Hidalgo's Engine Rebuild

[bikerbill]

This is the first post of this thread where I will be chronicling the rebuilding of Hidalgo's original engine.

A quick history:
Starting in late 2008 I began a complete restoration of the motorcycle that would eventually become known as Hidalgo. At that time she had 108,000 miles on her and I had flogged her hard. Her engine was drinking oil at the rate of 1qt per 800 miles. This was due to the damaged pod air filters that were installed at the time. Also the transmission 6th gear was making a bad noise. I had also made a promise to myself that if the bike ever reached 100,000 miles I would give it a complete teardown, cleanup, and reassembly.

During that time I rebuilt the engine, powder coated the frame, and got it ready for the next 100,000 miles. She was back on the road in August 2009.

Fast forward to early 2019. Hidalgo has a stablemate and is jealous that it is getting attention. I had earlier picked up a complete engine for use in either Hidalgo or the stablemate should the need arise. At 204,000 miles I decided that it was time for Hidalgo to get this engine. I did the swap and put her original engine into storage to rebuild for later reinstallation, hopefully around 300,000 miles.

Hidalgo currently has 264,000 miles on her odometer. But due to transmission and valvetrain issues with this 'new' engine I have decided to prep her original engine early should the need to swap it back occur before 300k miles.

Pics of her original engine 'fresh' from storage: