$400 Bike - Compression Test RESULTS!! w pics

[SNKYRIDER]

So I thought I would take advantage of the nice weather and get some work done on the project. I bought the bike (1st) for 400 and its turning out to be a budget build, hard times you know, recession lol.

Anyways I started off cleaning the nasty air box. Definitely looks like rodents were living in here. After I took off the foam element (or what was left of it) I found this:





Not the best thing to find, but I vacuumed the air box, cleaned it and put in my new home made filter.

Moving on I decided to do a compression test. I was kinda worried about the results because the bike is almost 30 years old, the air box clearly wasn’t filtering anything, and the engine was cold (couldn’t warm it up with tank off). Regardless I carried on here are the results:





The pics are close to the average results, a bit over 120 on the left and about 113 on the right. As you can see the numbers aren’t great, I’m sure they would be higher if the bike was warm. Either way they are above my minimum of 100 so... the project carries on.

I'm sure a lot of people on here can relate to having to deal with the incredible inconvenience of cross threaded spark plugs. I don't understand how people manage to cross thread these things. Through my history of modify and racing cars I have had spark plugs removed from aluminum heads countless number of times, I have never cross threaded. Needless to say I was ****** when I started taking off the 1st plug and noticed it was cross threaded. It was a **** show; I had to use a vacuum to suck out the aluminum fillings from damaged threads out from the cylinder. Luckily the threads were reusable and I managed to install a new one with extreme care. Don’t mean to preach but for those who don’t know HAND TIGHT 1st!!!

I managed to diagnose and figure out some electrical problems I've been having. One problem I have (non elec) is that my speedo isn’t working, I took off the cable and its fine, so it's either the drive or the gauge. The gauge is in an assembly with the cluster, and the drive I just don’t feel like replacing especially because I don’t have a jack or lift. Does anyone have any suggestions on this? I know this is gonna sound super super ghetto, even more ghetto than making my own air filter but has anybody heard of using an electrical bicycle speedo to replace the cable driven one. I know you can buy these things cheap off ebay and they go up to about 99km/h which is the legal limit in all roads in Ontario. Is speedo operation checked during safety?

An aside: Does anybody know exactly, and I mean exactly, what has to be checked when performing an Ontario safety on a motorcycle? Or does it depend on who does it? I tried searching but I couldn’t find anything.

Here is some eye candy, or I should say eye sores for you guys. Don’t worry she will be beautiful spray painted black, I got mad spray can skills. In the words of the Burt “Black is Beautiful”





Here is a pic of my car to prove my spray can skills, the entire quarter panel was painted by me with those exact match cans from CT.

[SNKYRIDER]

this is probably a better pic

[Lightcycle]

That's very cool! Keep us updated on your progress.

[BlackCrowe13]

this is probably a better pic

Awesome job! I was never patient enough to do thin enough coats and let em dry properly.... Got the runs, or fish eyes!

[dirtbag]

Dude, i'm right there with you on the low budget bike thing. On average 3 of my last four bikes were on the road for under 2$/cc & that includes a super clean 85 Ninja 900. I'm picking up an 86 GS750 today for 300$ and it only needs paint and a fix for a leaking tank.

From that point the compression numbers are great. I agree they'll only improve when you heat it up.

I too am fond of the rattle can. Some patience and a little wet sanding along the way can do an awesome job, although I reccomend white. Great for hiding sins, you're more visible on the road and your bike will stand out in a sea of black bikes. yeah I painted my first bike black....

A word to the wise - with a bike of this age save yourself future greif and disconnect EVERY connection you can find and clean each end before lubing (I use vaseline) them and putting them back together.

[FiReSTaRT]

Yours is lookin' pretty good. I eneded up using Tremclad on my cage, and since I only got it on the last relatively warm day of the season, I didn't even have the time to fill in the dips. (the main parts of the project were to pound out the worst of the dent, strip the rust and protect the metal from rusting up again.. Beauty wasn't high on the list of priorities)
Wait 'till I get my hands on my bike's plastics lol

[SNKYRIDER]

Yours is lookin' pretty good. I eneded up using Tremclad on my cage, and since I only got it on the last relatively warm day of the season, I didn't even have the time to fill in the dips. (the main parts of the project were to pound out the worst of the dent, strip the rust and protect the metal from rusting up again.. Beauty wasn't high on the list of priorities)
Wait 'till I get my hands on my bike's plastics lol

That del sol was actually a heap when I bought it. It's all fixed up now, the quarter panel was rotted badly, so I had to weld in new steal, fiberglass and bondo then paint. Everything else on that car seems to have 0 rust, it's just the quarter panel, that’s how you know it's a Honda

[FiReSTaRT]

In my case there was a huge dent, lifted paint and rust in the panel and some serious rot around the filler, with only 1 day of nice weather between purchasing the cage and winter.
Panel: I pounded out the dent with a 2x4, stripped it down to bare metal wherever it was peeling+/rusting, used rust converter, Tremclad primer and Tremclad black. There was no time to do a proper job with body filler and proper paint coverage.
Filler: Chipped away as much as I dared, brushed in tons of rust converter, filled in with lots of polyurethane construction adhesive, and again tremclad primer+paint.

[SNKYRIDER]

Dude, i'm right there with you on the low budget bike thing. On average 3 of my last four bikes were on the road for under 2$/cc & that includes a super clean 85 Ninja 900. I'm picking up an 86 GS750 today for 300$ and it only needs paint and a fix for a leaking tank.

From that point the compression numbers are great. I agree they'll only improve when you heat it up.

I too am fond of the rattle can. Some patience and a little wet sanding along the way can do an awesome job, although I reccomend white. Great for hiding sins, you're more visible on the road and your bike will stand out in a sea of black bikes. yeah I painted my first bike black....

A word to the wise - with a bike of this age save yourself future greif and disconnect EVERY connection you can find and clean each end before lubing (I use vaseline) them and putting them back together.

You really think those numbers are good? I was kind of disappointed, I’m used to pulling 185-220 on cars I've tested so I was taken back by this. I’m leaning heavily on the fact that the bike was stone cold, I’m sure even if it was slightly warm the rings would have sealed better.

Yea I can’t see myself spending too much money on a 1st bike. Its like being 16 and learning to drive on a nice car, counter intuitive if you ask me. I've been experimenting with spray cans for the last few years, my first projects looked like crap but slowly they got better and better. The key is a super clean super smooth surface, heavy wet coats that don’t drip (hard 2 do) wet sanding and polishing. One trick for cars at least, on the side panels, is to jack up the car on one side, alot, being very careful of course. That’s how I was able to lay down heavy coats on my sol.

lol it's funny you mentioned cleaning and lubing all the connectors because that’s exactly what I’m doing right now I just didn’t mention it. I bought a special electrical comp cleaner from princess auto and some graphite lube spray which is supposed to be connector safe. I might even change some connectors if I can, like the headlight one is toast, I jiggled it and all of a sudden I had high beams again.

[GP_RZ]

good job foe spray bomb....never used one on a bike nor car but here is a 8hr complete job on my old MX-6 I sold befor I bought the Escape 4 hrs each day including paint! this was a fasssst cheap job!!!

[SNKYRIDER]

In my case there was a huge dent, lifted paint and rust in the panel and some serious rot around the filler, with only 1 day of nice weather between purchasing the cage and winter.
Panel: I pounded out the dent with a 2x4, stripped it down to bare metal wherever it was peeling+/rusting, used rust converter, Tremclad primer and Tremclad black. There was no time to do a proper job with body filler and proper paint coverage.
Filler: Chipped away as much as I dared, brushed in tons of rust converter, filled in with lots of polyurethane construction adhesive, and again tremclad primer+paint.

I know what you mean with quick repairs, when I bought the sol I had a 10 day permit, so I had to find time to fix the rust and a whole bunch of other things to get it safetied all while I was doing a full time co-op job. I basically slabbed a whole bunch of bondo over the rust , it wasn’t classy, but it looked ok for the summer. But towards the end it started bubbling and cracking so I stripped it and did it properly with steel and fiberglass.

[FiReSTaRT]

Now that it's all said and done, I've achieved the main goals.. Stopped any more rust from occurring, pounded out the worst of the dent and at least it's black. 3rd generation Jettas won't win any beauty contests and if I do any mechanical or paint work, it'll be on the bike. The cage is just to be used to get me from A to B when the weather turns sour or I need to haul cargo/passengers. As long as it's mechanically sound and won't fall apart, it's all good to me.
I will take your advice when I paint the farings on my Fizzer though. Had to replace a few pieces and some are sporting some even more ghettoish repairs.

[SNKYRIDER]

good job foe spray bomb....never used one on a bike nor car but here is a 8hr complete job on my old MX-6 I sold befor I bought the Escape 4 hrs each day including paint! this was a fasssst cheap job!!!

Where did you get your paint done?? I’m looking for a place to do my entire del sol at a reasonable price, just spray, no body work.

Came out nice, my 1st car was a Probe GT which is essentially the same as an MX6, was yours the V6? I used to get flack in highschool for having a Ford Probe (that was back when Fast and the Furious 1 came out and everyone was into imports and stuff). My defense was that it was essentially a Mazda, I even swamped the valve cover from a junk yard 6 so that my engine would say Mazda instead of Ford.

BTW I’m glad you bought the Escape instead of the Mazda Tribute. Same car, except the Ford is cheaper. There are alot of cars out there that people don’t know roll off the same assembly line. Like the Toyota Matrix and the Pontiac Vibe.

[SNKYRIDER]

Now that it's all said and done, I've achieved the main goals.. Stopped any more rust from occurring, pounded out the worst of the dent and at least it's black. 3rd generation Jettas won't win any beauty contests and if I do any mechanical or paint work, it'll be on the bike. The cage is just to be used to get me from A to B when the weather turns sour or I need to haul cargo/passengers. As long as it's mechanically sound and won't fall apart, it's all good to me.
I will take your advice when I paint the farings on my Fizzer though. Had to replace a few pieces and some are sporting some even more ghettoish repairs.

I would take a Diesel Jetta with a solid drive train and poor body, than a gas one with a good body. Pickers cant be choosers, those Diesels are good, probably- why nobody sells them or gets rid of them. How much you get per tank? 800-900

[GP_RZ]

I did the paint and body myself, yeah it was a V6, loved that car....reliable as hell. with 268,000km on it when I sold it. if you want a cheap paint job their are tonnes of body shops in Scarborough that can do it.

Where did you get your paint done?? I’m looking for a place to do my entire del sol at a reasonable price, just spray, no body work.

Came out nice, my 1st car was a Probe GT which is essentially the same as an MX6, was yours the V6? I used to get flack in highschool for having a Ford Probe (that was back when Fast and the Furious 1 came out and everyone was into imports and stuff). My defense was that it was essentially a Mazda, I even swamped the valve cover from a junk yard 6 so that my engine would say Mazda instead of Ford.

BTW I’m glad you bought the Escape instead of the Mazda Tribute. Same car, except the Ford is cheaper. There are alot of cars out there that people don’t know roll off the same assembly line. Like the Toyota Matrix and the Pontiac Vibe.

[FiReSTaRT]

I would take a Diesel Jetta with a solid drive train and poor body, than a gas one with a good body. Pickers cant be choosers, those Diesels are good, probably- why nobody sells them or gets rid of them. How much you get per tank? 800-900

Closer to 600 right now. My fan switch is kickin' in at 70 so that's killin' my economy and probably generating some sludge. I'll have to do more detailed diagnostics once it gets warmer. Actually I've had great experiences with gas models. Running like new at 400+k. To me, an engine/tranny are easy and cheap to fix. That's why I usually pick cars with solid or easily fixable bodies.

[twinn]

I had one of those old jettas before giving it to my brother. Gas mileage is awesome. I remeber taking that thing to Montreal in Feb, I tanked it at 875km and still had 8L in the tank, it would get 900km per tank easy and would even break 1000km/tank if you wanted to push your luck(you never,ever want to run out of gas on a diesel engine)
Thats with me driving it at 120-130.

The worst mileage I ever got was something like 6L for 100km/hr and that was in the winter when I would warm up the car 10min in the morning, keep it on during my whole 1 hour lunch and sit in traffic for 1-1.5 hours almost every night on the way home from work when it snowed.

[SNKYRIDER]

Closer to 600 right now. My fan switch is kickin' in at 70 so that's killin' my economy and probably generating some sludge. I'll have to do more detailed diagnostics once it gets warmer. Actually I've had great experiences with gas models. Running like new at 400+k. To me, an engine/tranny are easy and cheap to fix. That's why I usually pick cars with solid or easily fixable bodies.

That’s typically the best solution, is to get a car with a good body, especially with used Japanese cars, because you can get an almost new engine and tranny for cheap. But it's got to be hard to source a diesel engine for those cars here in North America.

[FiReSTaRT]

The old Golf (also IDI-TD) ended up in Car Heaven b/c of it. Crack in the head, nobody willing to weld it, no reasonably priced source for a new one or a junked one.
Since I counted this as a freak accident (seen some of those run like new with 600,000km) I picked it up for a G even though I was really in the market for a Ranger/S10/Dakota. The seller couldn't move it b/c of the dent.

[RetroGrouch]

The pics are close to the average results, a bit over 120 on the left and about 113 on the right. As you can see the numbers aren’t great, I’m sure they would be higher if the bike was warm. Either way they are above my minimum of 100 so... the project carries on.

I managed to diagnose and figure out some electrical problems I've been having. One problem I have (non elec) is that my speedo isn’t working, I took off the cable and its fine, so it's either the drive or the gauge. The gauge is in an assembly with the cluster, and the drive I just don’t feel like replacing especially because I don’t have a jack or lift. Does anyone have any suggestions on this? I know this is gonna sound super super ghetto, even more ghetto than making my own air filter but has anybody heard of using an electrical bicycle speedo to replace the cable driven one. I know you can buy these things cheap off ebay and they go up to about 99km/h which is the legal limit in all roads in Ontario. Is speedo operation checked during safety?

Do you have a manual? Do you know what the specs are for compression? At least both cylinders are close to each other, that's important too. You can check if the speedo is good by removing it and insert a shaped wooden dowel into the cable mount. I use a carved chopstick. Connect it to a drill and spin the speedo. Check with both directions. Yes I have seen motorcycles with bicycle speedos and they work fine, probably much more accurate than a stock speedo. Should be okay for cert.