Went to the shop today to retrieve my seat. Even though it's been less than a week, since I dropped it off, I still liked checking on it as my garage sure has a lot of extra room in it now.

One thing was it was not in the main part of the shop. It was in a storage part of the shop and had not been touched. I know the owner said he was going to drop the heads off at a machine shop on Monday, but nothing on the bike has been touched yet, not even the electrical problem. Oh well. It hasn't been very long and it will be ready when it's ready, but on the other hand, I could have been riding and just brought it in when they would be ready to work on it instead of just sitting there. I know I know, I am over anxious.

 

In my experience when you take your bike to a shop they put you at the end of the line. Depending on their work load it could be a while before they start it.

One of the reasons I have learned to do my own work.

 

I called the shop this afternoon to see if they had opened up a can of worms or if things were ok. I was somewhat disappointed to learn that it's still sitting in a corner and they might try to get to it on Tuesday. He said he checked with his head guy and that is all set up. He said once he starts on it, it's only going to take a day to do everything. I asked him to please pull the saddlebags off as well as the sissy bar and I would pick them up late tomorrow afternoon because I want to start refurbishing the saddlebags and doing a few things while I am waiting on the engine work.

My Jeep is running OK, so it will have to pacify me until then. I'm missing out on some nice riding because the weather has been great, no rain, and the temperature has dropped down to the upper 70's. I hope the end result is worth it.

 

I decided to call the shop this morning to check on the progress since today is October 23 and I dropped the bike off October 1. I wasn't exactly thrilled when I was told they haven't touched it yet. I kept my cool because my seat is in the upholstery shop anyway. Afterwards he told me that he will be pulling the heads off today and bringing them to a machine shop to have them shaved. He said the machine shop usually takes about a week before he gets them back. I really wish that they would have pulled the heads and taken it to the machine shop shortly after I dropped the bike off that way the heads could have been getting worked on while they worked on the other bikes in their shop, but it is what it is. Hopefully he will get right to it as soon as the heads come back from machining.

During lunch, he called me back. He asked if I wanted new pistons. I asked what was he talking about because we never talked about pulling the jugs, that this was just a cam change with a few add ons and a bump in compression. He then said that they noticed the cylinders were scarred, especially the rear one and that he would hate to go this far and put together knowing it's like that. I agreed with him. He then asked if I wanted just rings or new pistons as well. I told him it depends on the severity of the scarring. If it is really messed up where the pistons are damaged, then sure, replace the pistons but if they are fine, then there is no use replacing them needlessly. He wasn't sure what to do, so I told him I can't make that determination without seeing it myself, so do what he thinks is best. He said it wasn't that bad, and they would just be using a ball hone to take care of it.

On the one hand, I am a bit disappointed about this additional work that I was not expecting, especially on a bike that was running perfectly fine. On the other hand, I end up with a refreshed engine that will be tighter and run better and hopefully will not need to be opened in for a very long time. Another thing I was thinking about is at the start of this thread, my complaint was vibration at 70 mph and higher. Since the rear cylinder had more scarring than the front, perhaps that was the cause of some of it and I might end up with a slightly smoother running engine. I recorded a short video, mostly to try to capture of the sound of my exhaust, using my phone a while back. Since I was using my phone, the audio wasn't very good and the exhaust tone didn't sound like it does in real life. An odd phenomenon was that the sound in the video captured a lot of mechanical engine noise that isn't heard normally and that has always troubled me. Maybe that was the first indication of something not being quite right. On the other hand, the guy said it wasn't that bad for a bike with 30,000 miles.

Anyway, I just wanted to post an update and see what you guys thought.

Should I tell him to cancel the head work and just go with new 9.5:1 pistons since there is scarring present which might suggest the need for new pistons anyway? Should I get it slightly bored?

I want to end up with a bike that runs well, is reliable, has a lot of low to mid range torque, quick throttle response, and can take advantage of 91 octane gas which is what I put it all the time anyway. The cam I am using is the EV13 and Andrews recommends 9.25:1 compression with it.

 

The delay is common in shops as when you bring your in you go to the end of the list.

As for all of a sudden needing jug work how much do you know about the shop?
I find it suspicious when I bring in something for repair and there is all of a sudden a more expensive repair needed.

As for which to do between pistons and heads I spoke to a local builder a while back and he told me to do the heads to help air flow.

 

I am off of work on Friday, so my plan is to go by the shop to have a look at this scarring myself to put my mind at ease about this. It also will help me make a better determination on what way to go with this.

Long ago, this shop was run by a fantastic couple but he went out of business. Then somebody else bought it and it was pretty bad. They sold it to the current owner and I haven't had much dealings with them, although I think the vibe is pretty good and seems like a decent enough guy, just not too organized with scheduling time. I think he's going to do a good job for me. The fact that it was running fine is what bothers me about this additional work coming up. I don't think 30,000 miles is an excessive amount of miles on an evolution, so the idea that "well, the bike has 30,000 miles on it" statement regarding the scarring kind of seems off when these evo's are known to go ten times that without being opened up at all. On the other hand, I am not the original owner, so who knows what happened before. I have had this bike for five years and it has been trouble free except for the brakes, so that is why this seems so unexpected.

I think a visit to the shop on Friday to have a look myself will ease my mind. I guess I am not going to the Lonestar Rally in Galveston as planned since my bike is still down.

I brought my bike in at the start of my vacation. My vacation came and went and I went back to work. I have vacation again attached to my days off starting this Friday, and my bike will probably not be ready until my vacation is over. My vacation this time is 11 days.

There were only a couple of bikes in the shop when I first brought it in. Now there are a lot of bikes, and I see some being worked on with the engines all apart that were not there when I dropped mine off, so that is partly why I am disappointed in how long this is taking.

At least at the end of the day, whatever happens, I'll have any major work I wanted done to it completed and that will be the end of it and anything else that pops up I can take care of myself.

So much for my simple cam change. Maybe I should get a secondary bike to use for when this one is down.

 

Man your ride has been there for 21 days & still not touch ,I would have pulled it out ,& either fixed myself or found another shop , after all you said about other bikes coming in after yours

 

I'm gonna have to agree with Cowboy on this one.
They only had 2 bikes in the shop when you dropped yours off.
They didn't touch it for 21 days.
Now they are telling you that more work is necessary.

Something don't sound right.

 

We'll see how it goes Friday. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there were more bikes there than I realized when I dropped it off, but I do know there were crap loads more afterwards.

Getting back to the more technical aspect, if the pistons need to be changed, should I go with stockers and stay with my plan to remove .040" from the heads or should I forego the minor headwork and increase the compression via pistons that may need replacing anyway?

To me, evo's with slightly elevated compression run better, smoother, and have a wider power band, better throttle response, etc. than stock compression. They even sound a little better.

I ride slower than most people and most of my riding is around 55 mph on country roads or in town 35-45 mph. I make the occasional weekend road trip, which I want to start doing more and get into cross country trips, hence the pile of accessories brown has delivered in the last three weeks.

 

I would go as planed , If that's your riding style ,