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I needed to get from Windsor to Hamilton (about 6 hrs on smaller highways, 3 on the superslabs) a few weeks ago. I had taken the little CL350 to windsor originally to work on it, but did not have the time to do so. The trip was pretty uneventful other than trying to outrun a severe thunderstorm, while battling a blowing main fuse when the bike got too hot. A few replacement fuses later I got home intact.
I figured the trip back up would be pretty uneventful as well, and took my time this trip. Great trip up on a Sunday afternoon, met some interesting people that stopped me whenever they saw me to talk to me about this little '72 350. The only problem I had, was a bit of an oil leak.
Fast forward a few weeks. No problems with the bike other than some hard starting, and some weak idling. I figured this was due to a bad exhaust leak I had managed to plug, but not perfectly. The leak managed to get far worse just while sitting after the trip back up, and when I fired her up last time I forgot to check the oil!!! Big mistake.
Oil was low.
It was a little warm that day as well. Needless to say, the engine partially seized on me. Not fully, as I was able to get it moving again fairly easily once there was actually oil in it. So now comes the hard part - repair. The bike still runs, but backfires in the upper RPM range. There is some loss of power as well. I am guessing I will need to replace the head, and I need to as well to fix the exhaust leak as well as the oil leak. But what could be causing the backfiring? This is when the bike is under hard acceleration, not deceleration. I am going to guess timing, but nothing really changed on the bike. Perhaps the cam chain could use some re-adjustment again? Any thoughts on this, and what I should be doing to bring this old girl back to running condition? I am looking for two options here: Repair the current setup enough to ride back to windsor (my garage) so I can replace the head completely. Option 2 is the actual head replacement. I have never taken the head off of any motor, furthest I have been into a motor has been the clutch and replacing the cams on the XJ. This will be a whole new experience for me.
Should I just be looking for a new motor?
I figured the trip back up would be pretty uneventful as well, and took my time this trip. Great trip up on a Sunday afternoon, met some interesting people that stopped me whenever they saw me to talk to me about this little '72 350. The only problem I had, was a bit of an oil leak.
Fast forward a few weeks. No problems with the bike other than some hard starting, and some weak idling. I figured this was due to a bad exhaust leak I had managed to plug, but not perfectly. The leak managed to get far worse just while sitting after the trip back up, and when I fired her up last time I forgot to check the oil!!! Big mistake.
Oil was low.
It was a little warm that day as well. Needless to say, the engine partially seized on me. Not fully, as I was able to get it moving again fairly easily once there was actually oil in it. So now comes the hard part - repair. The bike still runs, but backfires in the upper RPM range. There is some loss of power as well. I am guessing I will need to replace the head, and I need to as well to fix the exhaust leak as well as the oil leak. But what could be causing the backfiring? This is when the bike is under hard acceleration, not deceleration. I am going to guess timing, but nothing really changed on the bike. Perhaps the cam chain could use some re-adjustment again? Any thoughts on this, and what I should be doing to bring this old girl back to running condition? I am looking for two options here: Repair the current setup enough to ride back to windsor (my garage) so I can replace the head completely. Option 2 is the actual head replacement. I have never taken the head off of any motor, furthest I have been into a motor has been the clutch and replacing the cams on the XJ. This will be a whole new experience for me.
Should I just be looking for a new motor?
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