Gotta replace an engine on an f4i tomorrow.. I've never done anything this big before but am an okay mechanic at swapping parts (wouldnt go inside an engine yet tho!) anyways, it seems straight forward enough, but any tips/advice?? do I need a special tool to undo the bolt going through the rear lower engine mount where the subframe attaches? Hope not, cos I don't have one

Any advice/info would be great.

 

You shouldnt need any special tools.The easiest way to do it is pull the whole front end,then the rear wheel, then the tank,airbox and subframe.Now unbolt motor and lift the frame and swingarm off it.Reverse to put it together. If you have a motorcycle lift and a good jack you can secure the motor in, you can leave almost everything on and just pull the motor.

 

Yeah my plan was to take the forks off and let engine rest on the floor, the use a trolley jack to lift the frame over the engine, shift engine, put new one in place and lower it down, bolt up and then put the forks back on..

seems easy enough, just the swingarm bolt has a normal socket at one end and a weird "special" type on the other side... if I just undo the normal socket end should that then pull through easily enough? I presume I do have to take that out anyways, only had a quick look to be honest but seemed the swingarm etc had to come off to change the engine

 

yeah you just unbolt the big nut 27mm or 32mm and slide that bolt out.

 

Nice one cheers man that put my mind at rest :YEAH

Bit worried about it going wrong, but hey, only one way to find out :YEAH

i'll prob end up posting tomorow with "help how the **** do i do this" type posts

 

no problem, one more thing, there are 2 different spacers on the left and right side, best to mark um before you drop the motor and they roll across the room. also pay attention to how your wire harness is ran before you drop it.

 

OK I'll make sure I mark them up then, pain in the **** when you got spacers but not sure which side is which got loads of sandwich bags, a marker pen and some magnetic trays too so I don't go losing any bolts like I usually do.

I'lll take pics of the wiring harness I think, but I got 2 other f4i's to check against if I can't remember where something goes at least :YEAH

I'll let ya know how it goes, and thanks v much for the advice.

oh one thing, guessing you've changed a f4i motor before, how long roughly should I expect it to take?

 

I can do it in 5-6 hours by myself w/ no motorcycle stands.

 

ok, I've got pretty much a whole day on it, so hopefully it'll go to plan, only thing I can definetly see trouble with is both engine mount bolts are snapped (typical Freestyle ingenuity!) so gotta spend some time drilling them out..

 

haha that definitely sucks, last year when I bought my old f4i it had a bent up sick innovations cage...lets just say that it took me longer to get the cage out than to swap the motor out, you shouldnt have a problem...

 

Luckily engine mounts were fine, engine has been swapped, almost everything is back on, just need to connect the fuel injection wiring loom up, change the oil and filter and fit the exhaust, then I can see if it'll fire up :YEAH

Cheers for the advice, wasn't actually /that/ hard, just took a lot of time, its still not finished though so I guess something can still go wrong, but I'm hoping it'll be fine from now! Nothing has gone wrong so far, and nothing has really been too hard or been much trouble, except for one snapped exhaust stud but thats in the old engine so no big deal really.. just hope it fires up with no problems tomorow!

 

glad it went ok...even though you just jinxed it. lol

 

dammmnn knew I shoulda kept quiet

 

All done today, went fine, only trouble I had is snapped exhaust studs, so the exhaust is blowing until the new studs turn up and can get fitted, but thats no big deal. Left side engine casing leaked, but some hondabond gasket sealant sorted that...

only thing that worries me is it sounds a bit rough, but thats the replacement engine itself.. so I'm just hoping its fine, might need tappets adjusting I guess.