Polished Tri-Z Engine

[El Camexican]

Just an empty shell for now. Waiting to hear back from any of three possible sources on a billet stator cover as this deserves one.

Not sure exactly how many hours went it to this so far, but I’ve been working on it during hockey games for a few months now limiting the amount of machine buffing as much as possible as it rounds off edges and makes for a cheap look in my opinion.

Unfortunately the quantity of the castings, particularly the cylinder are very pourus, so a lot of defects had to be accepted.

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Did anyone find the hidden message?

[christph]

I don't usually care for polished engines, but that's nice. A hidden message? I saw the reflection of you holding up 3 fingers in the first picture, but not sure what it means.

[ironchop]

Got DAMN!!!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180418/e46e2ca550b55798a24103dc3718c580.jpg

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[Kamnahrt]

Looks down right awesome man. I feel sorry for your finger tips!

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[ezmoney1979]

Damn............... Amazing job my friend:beer

[El Camexican]

I don't usually care for polished engines, but that's nice. A hidden message? I saw the reflection of you holding up 3 fingers in the first picture, but not sure what it means.

You got it, the three finger salute was embedded in the clutch cover. I take it you haven’t been to Trikefest yet.

[El Camexican]

Looks down right awesome man. I feel sorry for your finger tips!

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LOL! My iPhones haven’t recognized any of the three fingerprints I have in them for months. It will be interesting to see if the grow back to the point of being recognizable again.

[3 Wheel Drive]

Looking good! Did you go OCD on polishing your carb too?

[El Camexican]

Looking good! Did you go OCD on polishing your carb too?

Ha ha! Fracking Milner got the nice one and a polished shock too. The aluminum in the PJ carbs seems to be better quality than the Air Strikers, so I don’t thing I’m going to polish another carb.

[Aulbaugh]

Very impressive! I'm glad I put my shades on to help with all that bling! I might have been blinded.

[knappyfeet]

Wow.....new studs...fasteners...intake.....everything.

Well done Mr. Suave!

[El Camexican]

Wow.....new studs...fasteners...intake.....everything.

Well done Mr. Suave!

Thanks full build thread is pending, all new everything with yellow hardware wherever possible. I have everything but the stator cover. Hitting some dead ends on that must have bit of bling.

[BOB MARLIN]

Man, that looks like a lot of work so far. I really like that adjustable engine stand.

[3 Wheel Drive]

Are you going to polish the engine brackets? I got lucky and found some on eBay for mine, the polished finished has held up pretty nice on both my clutch cover & brackets.

I got a few small pieces from guys on 3ww for my engine: SS sprocket bolt & collar, aluminum shifter, billet stator cover, aluminum oil cap, and SS brake pin. One of these days I’ll polish my Calfab swing arm & put it on.

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[Red Rider]

LOL! My iPhones haven’t recognized any of the three fingerprints I have in them for months. It will be interesting to see if the grow back to the point of being recognizable again.Yeah, mine never work after I've been out in the garage for a while. In your first set of pics, the engine in the middle has the kickstart lever on backwards, or is that a YZ engine?

[El Camexican]

Are you going to polish the engine brackets? I got lucky and found some on eBay for mine, the polished finished has held up pretty nice on both my clutch cover & brackets.

I got a few small pieces from guys on 3ww for my engine: SS sprocket bolt & collar, aluminum shifter, billet stator cover, aluminum oil cap, and SS brake pin. One of these days I’ll polish my Calfab swing arm & put it on.

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The aluminum mounts at the front and the head stay? Mine are buffed, but they're on the trike.

I'm drooling over the stator cover, where did you get it? The rest I can live without, but if you're looking to sell the cover let me know.

What's the story on the double nut on your swing-arm bolt?

[El Camexican]

I really like that adjustable engine stand.

Me too, they’re “almost” perfect.

I was planning to build some and started looking online to see what others had done when I ran into these from Fly Racing. If you consider the cost of the materials and paying yourself $10 an hour you can’t build them for the price. I ordered one to see if it was any good and two more as soon as I looked at the quality of first one.

I used the word “almost” for a reason. The issues I’ve encountered so far are as follows:

- The bolts provided to pass through the cases look to be 3/8” which is larger than most of our older engines used
- The mounts can’t be raised or lowered after the engine is mounted as they need to be spun in the stand. I would have preferred something that was adjustable with the engine in place. So you have to place your engine on the ground and take some measurements before you mount it in the stand. Easy enough on a bottom end, but an assembled 4 stroke would be best mounted with a second set ogf hands
- In order to get a KTM 2 stroke to mount up I had to grind some material off the mount tabs. Not a big deal, but these are not plug and play in all cases.

They’re the cats pajamas for storing bullets.




In your first set of pics, the engine in the middle has the kickstart lever on backwards, or is that a YZ engine?

Backwards on a TriZ. Just looks better that way when out of the frame.

[Shep1970]

Those cases look great! Browsing ebay right now and saw this/ figure you may have missed it or its not what your looking for, I know squat about Tri-z’s https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F26 3599139822

Shep

[El Camexican]

Unbelievable! There were 2 covers on eBay! I’v been looking on there for over 6 months with no dice and then this, thank you so much!!!

I bought the other one that looks more like 3WD’s. It’s used, but I prefer the look.

[Tri-Z 250]

Thanks Shep good looking out.

[Shep1970]

I’m glad it worked out.. was going to offer to try to cast a cover out of aluminum but figured he wanted to be done sanding/ polishing. I kinda figured stock covers must be plastic? I’m always looking for things to sand cast but it’s great that it worked out this way.

Shep

[schlepp29]

that's downright fancy!

[Tri-Z 250]

I’m glad it worked out.. was going to offer to try to cast a cover out of aluminum but figured he wanted to be done sanding/ polishing. I kinda figured stock covers must be plastic? I’m always looking for things to sand cast but it’s great that it worked out this way.

Shep
You figured right they are a Fiber resin plastic cover not pretty, but hold up. Just a thought but a CR500 Case for a reverse kicker setup would blow the 3WW up. Might be a joint effort between some experts but could you imagine if it was pulled off? You make the market on roller R's go through the roof.

[this old rz]

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Dude...get on with your bad self! That's allot of work, I sanded & polished a Honda NSR wheel once, I had about 20-25 hr's into that...Your motor is WAYyyy more complicated. Looks really nice, be proud of your effort!

[poolieZerUK]

Nice.

I polished a clutch cover for the tri z and it was a lot of work but looked ok in the end I was thinking of doing the full engine but too much work for me.

With them being a bit weak to start with I was a bit concerned about the amount of material I was removing to get down to flat alloy that could be polished.

It's been ok up to now I think a lot of the issues with broken clutch covers is down to setting up the kicker to hit the foot peg as a stop before it bottoms out so to speak.

[El Camexican]

Nice.

I polished a clutch cover for the tri z and it was a lot of work but looked ok in the end I was thinking of doing the full engine but too much work for me.

With them being a bit weak to start with I was a bit concerned about the amount of material I was removing to get down to flat alloy that could be polished.

It's been ok up to now I think a lot of the issues with broken clutch covers is down to setting up the kicker to hit the foot peg as a stop before it bottoms out so to speak.

As far as I can figure the issue with over rotating the kicker is that you can punch a hole in the cases (not the clutch cover) The clutch cover gets broken when that weird spring that clips onto the gear and has a tab that sits in the cases gets loose.

Here is an excerpt from a very boring Tri Z rebuild thread I've been working on.

The right side cases seem to have issues over time as well, especially in the kick start return mechanism area. The most prevalent issue I’m encountering happens when the kick start lever is positioned too far back on the shaft splines, or the foot peg bends and allows the kick lever to go too far forward. When this happens the tab on the return mechanism over-rotates and punches a hole through the cases and may even get stuck in it.


The second issue, likely rare, but sure enough it happened to one of the engines I have, is that the spring clip that fits in the square hole recess in the RH case can rust to the gear and will snap the aluminum tab off the cases when someone tries to kick it over for the first time in years and the clip is stuck. Let that be a warning to anyone with a barn find Tri-Z that’s itching to fire it up. Pull the plug and try to turn the engine over with the kick lever by hand. If it resists you need to pull it apart, don’t try to turn it over with your foot. Also keep your eyes open for damaged bolt holes on this side of the cases as it has the majority of the threaded holes in it. Even if the threads aren’t stripped the cases the can crack around the holes if they’ve been overtightened.


The third and most common issue with this side of the engine is also related to the kick start assembly, but the damage occurs to the clutch cover rather than the cases. What happens is that the same spring clip mentioned above starts to wear and lose tension and becomes loose on the gear. This spring must have resistance to slipping in order to retract the starter gear to its stationary position. If it doesn’t, the starter gear won’t fully disengage from the idler gear in time to avoid the force of the running engine. This will jar the starter gear on the worm shaft before it can retract and crack the clutch cover. These spring clips are still available from Yamaha for a few bucks and should be changed out with some sort of frequency unless you happen to have an abundance of spare clutch covers.

FYI, that stator cover guy hasn't responded, but thanks just the same :beer

[3 Wheel Drive]

The aluminum mounts at the front and the head stay? Mine are buffed, but they're on the trike.

I'm drooling over the stator cover, where did you get it? The rest I can live without, but if you're looking to sell the cover let me know.

What's the story on the double nut on your swing-arm bolt?

I got my stator cover from the 3ww shop years ago when I built my Z there was plenty of inventory. I got greenboys pegs for my Zinger and Tri Z. Also picked up some trick Tecate parts that were in stock. I had a friend put my Z together for me and it came back with 2 nuts on it.

[Tri-Z 250]

^^^Went to the link above, hit the buy it now...2days it was at my door, came with a billet spark plug end cap(for your spare fanny pack plug). The pick does show lines but really understates the look. I will describe it as a smooth finish with a flip flop vertical wave finish. If you rotate the part it has a wave like hologram look. It would not take much to if a flat polished look was more suited. I'd inquire with Mean Machine as he's on top of his eBay sales might finish it as needed.

[El Camexican]

^^^Went to the link above, hit the buy it now...2days it was at my door, came with a billet spark plug end cap(for your spare fanny pack plug). The pick does show lines but really understates the look. I will describe it as a smooth finish with a flip flop vertical wave finish. If you rotate the part it has a wave like hologram look. It would not take much to if a flat polished look was more suited. I'd inquire with Mean Machine as he's on top of his eBay sales might finish it as needed.

Put some pics up please.

Mine is "in the mail" Seller went to a three wheeler race and couldn't ship till this week. I may still get one like yours as well.

Did anyone see the 310 Tri-Z top end that was on eBay?

[NEWDUCK]

^^^Went to the link above, hit the buy it now...2days it was at my door, came with a billet spark plug end cap(for your spare fanny pack plug). The pick does show lines but really understates the look. I will describe it as a smooth finish with a flip flop vertical wave finish. If you rotate the part it has a wave like hologram look. It would not take much to if a flat polished look was more suited. I'd inquire with Mean Machine as he's on top of his eBay sales might finish it as needed.

That wave look is from a 1in cutter spinning 10,000 rpm flying across that cover at 200 inches per minute :naughty: I am Mean Machine. I posted on this forum I was making these. Guess I didnt put it in the high traffic spot lol. I wish you would of seen it earlier I could of saved you 10 bucks. I charge more on ebay because they charge me to sell. 110.00 is the forum price. I actually felt bad as yours was my last one and had light light surface scratches. Thats why I threw in the spark plug holder for free. I stewed on it for days If I should even sell that one. I can be anal haha. Glad you like it!!

El camexican let me know if your deal falls threw... Im going to do another batch in a few weeks but if you absolutely need one right away I can take the one off my Z. Should take someone only about 5 min to polish to a mirror finish. BTW nice engine! :beer

[Tri-Z 250]

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Pics don't show much action but first one shows it's flat, I tried to roll it to a wave. If you can imagine the light in 3rd pic, as it travels across it waves and appears to move like a hologram wave. For $120 it's a great price and I'm impressed with the finish, not over stated but dune-disco kinda bling that gives the walk around that wow that's cool look.

[ironchop]

All cutters leave that appearance in the finish unless you use a cutter larger than the part you're machining like a Facemill. Very large facemills have a host of issues to consider when using them and some are too heavy for tool changers in small mills so you have to load them in the spindle by hand. I ran six inch facemills with adjustable diamond inserts to mill aluminum heads for Chrysler, Ford, and Hyundai and those inserts were insanely priced not to mention each facemill tool required 18 of them. Some shops will buff that out, tumble it in Walnut shells or soft media blast them to remove that because it bothers some customers. I think it looks cool but that's because I'm a machinist and extra work to correct optical illusion seems needless to me.

Current job pictured as an example. Kobelco parts. First op rough-out. 4142. One inch (.992 actual) insertable cutter.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180427/4a9a4b2ff88e979b8d1f340a50367153.jpg

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[Tri-Z 250]

NEWDUCK, hey I like it just fine. The amount of abuse this will see in its first moto...what surface scatch? Lol
Would you consider oil fill caps for the Z? Wouldn't take much more material than plug cap. Just a simple billet round with grip edge, simple o-ring to seat. Nice addition to a Bling kit...A case saver would be another killer part. Thanks keep it coming, all 3WW Zfreaks show your support.

[El Camexican]

Finally got the finish on the kicker the way I wanted it. Bolts are still a month or so out. Billet cover fits perfectly.

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[Red Rider]

Finally got the finish on the kicker the way I wanted it.Good idea on the zinc? plating for the kickstart lever. If you chromed it, you'd never be able to locate it on the engine. Nice work! Looking like Terminator T-1000 liquid metal Tri-Z engine now.

[El Camexican]

Good idea on the zinc? plating for the kickstart lever. If you chromed it, you'd never be able to locate it on the engine. Nice work! Looking like Terminator T-1000 liquid metal Tri-Z engine now.

LMFAO!

I don’t know what to call that coating. They call it “tropicalizado”. First coating is silver zinc and then this. I’d call it yellow zinc, but they insist it’s better than zinc.

I went nuts on the surface. Ground off the casting lines, sanded it, ran it through a vibrator and sand blasted it before a 600 grit wet sanding. It glows in the dark! :w00t:

[atc007]

Wow. Just saw this thread. I knew you LOVED hockey,but damn!!! What a spectacular job,as always my friend. There is a guy making carbon fiber engine mouts if you want me to try and track him down? What are your plans to preserve it?

[El Camexican]

Wow. Just saw this thread. I knew you LOVED hockey,but damn!!! What a spectacular job,as always my friend. There is a guy making carbon fiber engine mounts if you want me to try and track him down? What are your plans to preserve it?

Hey Bill, I’m good with aluminum mounts on the trike, but thank you just the same.

This engine will probably spend the rest of its time with me sitting in a bench. At one point it was supposed to go to K.R. For a full blown 300 build, but I decided to skip the drama of spending precious days in the desert tuning and build a conversion instead, so this will get a full rebuild with all new Yamaha parts and a stock bore sleeve before gracing my shop till I die.

I plan to leave a paper note in the intake that says “in the event of my demise, call Bill at ***-***-****” ;)

[ironchop]

....
I plan to leave a paper note in the intake that says “in the event of my demise, call Bill at ***-***-****” ;)


That's not my phone number at all. And my name is Doug, not Bill
[emoji41]


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[yamaha_ripper98]

awesome job! the time this would take alone is impressive. but it looks so good I wouldn't even want to touch it.

belongs in a noble gas sealed clear container like the declaration of independence. and then sent to the 3 wheeler smithsonian haha..

any plans to do a golden/copper color inlay on the clutch covers Yamaha logo to match the kicker and studs/nuts&bolts? I think it would look great if so. but regardless its a wonderful work of art man.

makes me think hard about pulling one of my z engines and spending hours for a beaut like this :0

ohhh my, why did I have to see this...

[El Camexican]

Needed a break from the KTM, so I’ve started finishing up some other projects.

Started by matching the ports to the new 68mm sleeve and lapped the cylinder to the cases. I’d specifically asked Kustom Kraft not to do any matching or chamfering as I wanted to do it myself.

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Then I attempted to dril and tap a 6mm hole for a case saver and my day came to a crashing halt when I snapped the tap off deep in the case. Dammit

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I spent the next 4 hours grinding it out with a Dremel and a 1/4” diameter stone, or more correctly six 1/4” stones. Fortunately Home Depot had a bunch. The sound of the tips of those stones against the tap sounded like an F1 car in high gear. My ears are still ringing.

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With that fixed I started on assembling the bottom end. Lots of new OEM parts, everything is either new or refurbished with the exception of the connecting rod. I bought a new one, but this one is so good I can’t bring myself to replace it, so it will be reused.

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[El Camexican]

Tonight was spent installing the Yeager Performance sourced billet clutch.

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[Red Rider]

Tonight was spent installing the Yeager Performance sourced billet clutch.

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[El Camexican]

How much for your old stocker? I could have used that...:(:p

Got that one on eBay complete with inner basket, plates and adjuster, best condition I've seen of the half dozen I've handled, as most were broken, but this one was still badly hammered even though it looked clean.

I think the traction of the trike wheels is too much for a clutch that was designed for a bike tire, seems the stockers all break eventually, so I picked up a few to be safe.

I believe Yeagerb still has some billet baskets if anyone is interested.

[yaegerb]

Got that one on eBay complete with inner basket, plates and adjuster, best condition I've seen of the half dozen I've handled, as most were broken, but this one was still badly hammered even though it looked clean.

I think the traction of the trike wheels is too much for a clutch that was designed for a bike tire, seems the stockers all break eventually, so I picked up a few to be safe.

I believe Yeagerb still has some billet baskets if anyone is interested.

Yup I have plenty in stock. See thread below.

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/186272-New-Product-Offering-Tri-Z-Billet-Baskets-from-Talon-amp-Yaeger-Performance-Machines?highlight=Tri+basket

[El Camexican]

Looking good! Did you go OCD on polishing your carb too?

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There you go.

[El Camexican]

Any plans to do a golden/copper color inlay on the clutch covers Yamaha logo to match the kicker and studs/nuts&bolts?

Thanks for the suggestion!

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[NeverLift]

Tonight was spent installing the Yeager Performance sourced billet clutch.

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That basket will rub on the inside of the clutch cover. There is a casting ridge that you need to shave down a tiny bit. It might not rub on assembly or at idle but with just a bit of RPM it expands and rubs.

[El Camexican]

That basket will rub on the inside of the clutch cover. There is a casting ridge that you need to shave down a tiny bit. It might not rub on assembly or at idle but with just a bit of RPM it expands and rubs.

I've heard that. Even the stockers seem to rub a little on some covers.

[El Camexican]

All done :Bounce

LA Sleeve with 68mm bore, Wossner YZ piston, boost port added, port matched, exhaust port raised 1mm, head and cylinder decked and cut, squish set to .041”, rebuilt 39mm Keihin with small fuel valve orifice for use with fuel pump, new oem KOYO bearings throughout, Talon billet clutch basket, Sprock intake boot and stainless steel water pump, V-Force reeds and a custom case saver from a member.

Just add ignition and go!!!

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[Red Rider]

That's a pretty engine!

[xrider]

Beautiful work

[Gabriel]

Looks great! Wonder if you could do a braided stainless coolant hose? That black sticks out to me. Then again, you won't see it as much once installed.

That's a LOT of labor.

[HairyJR]

Looking good......another project done too perfection.

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[El Camexican]

Looks great! Wonder if you could do a braided stainless coolant hose? That black sticks out to me. Then again, you won't see it as much once installed.

I have no intention of putting that engine into a frame. When I die you can buy it from my wife (she'll probably give it away to spite my ghost) and put whatever hose you want on it.

[fabiodriven]

My lord Nico! That is a ton of work!

[El Camexican]

My lord Nico! That is a ton of work!

I like to think of it as OCD therapy more so than work. If polishing paid, I'd be happy to do it for a living. My buddy wants to FedEx me his sled tunnel LOL!

[iwallace]

El Camexican.
think ive said it trailprotrailpro......that is 1 sweet looking lump.
how many hours did the take you,
just started stripping my cases, and finding to many imperfections in mine, and im only 6 hours into to it.
ian

[El Camexican]

Cool! I love me a Tri-Z build! Just finished this a few minutes ago. Same billet internals as the shiny one, but no additional boost port and it has a 68.50mm bore in an LA sleeve.

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I didn’t keep a record, but if I were to add up all the hours spent polishing, finding parts, doing port work, contemplating various things like hardware lengths and assembly it would probably exceed 300 hours, but keep in mind that l’m not doing this for a living, so I have no motivation to cut corners on any detail and I do things like lapping parts, removing casting flash from the internals and tapering oil gallery’s, so that kind of detail makes up a lot of the time.

Just an FYI if you’re inspecting your cases; take a good look around the area of the cases that house the starter assembly. Half the cases I have purchased have damage in that area, either from being over-rotated, or from being kicked over after sitting for a long period of time causing the retaining spring to corrode to the shaft.

And make sure to replace that funny looking C shaped spring. When that gets weak it can result in a broken clutch cover. $3.00 VS $300.00