end improvement? But the team is of the mind to increase efficiency at every opportunity. Exhaust header gasket was constructed of rolled metal with graphite coating shown in comparison to new header gasket which measures 39.97mm and is a spare gasket I had for the HAWK. The X Pect header pipe to muffler is a couple of mm smaller than the 230cc CG motor in O.D. and I.D. but the Header pipe is thicker where it joins the head to make up for that and it therefore fits the same gasket as the 230cc CG motor. https://i.ibb.co/1GkX7gq/Exhaust-gasket.jpg A picture of the exhaust port. Looks like there is some airflow to be gained there with some Head porting. https://i.ibb.co/WvYsn7k/Exhaust-port-3.jpg |
Excellent!!! And those metal shavings always end up in my living area, then my foot. Ugh. Good advice!
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Shineray 200cc
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My Shineray has a zerk on the swingarm... too bad the threads are boogered up and it never stays tight or accepts grease :hmm: |
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X-Pect valve adjustment, Valve Specifications, Spark Plug
The valves were tight as it came from the factory, I could not get a .05 mm feeler gauge under the intake or the exhaust and could feel little movement in the train. After some attempts pushing down on the rocker, I managed to force it under the exhaust. The engine timing as it came from the factory was later determined to have been just past the compression stroke TDC. A good thing for a boat ride as the valves were closed during the trip.
https://i.ibb.co/87hPNZD/TDC-mark.jpg https://i.ibb.co/nbjPgxH/TDC-Piston.jpg https://i.ibb.co/42vgbjf/05.jpg A pix showing some black residue on upper head. https://i.ibb.co/LZxCNpS/Engine-debri.jpg The manual specifies clearance as 0.03 mm for the intake and 0.05 mm for the exhaust valve. That is a very tight spec and later it was apparently revised by Lifan to .06 mm intake and exhaust per a post reference below. The team does not see the need to run tight specs on a CG motor. By comparison, I have the HAWK set to intake .07 mm and exhaust .08 mm and I notice no excessive valve train noise. http://www.chinariders.net/showpost....38&postcount=1 Breaking in a new motor I like the valve specs on the loose side. I set both intake and exhaust to .07 mm with a slight drag and an .08 mm feeler gauge will likely also clear. They are quite a pain at times to set, and I always have to do it multiple times. Every time I rotated the motor on this one to check it the lash would tighten up. This new valve train really needs to break in to do better adjustment. A salute to start up, I dribbled some Rotella 10-40W over the moving parts. https://i.ibb.co/QC5dtwS/07.jpg Spark Plug genuine NGK DR8EA, no wonder Boatguy has been on a roll! https://i.ibb.co/vP1Qnwb/NGK.jpg https://i.ibb.co/P4sMFNc/DR8EA.jpg I have said this before, but for real, this is the beginning of it going back together. |
What brand are those feeler gauges? Looks like Chinese characters on them in the pics. Harbor Freight?
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I think got them from a guy used to live in China NZBrakelathes. He used to sell stuff over Ebay.
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This is great hopefully a sooner than later china rider here I just want to know what it would take to raise the seat height to match the hawks. Im new here and I would also like to figure out how to post pics... I talked to a couple of overseas suppliers and had some pictures I hadn't seen of a couple styles after relaying to them that I was looking forward to "2022 lineups" lol
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Thanks for posting all this info China Rider. This thread helped me make a decsion to buy the Lifan X-pect.
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X Pect chain X ring 520 comparison
Thought I should post some pictures of rebuilding improvements since mostly what I have done is take things apart. Last week I put the rear end back together, today I put on the new X ring chain. It listed as 134 links and when I counted it came to 133 so they must include the master link. I wanted it as long as possible should I want to add a bigger sprocket front or rear someday. I took four links out to make it 129 links plus the master equals 130 and it adjusts to the back of the swing arm.
It is covered in grease, good for break in, and maybe for a street machine but a dirt magnet on the back road. I took the front sprocket off in keeping with my need to verify that all is well with a critical component, I inspected it and put it back together with Loctite 243 and about 10 nm torque. Peace of mind can sometimes come with a small effort. The rear sprocket has tabs bent to secure the nuts and that as is I will trust. https://i.ibb.co/bvrQ37J/Chain-install-redacted.jpg The CR27 team likes “heavy duty” and in chains that would be 520 in this class of power. I did a quick look to see if there may be something out there for this bike and a limited search revealed not a clue. The sprockets on this bike are from what I could gather patterned off 125 and 150 cc bikes which is a category most likely not scaled up for a 520. The 428 will do a fine job but take a look at this comparison and you will see why a 520 is “heavy duty”. Goes left to right, 520 O ring, 428 O ring, 428 X Ring, and 428 X Ring. https://i.ibb.co/M5zxjYJ/Chain-comparison.jpg |
X pect front end
As the CR27 Team was re-assembling the bike, it seemed like somebody was missing from the team and, oh yaa, that would be you guys, those following this thread! I mean you have been here from the beginning of this bike rebuild, you saw the tear down, so it did not seem right not to show you at least part of the rebuild and it is relevant to Backroad Development. The team got the front end back together and setup to good standards. I lubed the throttle and clutch cables per recommended lubricant on the HAWKS Resource thread, took apart the levers and lubricated with grease the center pins and contact points, and adjusted the throttle and clutch.
A strong electrical system is pretty important on this EFI bike so I removed the negative grounding cable and bolt from the engine and put anti seize (with copper for conduction) on the threads, sanded the wiring connector engine mounting location to remove the paint, and put some dielectric grease under the cable wire connector, bolt head, and engine attachment point which should prevent any corrosion and make disassembly easier should it ever be necessary. https://i.postimg.cc/kgh96877/Front-end-assembly-1.jpg A picture of the left side seal where the lip meets the spacer. The team packed the space inside the seal and between the seal and bearing with waterproof grease. Greasing the lip and the spacer prior to assembly ensures that seal lip is lubricated for long life. One of the teams pet peeves, a dry seal! On the speedometer drive gear right side, the rotating parts of the drive were lubricated and again waterproof grease gobbed in the space around and against the bearing and drive gear. The axle is lightly coated with grease to prevent rust. Ready for more than a few stream crossings do believe. https://i.postimg.cc/vHxydBRc/Seal-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/ht9qf5tn/Seal-3.jpg The Team wanted to make sure the wiring contact issues at the headstock were resolved so we spent some money and time obtaining ½ inch and ¾ inch plastic wiring conduit and added it where the stock conduit ends with a good taping. We then used zip ties to construct a support system top to bottom and side to side to keep the wiring loom off the head light bracket. We also re-routed the clutch cable from outside the loom to an inside location and disconnected the front brake line to reposition it from over the loom to a place under the loom. https://i.postimg.cc/mrBWMyPH/Headstock-wiring-4.jpg HEADS UP! If you take apart the front brake line, be prepared to replace the copper washers that seal the line. We took this one apart, re-routed it and then re-filled it with fresh synthetic DOT 3 brake fluid, got it working good then realized the washers leaked at the master cylinder. Copper washers are used because they compress and after I had tightened it a couple of times it would not compress and seal. Sometimes you can get away with taking it off and replacing it and it will reseal but Murphy’s law rules, what can go wrong will, and it did today, so be ready. I happen to have a pack I got off amazon I was using for another purpose so I drained it and put new washers on. The team has done so much work on these China Bikes the garage is like a parts warehouse! https://i.postimg.cc/vBmR28L8/Brake-...-washers-5.jpg TRIVIA: What is the obvious and new addition to the bike from the picture? |
Fork boots?
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Some guys are quicker than others!
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Working steadily on the improvement, I went it alone this weekend as I gave the CR27 crew the weekend off. Last thing I said to them yesterday was “stay out of jail”, and last I heard was them chanting “CG strong, ride hard” as down the street they went. Good with motorcycles but they are as my dad used to say “bridge building crew rough.”
Today I went after the rust on that gas tank and decided to post in case someone wanted to see how I did not necessarily how you should do it. I was going to use some rust converter called “Extend” made by loctite that turns rust black and then you can paint over it. I reasoned I could get it to flow into those crevices maybe better but after some thought I decided to use naval jelly and it worked well. Took three times to get it to my liking. The extend might be a good idea if you are not going to take it apart. I didn’t want to take the gas sending unit out, I thought, “I will just hit it with the extend,” but there really is no good way to do the job without doing so, and you have to really get a look at it all to see the nature of the damage, so I sucked it up and did what needed to be done. The mounting bolts are square headed and held by a bracket but they move around. One of them was rusted solid. The good thing was the sealing surface for the rubber gasket was not damaged. The rust looks to have taken up where there was no or little paint sprayed. You can see in the final product we are down to bare metal in places. There is also a patch of surface rust on the inside of the tank down at the bottom on one side but that is for another day and time. Tomorrow, primer goes on. Nature of the problem https://i.postimg.cc/h403tH3b/Pix-1.jpg Wire brushed https://i.postimg.cc/XqZZtMZS/Pix-2.jpg Naval Jelly at work https://i.postimg.cc/9FLmZgzy/Naval-jelly-3.jpg Drying for paint https://i.postimg.cc/MTw2h1vW/Pix-4.jpg Tomorrow https://i.postimg.cc/kXQwBKMj/IMG-20...005659-HDR.jpg |
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As a man who loves attention to detail, and as a fellow "take it apart and rebuild it better" enthusiast, I enjoyed this thread so far. I feel like I am back putting my Hawk together lol. |
There you go folks! A tip by a Master China Bike Builder! And creator of the Hawk 250 Resource Guide, the basic bible for working on a China bike for those of you who don’t know.! Ha Hah. Good to have a post from you on the thread! Chime in anytime! If I am doing something wrong, straighten me out! Ha Ha…… the CR27 crew stands in awe of your inspirational China bike work and they would sure like to take your HAWK for a spin around the block! If you know what I mean! CG strong, ride hard!
Your tip makes me think about how you go about rebuilding these China bikes and it costs money to buy the stuff to make it better, not always a lot but still it costs. You can fabricate and rig things and create stuff out of what you have but there is no getting around at times you need money. Part of the great value of a China Bike is they are inexpensive to buy and the parts and modifications are fairly inexpensive but not everybody has the money to buy things to rebuild the bikes or do upgrades so this always has to include how cheaply (inexpensively) you can get something done. Tips like above well illustrate the principle. Then it could be, you don’t have the time to wait for a slow boat from China and you just need to ride! The other lesson is…if you cut corners, you roll the dice, 6 times out of 10 it will bite you! |
Re: Copper banjo fitting washers. It never hurts to lap them flat with some fine (1200-2000 grit) sandpaper on a piece of glass. They tend to accumulate wrinkles and grooves in them from the shapes of the mating surfaces and since you'll never accurately put them back in the same orientation every time this will cause them to leak when reused. I've done this many times and gotten away with reusing them for far more cycles than you probably should. I've never had to anneal one, but that's also an interesting idea.
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X pect handguards Barkbusters
Handguards are required equipment on the backroad to protect against drops as much as anything and the damage it does to levers and handlebars. A good idea is to order a set when you buy your new bike and put them on before you ride it or you will see what I mean. Good time to put on some new grips too.
The X pect has really long levers that stick out on the ends making handguard installation with stock levers impossible. I bought a set of short levers including the mounting brackets and master cylinder for this bike. The team liked the way the stock levers felt and wanted to keep them and I too liked the feel so I put some thought into how it could be done. A spacer is the only way to get clearance and then the logical choice is something that will soften impact so the rubber spacer idea was born but anything could likely be used to space. What you need is a couple of 1 inch rubber spacers, two 1-inch washers, two 1 ¼ inch washers, 100 mm bolts that match the M8 bolts that come with the handguards in size but are longer to add the spacer. At first, I thought the starter control guide pin was drilled in the wrong place on the bar as you can see from the picture the throttle housing sticks out about 5/8-inch past the bar end which would require cutting it off to get the bar end flush. I still think if you do that you will shorten the throttle side like ¼ inch maybe more. I drilled another guide pin hole 5/8 inch to the left which moves it all and it comes out plus ¼ inch or so longer overall and fits nice. Just a little trimming on the end to clear the bar end. You will have to bend the handguard to get it to come around to line up and cut off the tightener where it fits on the bar end. Not a cheap mod, probably $35 total because you have to buy 4 rubber spacers and those stainless beveled bolts only come in four and are $14 but the team likes the idea of some give on the end and I have enough stock to do another bike. The rubber is akin to a rubber mallet in softness. Time will tell if it will hold up! I like that protection on that bar end! Bar end spacing work https://i.postimg.cc/W1vkKmyb/Pix-1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/Qt2t7hGx/pix-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/SxSKCg58/PIx-3.jpg Materials with comparison of 100 mm bolt to stock https://i.postimg.cc/qv1vL8VF/pix-4-materials.jpg Results https://i.postimg.cc/Y0NpmFzb/Cluth-px-5.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/wBtgQZkt/pix-6-right-side.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/TwgxZbFf/pix-7.jpg |
That’s a fantastic mod I need to do.
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X pect tail rack
A good tail rack is mandatory and several weeks ago the team was twiddling their thumbs while waiting for parts for projects half done when the urge to make the rack for this bike came upon them. When the motivation to do a job like this comes upon you, get started before it fades away and that is what we did. Before we began, though, the other three team members wanted to get something off their chest from the get go. Apparently, they were more than a little miffed about the last time a rack was fabricated because after it was completed, I did a blog and took all the credit and they weren’t mentioned! Let me be clear, I did the design and layout and the other team members did the fabrication!
It is pretty much a copy of the rack we did for the HAWK which is inspired by the CSC rack for the TT 250. The bolt pattern is very similar to the HAWK and the difference is probably just a result of loose manufacturing tolerances. There is some slight difference between the two in the shape and curve of the seat back. When the rack gets done, visions of the backroad begin! https://i.postimg.cc/nrhrrk5G/Rack-1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/jq1tytJb/Rack-px-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/bJtcT2nf/Pix-3.jpg |
The mount holes on the TT250 rack are a hair oversized for the bolts, which I suspect was for the same reason your bolt pattern was just slightly off. The TT250 rack isn't a perfect alignment on my Hawk, but close enough that it works anyway thanks to the holes.
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Yaa, I think the racks for all these China Bikes that use that staggered pattern would fit but you need some play to allow for those manufacturing slight variations probably up to 1/4 inch or more really.
This rack is tight as was the Hawk because it is custom made to fit the pattern and this CR27 team is getting good at punching holes for racks. When you tighten it down it squeaks! Haha That rack on your bike was the inspiration. When I first saw it! Wow! Looks like an air spoiler! but very functional too! |
Greetings guys, I don't mean to butt in, but does anyone know of a rear brake lever replacement for an Xpect?
Thanks for any help, I love this forum. |
X-Pect break in
Comes the time to think about how to do “engine break in”. I hesitated to put this post in the thread, because the subject is similar to the topic of oil, everybody has a strong belief and many get emotional about the best way. Truth is, many don’t think about it and it gets done. This post is not meant to tell anyone the best way to break in a new engine. It is simply meant to document how this bike will be broken in and provide information for those new motorcycle owners who want to develop a strategy of their own.
Break in is defined as getting the moving parts of the engine to wear in while in the presence of good quality oil that results in the best result for performance and long life. The most important of these wear in processes being the seating of the piston rings against the engine cylinder. There are different philosophies on how to go about getting that done. The team subscribes to the moderate force approach with emphasis on the first hours of operation which includes changing the oil to remove particles and contaminants. The goal is to get good pressure on the rings with moderate throttle application with deceleration cycles over the first 4-hour period after initial startup. 1) Before start up, the oil gets changed to a known quality wet clutch rated motorcycle or equivalent oil that contains a good amount of ZDDP such as Rotella 15-40W. For this break in, a gallon of Rotella T4 15-40 was purchased. 2) Change the oil after 5 to 10 minutes. This interval is new to this break in procedure as the team had previously made the first oil change at 1 hour. The 5 minutes was suggested by a forum member “Bruces” in a thread on “how often to change oil at break in” and seemed to be better than the 1 hour we had previously used. There is a study on U tube about contaminants in new engines that is “very revealing” and led to this short interval as a means to circulate and flush the engine. 3) We plan to change the oil after 4 hours no matter the miles. I use a timer or a watch to loosely track or approximate the time. The team has broken in two other bikes with this method and after 4 hours they usually end up at around 100 miles on the odometer having been operated mostly in the 0 to 40 mph range. 4) Change the oil at 250 miles. 5) Change the oil to synthetic at 500 miles. Back story: The team developed this break in process several years ago when the HAWK was put together. By now, you know the CR27 Team is particular, and we therefore decided the best possible way to get pressure on the rings during “break in” would be to ride up hill. After some initial operation, I transported the Hawk out to a gravel logging road that began around 200 ft or so elevation climbing out about 5 miles up to about 1900 ft. The motor is pulling most all the time in this situation and up. As I made the way, I would alternately lay on the throttle in the mid-range+ and allow it to decelerate. The first time we tried this course, I got to 1900 ft to turn around and as I did, the HAWK died and would not immediately restart......... I could feel the heat rise up despite the 40-degree air temperature. She was hot after that climb. I rolled off down and bump started her, coughed and spat and off we went down through the easier air of descent. The engine a little tight, carburetor some out of tune, or too much work? Resources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OLHH2Tpva0 http://www.dansmc.com/engine_breakin.htm Ready for break in! https://i.ibb.co/LkGYJWD/Break-1.jpg |
Oil testing at break in
The team they say, since we are doing the break in oil changes anyway, why not do some analysis for the thread to see what we can learn. The riding weather has to be bad to do this stuff right! After draining the shipping oil, we installed the Rotella T-4 with a magnetic oil drain plug to collect any ferrous metal residue that being steel or iron. At each oil change we let the oil drain overnight into a collection tub before we slowly poured off the top to evaluate the residue. Sitting overnight may allow the heavier particles to sink down through that viscosity to the bottom of the tub. Mouse click click on the pictures twice to zoom in and see detail.
Ride time 10-minutes then oil change, mileage 1 mile https://i.postimg.cc/hvhD9XGJ/Test-10-3.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/02Tkw21Q/TEst-10-5.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/8crC2Fg2/Test-10-4.jpg Ride time 1 hour then oil change, mileage 16 miles https://i.postimg.cc/Hxr5LkC2/Drain-plug-residue-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/9fMwxQzh/Drain-plug-clean-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/26LbD949/Oil-drain-residue-2.jpg Ride time 3 3/4-hour then oil change, mileage 93 miles https://i.postimg.cc/7ZBfTr9Q/Drain-plug.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/Jhv0P39N/Cleaned-drain-plug.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/NMXMV9cW/IMG-20...524389-HDR.jpg Picture of couple of nonmagnetic pieces fished out of the bottom of the oil tub and a magnet swirled through that oil with a couple of iron shards. https://i.postimg.cc/q7NcmzVH/residue-pieces.jpg Picture of the oil before pour off the next day after the drain and we see particles in suspension that have a shimmering quality. This is typical of what the team has seen with all CG motors at oil change. It is not magnetic and the consensus is it be clutch friction disc material but whatever it is, it surely churns throughout the motor. https://i.postimg.cc/XYvvWDWK/IMG-20...923539-HDR.jpg Discussion: Metal parts are wearing in creating ferrous metal residue. The small dark pieces in the oil appear to be pieces of gasket material. The small silver reflective pieces appear to be small pieces of aluminum. What we don’t know is the level of contaminants smaller than can be seen with the eye down to some microscopic level (Microns) and what may be their composition metal, fiber, etc. Interesting the make up of the iron material on the magnet is mostly big pieces, long shards, of different shapes. The team has used magnetic drain plugs before and usually you will see a good amount of smudge of metal paste of very small particles almost a liquid attached to the magnet, but this in motors that have some mileage on them and between oil changes. You do not see that here, yet, and that could be just the low mileage between oil changes. The drain plug magnet did not get all the loose ferrous metal as we found a few shards in the bottom of the drain tub but no paste. The team thought going on to a 500 mile change would be good but the curiosity is up so I think will see at 250 |
Question. Were these metal pieces, this metal dust, too small to be caught by the oil filter?
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This question tests the limits of the motorcycle mechanical knowledge of the team as we have never taken apart a CG motor to understand firsthand the workings so if we get this wrong anywhere you motorcycle mechanics out there can clean this up. The CG motor does not have an "oil filter" that one thinks of like a car which forces all oil through a media to trap particles.
There is a screen on the oil pump inlet within the oil sump that prevents large size particles from being sucked into the oil pump so some of these particles would be kept out of the oil pump and others small enough to pass through the screen. If not sucked up into the pressurized oil system they are still in the crankcase where they can still be thrown around in the workings. The second device is called an oil spinner or centrifugal oil filter that sits on the end of the crankshaft and I believe it is connected to the oil pump and as oil enters by force it slings the debris out to be trapped against the sides. The spinner does need to be cleaned so often and also the screen but the oil pump screen faces out so it does not trap particles, it prevents them from entering, think of a sewing thimble shaped screen facing out. To really get the debris out the oil has to be changed. |
I see! For some reason I thought it was set up logically. I figured the “oil filter”, which is actually a screen, yes, would be before the pick up for the pump. So that all oil from the sump had to go through it to be picked up for pumping. I guess not. It would’ve been a better design that way.
May have to pick up the magnetic plug myself. Just to get some of that metal out of there. I didn’t see very much come out on my oil changes. |
To clarify some, again the team are no trained motorcycle mechanics, the oiling system has two parts a "splash" system and the pressurized by an oil pump system. The rotating mechanisms pick up oil from the sump and splash it in the case and the oil pump pressurizes oil to the crank and such and it is pumped up to the top of the head. So some of the debris in this oil may never make it to the oil pump inlet and just keeps getting tossed around.
This is a new engine being broken in so we expect there to be some metal and debris. Like you, I have not noticed much metal in the oil changes on my CG motors but maybe I just never looked hard enough for it. We also expect over time for the metal to decrease. The one test on the residue showed that the magnetic drain plug may not be perfect at catching metal but it is pretty good! One test does not prove it is always that good. WARNING: Beware, the team highly recommends if you use a magnetic drain plug get one made of steel not aluminum. That yellow plug magnet you see in the above posts is a cheap aluminum drain plug that snapped off inside the case! |
Which magnetic steel drain plug do you recommend? What is the thread pitch and length? Thanks for the great work.
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This is the one used in the testing, appears well made and sturdy. The specs on size are in the description. Recommend you do not overtighten. We torque these to 13.6 NM or 10 ft lb but we also use some hylomar (Megadan's idea) for sealant that provides some extra holding power.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 |
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I use wheel bearing grease on the threads as a sealant on every drain plug I own, since in essence it's just ridiculously thick oil. Never had a leak. Might provide some slight extra holding power too, but IDK. |
X-pect 250 mile oil change
Got a weather break yesterday to get in a ride for an oil change at 254 miles. Ridetime total since last oil change 5.5 hours.
Metal magnetic. When I took it out I accidentally rubbed half of the flat end on my glove so it is missing a small portion mostly soup but it is a small amount. https://i.postimg.cc/T3vs27mQ/Metal-debri.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/wjHd4TW6/metal-debri-cleaned.jpg Residue with a piece of hylomar sealant. Few pieces appears of aluminum of larger nature and small reflective material either aluminum or clutch friction disk. https://i.postimg.cc/151x431p/hylomar-residue.jpg Few pieces of magnetic metal from swirling the residue. https://i.postimg.cc/xCVGMhfF/metal-swirl.jpg Discussion: Appears to be a reduction in metal shedding, less magnetic and non magnetic metal and any other debri. This sample taken after 145 miles of riding as compared to the other tests of the first 109 miles of operation. The team has to see what 500 will look like! |
I think your doing a great job of explaining why the oil should be changed frequently when the bike is new! If it was like our cars and had a nice filter system, then not so much worry! My Snapper lawn mower is 15 plus years old and still works great, I believe because of the maintenance that was performed over the years….it doesn’t have an oil filter type system. Just thinking out loud…
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Oil pump intake screen
As the team was putting the bike back together to refill with oil one of the team members reminded me the team leader, we had not cleaned out the oil intake screen since we got this motor running! E—gads! We have been draining the oil from the drain plug. I said that means another post! Right. “You’re killing me with these post requests!” How do we get anything done, we spend half the time blogging about it!
Thinking about it, I would guess there are hundreds of bikes out there that have never had the oil intake screen removed so you can thank the team for this post. The oil intake screen is behind the large chrome fitting with a six point nut head behind the shifter on the left side. There is the nut with a rubber O ring to seal, a screen, and a spring to keep the intake screen compressed against the engine. It uses a 24 mm socket size or wrench but a socket works best with an extension and you will have to lift the shifter up to turn it or remove the shifter completely. It is under pressure when you remove it so be ready. Checking and cleaning of these screens is needed from time to time but at least once during break in. Screen sitting over intake after the nut and spring are removed. https://i.postimg.cc/j5NYLVyc/Oil-intake-screen.jpg Dirty screen and some on my finger after I touched it. https://i.postimg.cc/8z58Lfhj/Dirty-screen.jpg Close up of the screen with big pieces of aluminum stuck to it and something looks like cloth carpet residue. https://i.postimg.cc/fyKF9Myc/Closeup-dirty-screen.jpg Clean out. https://i.postimg.cc/xTfBSNpt/Cleanout.jpg |
That’s the “oil filter” I was talking about with you the other day. Surprised you forgot about it after talking about it.
I had smaller metallic sheen in the drain plug effluent. Nothing in this screen. |
Love this thread.... What shift lever did you replace the stock one with? My new Xpect arrived yesterday, wanna replace the stocker. Thanks!
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