Since I bought my Speedy I've always had a vague notion of putting a 1050 engine into it at some point. I was idly scrolling in a Facebook group recently and came across a deal that I couldn't pass up, £350 for a 2012 engine with 20k miles, brand new gearbox under warranty less than 500 miles ago (PO loved to wheelie through gears) and... an unknown knocking noise. The PO stopped it when the knocking developed and found it cheaper to swap the engine than get the fault diagnosed. He had no idea what was wrong and had left it in the garage for months after the swap.
I figured "Why not?" and bought it, time to make room in the shed! Here it is in its new home:
I'm going to detail all the inspection and refurb work on the engine in this thread, I'll start another about getting it into my bike and link it later.
My initial thought was the cam chain may have snapped so the first thing I did after getting it situated was to take off the cam cover. I was pleased to find the cam chain was intact, but the intake cam was about 5 teeth out of alignment, oh dear.
Since the timing was out the valves may have gotten friendly with the pistons I took the head off, and aside from a lot of carbon everything looked very healthy. There was no sign of damage to the valves or piston crowns and the head gasket looked fine. Wahay!
I refitted the head and re-timed the engine, then turned it over by hand. No knocking or grinding was evident, and it turned over smoothly so hopefully no spun bearings. I took the opportunity to check the valve clearances, which were largely out of spec :/
I wanted to check everything related to the cam chain to see if anything had failed, as I couldn't see why the timing was out. My first stop was the cam chain tensioner to see if it had failed. It looked absolutely fine and the spring was about 69.8mm long, so not far off the 70mm I've seen quoted in various places.
Next I took the cam chain out to check if it was stretched, but I needed to get the sprag clutch off first. Triumph charge £33.14 for the correct tool, sod that! I made my own tool from a length of plate and two old exhaust studs.
With the sprag off (and looking in fine fettle) I took the cam chain out. Visually it looked unworn, as did the drive and camshaft sprockets. The service manual provides a spec for chain stretch when hung with a 13kg weight, so I had to get a little creative to measure it. I also had to wait til my partner was out, oily tools and engine bits aren't allowed in the kitchen!
It was well within spec however so again good news. I checked the cam chain rubbing blades for wear and the front one was unworn. The tensioner rubbing blade however had some wear, but the service manual doesn't give any guide for what is too much. They're £64 new so I contacted Triumph for advice, apparently this level of wear (approx. 0.8mm deep at worst) is normal and acceptable so I've kept it. I also asked about the spec for the cam chain tensioner spring and was told there isn't one, so I'm not sure where this 70mm figure came from.
So far, so good. Although... since I have the engine on the 'bench', I might as well strip the whole thing down to be sure, right?!
To split the cases you need to take off:
Before I started stripping all of that off, I took the took head back off and spent some time cleaning the gasket faces. I scraped off all the carbon I could from the valves and I managed to get most of the carbon off the combustion chamber and piston crowns using IPA, degreaser and an old dish brush. I forgot to take before pictures, but they look loads better! I have no idea how to get the rest off without some kind of scraper, but I don't want to risk damaging the bores or piston crowns.
I bought a clutch locking tool off ebay, removed the clutch and inspected all the plates. They were all within spec and unwarped, and the stack height was within spec as well. At this point I used a set of mole grips on the selector shaft to check all the gears engaged properly and input/output shafts turn smoothly with no grinding.
My next target was the oil pump, which again needs an expensive tool from Triumph according to the service manual. I managed to re-use my sprag tool to lock the drive sprocket and get it undone Once the pump was off I found a piece of gasket paper in it, not good! The rotor tip and body clearances were healthy but the pump end clearance was out of spec, and the face of the pump rotor was quite scored, further bad news
I started on the on the other side of the engine with the water pump and thermostat. I couldn't split the water pump but the impeller looked fine through the ports in the pump housing. I tested the thermostat and it did open in boiling water, so it went back in the head. One of the stator cover threads was toast so that got helicoiled, and the stator looks fine and checks out with a multimeter.
Removing the alternator rotor was a bit of a pain. The locking tool and puller from Triumph are… very expensive as usual. I tried a few strap wrenches from ebay but none of them would grip the rotor, so I ended up having to spend on a proper tool (Sealey VS1813 for future reference).
I figured "Why not?" and bought it, time to make room in the shed! Here it is in its new home:
I'm going to detail all the inspection and refurb work on the engine in this thread, I'll start another about getting it into my bike and link it later.
My initial thought was the cam chain may have snapped so the first thing I did after getting it situated was to take off the cam cover. I was pleased to find the cam chain was intact, but the intake cam was about 5 teeth out of alignment, oh dear.
Since the timing was out the valves may have gotten friendly with the pistons I took the head off, and aside from a lot of carbon everything looked very healthy. There was no sign of damage to the valves or piston crowns and the head gasket looked fine. Wahay!
I refitted the head and re-timed the engine, then turned it over by hand. No knocking or grinding was evident, and it turned over smoothly so hopefully no spun bearings. I took the opportunity to check the valve clearances, which were largely out of spec :/
I wanted to check everything related to the cam chain to see if anything had failed, as I couldn't see why the timing was out. My first stop was the cam chain tensioner to see if it had failed. It looked absolutely fine and the spring was about 69.8mm long, so not far off the 70mm I've seen quoted in various places.
Next I took the cam chain out to check if it was stretched, but I needed to get the sprag clutch off first. Triumph charge £33.14 for the correct tool, sod that! I made my own tool from a length of plate and two old exhaust studs.
With the sprag off (and looking in fine fettle) I took the cam chain out. Visually it looked unworn, as did the drive and camshaft sprockets. The service manual provides a spec for chain stretch when hung with a 13kg weight, so I had to get a little creative to measure it. I also had to wait til my partner was out, oily tools and engine bits aren't allowed in the kitchen!
It was well within spec however so again good news. I checked the cam chain rubbing blades for wear and the front one was unworn. The tensioner rubbing blade however had some wear, but the service manual doesn't give any guide for what is too much. They're £64 new so I contacted Triumph for advice, apparently this level of wear (approx. 0.8mm deep at worst) is normal and acceptable so I've kept it. I also asked about the spec for the cam chain tensioner spring and was told there isn't one, so I'm not sure where this 70mm figure came from.
So far, so good. Although... since I have the engine on the 'bench', I might as well strip the whole thing down to be sure, right?!
To split the cases you need to take off:
- All the engine covers
- Water pump
- Clutch
- Oil pump sprocket and chain
Before I started stripping all of that off, I took the took head back off and spent some time cleaning the gasket faces. I scraped off all the carbon I could from the valves and I managed to get most of the carbon off the combustion chamber and piston crowns using IPA, degreaser and an old dish brush. I forgot to take before pictures, but they look loads better! I have no idea how to get the rest off without some kind of scraper, but I don't want to risk damaging the bores or piston crowns.
I bought a clutch locking tool off ebay, removed the clutch and inspected all the plates. They were all within spec and unwarped, and the stack height was within spec as well. At this point I used a set of mole grips on the selector shaft to check all the gears engaged properly and input/output shafts turn smoothly with no grinding.
My next target was the oil pump, which again needs an expensive tool from Triumph according to the service manual. I managed to re-use my sprag tool to lock the drive sprocket and get it undone Once the pump was off I found a piece of gasket paper in it, not good! The rotor tip and body clearances were healthy but the pump end clearance was out of spec, and the face of the pump rotor was quite scored, further bad news
I started on the on the other side of the engine with the water pump and thermostat. I couldn't split the water pump but the impeller looked fine through the ports in the pump housing. I tested the thermostat and it did open in boiling water, so it went back in the head. One of the stator cover threads was toast so that got helicoiled, and the stator looks fine and checks out with a multimeter.
Removing the alternator rotor was a bit of a pain. The locking tool and puller from Triumph are… very expensive as usual. I tried a few strap wrenches from ebay but none of them would grip the rotor, so I ended up having to spend on a proper tool (Sealey VS1813 for future reference).