Performing a leak down test is the best method for determining if and where air leaks are coming from. A leak down test is fairly simple to perform and can provide tremendous amounts of information about the health of an engine. I typically like to perform a leak down test on an engine if I’m having trouble jetting the engine consistently, if I’ve bought a used bike with a suspect past history, or when I’m finishing up assembling a new engine. The biggest mistake I see a lot of people make is when they rebuild an engine with new parts and skip the leak down test. I cannot count the number of times where I have rebuilt an engine with new parts and then performed a leak down test to find a gasket that was not sealing properly or another part that was causing a problem. The leak down test is imperative and ultimately becomes a form of cheap insurance against the time and money that has gone into the build...
Wondering what is the best way to figure out if you two-stroke dirt bike engine has an air leak? These leaks include anything coming from the crank seals, cylinder head gasket, base gasket, the spark plug hole, power valve mechanism, intake manifold, or exhaust manifold. No matter where these air leaks originate, they affect the performance of your engine, make the engine difficult to tune, and are not normal for a healthy engine.
Performing a leak down test is the best method for determining if and where air leaks are coming from. A leak down test is fairly simple to perform and can provide tremendous amounts of information about the health of an engine. I typically like to perform a leak down test on an engine if I’m having trouble jetting the engine consistently, if I’ve bought a used bike with a suspect past history, or when I’m finishing up assembling a new engine. The biggest mistake I see a lot of people make is when they rebuild an engine with new parts and skip the leak down test. I cannot count the number of times where I have rebuilt an engine with new parts and then performed a leak down test to find a gasket that was not sealing properly or another part that was causing a problem. The leak down test is imperative and ultimately becomes a form of cheap insurance against the time and money that has gone into the build...
This week I thought I’d switch gears and share with you the restoration of my 1975 Kawasaki H2. When it comes to the handful of bikes I have owned, this bike was the one where I would be completely heartbroken if something happened to it. Unfortunately that was just the case.
My love affair with two-stroke bikes started while in college and the Kawasaki H2 happened to be the king in this arena, it fascinated me. Naturally I had to get my hands on one, but I couldn’t afford a running or restored one. So it turned out I needed a project! On a Wednesday night in the spring of 2008 I was perusing craigslist, using one of the national search engines, and found a pair of 1975 H2s in Dallas. Instead of dutifully studying for an exam I had on Friday, I got to thinking about how I could feasibly get these bikes over the weekend. Thursday rolled around and I was still mulling things over in my head. One of my girl friends came around that night to study for an exam we had on Friday and I mentioned to her how I wanted to get the bikes. She suggested we leave that evening and go pick them up. She had a commitment on Sunday but if we left almost immediately we could make it back in time. I wasn’t completely sure if she was serious, but I found out soon enough that she was dead serious. So we set off for Dallas and I got a pair of basket case H2s. When I got to Dallas I found that the bikes were in a worse shape than I had suspected, but I bought them anyway. Once I got back to Minneapolis, my friend and I promptly submitted our doctor’s notes so that we could make up the exam. Along with finishing up my studies for the year I got to work on the bike. Here the bikes are shortly after I got them home... |
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