First ride on new engine turned out not so good

oxnard111

Creative RE Purchasing
Finally got my engine assembled on thrusday and had everything installed for the first ride this morning. Engine ran great. I can tell once broken in the engine will have tons of power. Ran about 2.5 gallons of fuel through it and went back in to re torque the head bolts and do a visual inspection.

Running a Riva girdled head 35cc 81mm domes. I followed Riva's torque recommendations. Went to re torque and one of the head bolt hole threads stripped out. Upon further inspection one of the hex girdle nuts had backed off. Yikes! The hex nut going onto the case stud stripped. With a washer I couldn't get it to grab a thread while without the washer it was holding on by 1-2 threads, just enough to get it tight enough to flush out my ski.

Over all it sucks. Tired of working on this thing. I'm in the market for a better head. I'm thinking I don't want a removable dome head. My thoughts are to get a Pro Tec cast recreational head with either a 1/2 or 3/4 girdled kit. Unless somebody has a better suggestion. Going to call Art at jetworks tomorrow and see which he recommends.

I'm hoping that if I do go with the protec setup that my existing girdle studs will work with the Protec girdle kit.

Did a compression test after that 2.5 gallon ride and compression is at 169 & 171 lbs.
 

brett

-------------
Location
Ventura,ca
that sucks man. must be a defect in the metal or something. sure you didnt cross thread it when you put it on originally?
 
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oxnard111

Creative RE Purchasing
that sucks man. must be a defect in the metal or something. sure you didnt cross thread it when you put it on originally?

I have ran the engine with the Riva head since I purchased it two years ago. This was the first time it has ever been removed. The whole girdle kit and head were not in the best shape. I think the hex nut was done already. When it was previously installed it was probably on a different stud that didn't sit as low as the stud it is presently on.

The cylinder thread was not cross threaded.
 

chrisdoc0608

insulting
Location
rocky mount, nc
check out the sharkfab head.... just like an ada and uses same domes. and the girdle bolts make it so when the head is removed the cylinder remains attached to the cases unlike the traditional girdle studs and its cheaper than ada
 

tightithrash

Zack Bright. I Thrash.
Site Supporter
Location
Oceanside, CA
yeah that sucked brotha, you shouldnt have touched it! haha jokin but yeah, today woulda been a fun day....

got ripped off my ski trying to sub through the on coming wave, i commited and was too late to turn around. by the time i got to my ski i didnt have enough time to put in the lanyard....yeah....learned that lesson... got thrown over the falls, lost the ski, and got stuck in the zone.

geoff helped me get back to the ski and it got water in the carbs but got it fired up on the beach. did it all over again but held the ski, water in the carbs agian and killed my battery. had to tow it back with my buddys ski...

It was pretty heavy out there, good time, youll get it runnin soon. wanted to see how the power was and see if thats a direction im gonna take. just bad luck man!:woot::ugh2:

you think it happend just because its a Riva......?
 

Matt_E

steals hub caps from cars
Site Supporter
Location
at peace
need to timesert the cylinder, but damn those kits are expensive. Fastenal is the only place in town that I will probably be able to find it, and it will be $70.


I have the Timecert toolkit (and maybe a couple of inserts) for going M10 to M8.
If that's what you need, let me know and you can borrow the kit for shipping.
 
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