Not much Zen, lots of wrenching action.
Wednesday, I got the gaskets I ordered for my XS650 - I found the pesky oil leak at last, coming from the front of the head gasket. Spent the evening putting the engine back together and reinstalling it.
It started with much effort and ran like crap. Timing was way off. Damn - I managed to get the cam timing off by one link in the chain. Too tired to do any more, so went in and took a hot soak.
Thursday, pulled the motor again - one hour - and found the cam indeed was one link advanced. Reset the cam, made DAMN sure it was right. After dinner, put it back in and tried it.
Started right up, ran nice. Set the timing, took a test ride. Runs good. Back to the garage.
Found the right exhaust pipe had spewed a slug of dirty black crap out - figure it was all the rich from when the cam was miss-set and carbon. No more smoke after that purged.
I count myself very lucky that I didn't bend a valve - this is an interference design.
Rode in to work this morning - ran real nice. No leaks apparent after letting it set all morning.
On the way home, stopped at the coin car wash and power-washed it to clean up the last of the dirty fingerprints and crud. No leaks apparent when I got home and parked it.
Now - we'll see if I can go a full tank without having to add oil...
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