Yup, easy to get sucked into for sure.

I was determined for this not to happen for once but failure is at hand.

I have one I have been working on forever. It’s almost done, but every time I look at it I try to change/modify/adjust you name it. I have a pilot that I modded a little but it’s the only one that doesn’t let me down or leave me stranded. I just leave it alone and drive it. Not the fastest thing out there but it has taken care of me. The others we will see.
Bob

I hear ya Bob. My intent on the Engine was just to rebuild the carburetor and replace the fuel and vacuum lines. That was before crappy compression, jacked up clutches and on and on. Now I don't see there is any choice but to do what needs to be done. Guess the bottom line is no matter how good it seemed to be it's still a 34 year old piece of equipment that sat idle for over half that time. Every piece of it needs some attention.

Just looked at the pics you posted of this machine a bit more closely.
It appears to be a low hour machine, but looking at the exhaust it appears to have been running hot.
I bet my rent money that when you pull the cylinder you will find the piston scarred up on the exhaust side and the rings a bit "sticky" in the grooves on the exhaust side. Your low compression was due to the beginning of ring lock.
I don't want to comment on why this happened because I might get attacked because of my beliefs .

lol on the "reason"... I get it. That certainly will not be an issue going forward.

I'd imagine a major cause of the problem was the boot being disconnected form the air box. No telling the amount of whatever the Engine has infested.

Back off the ledge Terry! You got this man! Easy peasy! Pull the cylinder, investigate whats really going on in there and address issues. Order metal base gasket, if you're getting a bore then do your vent mod while the cylinder is out. could remove your pull start or starter to check for oil while you have easy access to the area. I'm not going to tell ya to do crank seals.... but it would be a shame to put it all back together and fail a leak down test.

Thanks Malcolm. That's pretty much the plan. I'll pull the Engine and trans over the weekend. I'll do the leak down test and then pull the cylinder and see what the issues are. Hopefully it will be good to go for a while once we are done.

I just re-did my whole FL350r Engine a few months back. Its getting harder to find parts for these things but its not impossible.

Purchase from places in this order:

1. Partzilla. Anything they still have in stock is worth buying from here
2. Amazon for any bearings - FAG brand
3. ebay new old stock items
4. ebay used items
5. Derek Leland (Facebook) has a lot of new and used items
6. OddATV - Crank bearings, seal kits, trans seals, throttle cables, etc. Don't buy bearings from him though. They're Chinesse.


Here is a short list:
OddATV seal kit OddATV
OddATV Complete FL350 gaskets OddATV
OddATV 3-way check valve OddATV
OddATV Axle seals OddATV
eBay Aluminum base gasket Speedchaser
eBay Oil seal 18x28x4 - Recoil seal na
eBay O-Ring - Starter 91354-415-003
PartZilla Carb intake/insulator 16221-430-000 (For upgraded carbs, 38-40mm)
PartZilla Ring, Stopper 51393-HB9-670
PartZilla Connecting rod small bearing 91015-KZ3-003
PartZilla Bearing 6204 Balance shaft 91102-GE-711
PartZilla O-Ring 91301-428-003
PartZilla O-Ring - Flywheel sight 91303-MG7-003
PartZilla O-Ring - Dipstick 91370-461-000
PartZilla Fuel Pump 3085275 (UPGRADE from stock)
PartZilla Ring seal - Starter motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) 31207-179-711
Amazon Crank bearing - 6307c3 FAG Brand
Amazon Crank bearing - 6306c3 FAG Brand

Also depending on your current bore size, the best way forward is to move up to just one size larger.

Honda/ProX pistons are no longer available from anywhere except Derek Leland through Facebook. Expect to pay, but worth going to just the next size bore. Honda/ProX are available from 78-79mm
Wiseco pistons are not as good as Honda, but the bores go further width. You'll have to really hog out the cylinder to get to the Wiseco range.. 80-82mm.

Get a + bore Honda/ProX piston before you surrender your final bores to Wiseco.

This is a bit premature at this point but when you put those plastic covers back on around the steering column, you put the little tabs in the slot and slide the plastic towards the steering column. If you get rammy you will bust them off. The plastic on these machines is brittle now after all these years. They will go in easy if you take your time. Just tryin to warn you ahead of time.

Thanks. I messed with them already. The pieces still won't fit together properly even with the slide tabs done correctly. Some sort of mis-alignment between the front piece and the sides when the sides are locked into the foot tub. It's like the front is too high or the tub is bent down. I have to pull the column so I can plastic weld ta crack in the tun byway. I'll figure it out when we get to that point. At this rate that'll be about Thanksgiving. lol...

Thanks much for the list! That is very helpful!

A productive and interesting Saturday in the shop. I got the Engine and trans out and the clutch off the crank. After seeing some old posts on the subject I decided I'd just make myself a pusher rod. I popped in my local bolt and screw supply yesterday and picked up a 3/4"16 tpi grade 8 bolt 2 1/2" long and a 5 1/2" x 1/2" grade 5 bolt. After some measuring, I chucked the bolt in the lathe and turned the head down to .615 so it could serve as a foot for the pusher. I cut the pusher to 2 3/4" overall length and chamfered the edges.





And the finished product. The I felt like wider foot would spread the force across the face of the crank and help eliminate damaging the threads vs turning the bolt to fit inside the threads. One way or the other, the clutch popped right off with no issue. I have a ribbed 94C and a new driven ordered. Fresh Dayco belt is already here.



Now for the weird. I am in no way an Engine guy. I'm a body guy. I can make it pretty but I leave this stuff to someone smarter than I am which is virtually anyone. With that being said, I see nothing wrong with any of this. Original piston. Rings are completely free. No gauling or scratches what so ever in the bore. Piston looks fine to me as does the head and the gaskets. Some blow by but nothing that seems terrible to me. I have no bore gauge so the best alternative I have on hand is my telescoping gauges and digital caliper. My redneck methodology shows 78.48. I don't see anything to cause it to have 90 lbs. of compression. Now I'm doubting my gauge unless someone sees something I'm missing. My 2 stoke experienced friend is coming over Monday night to investigate further.













Interested to hear opinions on where I should go from here on this motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )). I'll be ordering some gaskets to go along with the metal base gasket I already ordered. The crank seal on the clutch side looks like it's been seeping so Ill replace those for sure.

When I drained the trans there was a little bit of super fine dust but nothing I'd be concerned with at all. Good amount of oil in the trans. Oil in the Engine was super clean. It was to the full line on the dip stick. The stator side was dry.

The starter has been replaced at some point and looks brand new. Says it's made in Taiwan.



All motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) mounts look good. Rotor is fine. Even the rear brake pads look new. One small dent on the right lower tube inbetween the Engine and trans is the only damage of any kind on the chassis. I'm actively fighting off the urge to get the chassis powdercoated.



I'll finish disassembling the front suspension, column etc.. in the next few days. Waiting on a bunch of new bearings, seals and ect... I'm going to clean all the parts I have off and repaint them. Replace the bearings and seals along with the J arm bushings. I plan to take the chassis to the car wash and give it a good wash and then start reassembly. I'm dropping off the exhaust to get it high temp coated next week. I'll be pulling the column so I can take the foot tub ot work so it can get plastic welded. I'm rebuilding the master cylinder as well.

My shop looks like an Oddy explosion.

Well I see absolutely nothing wrong there either.
My initial beliefs were wrong.
There have been several cases here where the compression gauges were off calibration. In fact I own two of them. One is Chinese and the other is American. The Chinese one is 10 psi off compared to my compressor and the American one is spot on. That's how I check mine.
At the moment all I can think of is worn out rings. The way you can tell is to remove one ring and put it in the bore squarely. Measure the ring end gap. If it's .020"+ they are done.
Caution here: That is an original Honda piston and rings. Those rings are tapered and stamped. Only remove one and remember which way is top side. It must be installed the same way if you are re-using it.
At this point I don't even know if I would split the cases. When you said low compression and filter boot was off I thought the worst. I think I would get a hold of Derek Leland through Facebook and see if he has rings for that piston if they are worn out.
Did you do a leak down test before you tore it down ??
If NO then you gota replace the seals. To bad if that is the case because it sounds like the crank double lip seal is good. That's a tough one to get sometimes.
You will notice that is an original Honda head gasket. They are multi layer metal. Most of us here split it apart and use the thinnest piece. It bumps the compression a bit.

Piston and cylinder don't look to bad! Any scoring? looks like you're just getting some blow by. Rings moving freely or kinda sticky? Any Idea what the bore size is? Any markings on the top of the piston? I think the frame looks great, wouldn't bother with re-coating if you don't have to. You can freshen up a lot of the gold with rustoleum pure gold paint from walmart. Its surprisingly close to factory. I'll see if I can find a pic I have show original vs pure gold spray. Also hope you're doing crank seals when you're this deep. There is a good write up somewhere on here that shows just running a screw into the seal and pulling the screw and seal out with pliers. Not sure if you're interested but I have a braided stainless brake line kits for the odyssey ;)

I don't have much to add, other than I'm curious to see if the plastic welding works on the tub.

Apparently he is on the original bore, based on his redneck measurement.
That piston is only .004" over the service limit and if it was mine that is good enough to still be good to me.
At the moment my money is on worn out rings.

Edit: Honda ran .006" clearance between piston and cylinder. I would measure the cylinder bore and the piston (at the skirt). Then compare the two numbers.
Then I would measure the ring end gap with a feeler gauge to see if they are worn out.

Painted rims with pure gold

Ok, I pulled the top ring. End gap is .035. I re-measured the bore as carefully as I can and I got 78.54. The piston skirt is 78.23. I obviously don't normally do this sort of thing so I don't have the proper instruments. I have Mitutoyo mics and calipers etc... but nothing to go more than 3" but calipers.

I have Derek on speed dial. He has piston and ring sets in stock bore and 2 sizes over but doesn't have just rings. I'm going to take the cylinder to the machine shop and have them measure it with the correct bore gauge so I know for sure what I need and I'll buy a piston and rings from Derek. If I can I'm just going to re-ring it and hope for the best.

I know, I know... I did not get the leak down test done before I pulled it apart. I thought for sure that we were going to be building a motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )). My bad. I have the crank seals in my cart at Oddatv.

Just to clarify, I reuse just the center of the original head gasket or I need to order a new one?

Those look great. Just send them to me. I saw Speedchaser had done some stuff in Rustoleum metallic burnished bronze. He had parts he painted right next to good originals and it was really close. I have a case ordered. I need to work on all 4 wheels and then refinish them as well.

Terry the metal head gasket is reusable. Keep! Keep! Keep! You can do something or another with separating the head gasket to change your squish band and compression... I’m not totally sure on that tho.

Well if your measurements are correct that's a .013" difference and a bit much.
It shows your cylinder right at the service limit but ok as far as I am concerned.
It shows your piston is OVER the service limit.
Looks to me right now as a piston and rings.

Head gasket: Yes -- peel that gasket apart and measure each metal blade. Use the thinnest one.

Thanks CO. I'll report back after I get everything properly measured.

I thought I asked this already but I don't see it now?

Did this run before you pulled it apart?

I remember putting rings in my 77' cr125 in the parking lot of the pit we rode in when I was a kid. lol!