Firstly i would like to thank everybody for the info and the great words of encouragement.
I will not be selling any engine parts as im a stubbon git and determined to get my baby to breath again.
This may warrant me to sell the tv but i think the missus will kill me. No im going to roll my sleaves up and get stuck in. How hard can it be.. Never taken the engine out before but im sure with the help of you great guys it will be a doddle. Now i take it im going to need some of them spanner thingys.... Any suggestions on where to start. Got till the weekend to get a game plan together. Any help will be brilliant.

Start by going out and getting some plus-gas (NOT WD40), spray it *today* on the following

Exhaust studs/nuts
All engine mounting bolts/nuts.
Anything you may have to remove that hasn't been turned in years.

then spray again tomorrow, then again every day until you do it, then again before you start, with luck should mean they just come off easily.

Druid

Great advice Druid.

Also - download the service manual from akhara.com for the NC30 and get a hard copy haynes manual.

read what you are going to do a few times and make sure you have the tools available.

You can do it - I've swapped engines twice and it was a minor ballache at the end. I've never ebuild the bottom end...but would be hapy to give it a go! A human built the motor..so a human can rebuild it

Hi there,

This almost certainly isn't the same as your problem but I tought I'd share in engine woos.

I bought my NC30 and it had been completely stripped. The only thing that was re built was the engine. I re built the bike and all was well. The engine stared fine. I took it for a test run along the street. Half way along I heard a clunk noise I thought it was the drive chain. I then noticed the oil light was on. The engine still ran fine. Took it back to the house. Started is a couple of times and it ran well no noises etc.

As the engine had been rebuilt I assumed it was just an electrical problem. Tested the wiring and that was working correctly. So I thought it had to be the oil pressure sensor. 20 quid from David Silver. Replaced that started the bike hoping for the best but nope, the light was still on. I thought 'oh no' it looks like it was an oil pressure issue

I thought I check to see the oil pump snorkle was blocked so I dropped the sump. Only to find to my horror bits and pieces of metal lying in the sump.

I then took the right hand casing off and removed all the bits out of the sump. The oil pump chain (broken into bits), oil pump drive sprocket and retaining bolt were in the sump.

The lower pump sprocket hadn't been seated properly, the bolt had unscrewed its self and fallen out into the sump. Sprocket fell off and the chain had battered around briefly then caught behind the teeth of the starter clutch and broke. I'm just so lucky all the bits fell into the sump.

Another 20 quid for the chain and bolt, cleaned up the engine and job done. Feel very very lucky there was no other damage other than some marks on the inner casings. Made sure the lower sprocket was seated correctly, lock tight on the bolt threads and torqued correctly.

I just thought I'd share this. Sadly by the sounds of it your problem isn't so simple and you may have serious issues. Fingers crossed though.

Some gunks probably blocking up the oil pickup pipe, i've seen it on neglected engines where the oils congealed in the sump.



If you dont' have the patience to wait for the plus-gas method get a can of the above freeze and release, it's about £7.99 per can but it works instantly.

Applied liberally to the offending item it cools it to the -40c's, which breaks the rust seal and the item unscrews, between that, plus-gas and GT85 i've never had a problem :)

Ok thanks guys. Another question i have is i noticed the chain that drives the oil pump seems to be quite lose on the sprockets. is this normal or can it be adjusted to tighten up.

The oil pump chain cannot be adjusted. It needs to have play init. It'll be fine. Hope this helps.

Coe wrote:The oil pump chain cannot be adjusted. It needs to have play init. It'll be fine. Hope this helps.

Yep thats great mate thankyou..

Update. Just to let anybody who is interested know that the engine removal stage went without a hitch and i now have a very sorry looking chassi sitting there looking at me... Next up the strip down anyone got any ideas where to start????

mattydrvf wrote:Update. Just to let anybody who is interested know that the engine removal stage went without a hitch and i now have a very sorry looking chassi sitting there looking at me... Next up the strip down anyone got any ideas where to start????

Haha I have a rolling frame too!

Strip down.

I cleaned my engine up first (blocked all holes and degreased it with solvent and pressure washed it off)

Have you actually found out where your metal in the oil came from yet?

You'll have to take the heads and the barrels off then split the crankcase, at which poing the gearbox and everything else will drop out too.

Bear in mind a full gasket set will probably be about £160.00 plus whatever you need to spend on repairing.

With the engine in pieces you'll have no trouble finding out whats knackered. All the clearances / tolerances etc are in the haynes and the honda service manual. :)

If you do need help i'll try my best to answer q's :)