1985 Cdn RZ350F Mid-life Crisis over-haul

[Redline Junkie]

Ok Guys, it has been over a 1.5 years since I found this RZ on Kijiji for a very good price. Now I have finally got around to starting my build thread. The above pictures were take the day the bike landed at my buddy garage as I was away at the time it arrived. The bike was in storage for 14 years and was bone stock in every way except the rear fender was in the box of parts that came with the bike. The Ignition was toast as someone tried to steal it once but the PO gave me a OEM ignition in the box, along with the tool kit and manual. The bike had 33,000k and had been laid down on one side.

The build has been slow due to a busy family and work life with 3 little kids, but it is coming along pretty good now.

[JonW]

wow, looks great and doesnt need much at all... a steal at 450!

[tzrz350]

Nice project, you had it for a very good price, even for Canada!

What are you planning to do on it ?

[Redline Junkie]

Although the purchase price was cheap the bike still had some issues like pin holes in the tank, badly gummed carbs and tank, several spots of fairing damage and broken tabs, original pistons with the rings gummed, etc.. The list was not that bad but following the advise of forum member I decided to do a complete tear-down of the engine to install new crank seals.

Well you know how it's goes, once you start you better open your wallet because I soon decided to do a complete restoration of the bike, including fairing repairs and paint.

So the fun began, I first went to work with stripping the bike down.

[Redline Junkie]

The next thing I hacked at was the tank, I used a 3M disc on the mini grinder to remove the paint and see what I had to work with. The tank was pretty clean inside when it came to rust and only had one small dent.

[JonW]

Other than the tin worm thats a lovely tank. I still reckon you had a steal, the bike really is all there and in reasonable condition for its age. I started with much worse/less and paid much the same lol

[Redline Junkie]

Once I had the paint removed and identified the holes I sent the tank to the local Rad shop for lining. They lined the inside and sprayed the outside with a polyurethane (black) for added protection.



Next the tank went off to the paint shop for a dent repair and priming.

[Redline Junkie]

Well now that the tank was underway, I turned my attention to the motor. The bike had sat for 14 years in a garage and it sure looked liked it. The bike was covered in a layer of dust and dirt and it looked like it had developed a coolant leak that ran down the block.

As you can see the power valves and pistons very very heavily fouled up, looks like the PO ran no name chain saw oil for years. The rings were stuck on both pistons but the good news is that the engine has never even had a wrench on it or been hacked at by some bone head. It was evident the cylinders had never even been off. This would backup what the PO had told, when I asked if anything was done to the engine, he said nothing! The bike had 33,000 KM's on the clock.

[nokturnal]

Wow. I have never seen that much blow by, ever, and I have taken apart quite a few old nasty RZ engines.

[Redline Junkie]

The tear down of the transmission went with pretty smooth with no damage or problems. The crank seals were HARD as flint and compared to the new seal pretty much fell off the crank, no life let in them at all. The 2 outer crank bearing seemed ok but I changed them just in case.

I built a nice little stand to hold the block, worked great! I also gathered lots of parts, the Piston are not OEM, don't hate me. Next time I will buy OEM pistons!

[tubeglower]

nice work! Can you put more info on the stand? do you bolt it to the silentblock links holes?

[Redline Junkie]

Yes the base is an H pattern with 1 riser bar that has a piece of 1" square tubing at the top. I use the 2 bolts that hold the stabilizer bars to the bottom of the block. Very solid little stand.

[Redline Junkie]

Since I had the block split I decided to match the block to the cylinder ports. You can see the area that needs to be removed in the first pic and the finished product in the second pic, I know guys this is pretty boring stuff.

[Redline Junkie]

The Transmission was in great shape and needed nothing. Once I got to the clutch I found some FZ750 plates on Ebay for $5.00 each plus $7 shipping. I was impressed with the gained surface area!!!

[JonW]

Did you run those FZ750 plates with your old steels?