Inside an Elsie engine...how's she look?

[85RZwade]

Cracked open my '82 LC350 tonight to begin a teardown. Found aftermarket reeds, gaskets and a wee bit of cutting at the bottom of the transfers. Exhaust and intake ports look untouched to me, but I'm asking for expert eyes. While you're looking, does the head look uncut?




Thanks for stopping by!

[tacky1]

Looks completely stock from here Jim. Bar the little bit of tweaking at the bottom of the cylinder. That was worth at least 60hp!!

[85RZwade]

I was hoping for 65, but I'll take 60! I was surprised there was no effort to match the cylinder transfers to the cases, as I've read that no tuner can resist...they're right there, right?
I measured 64.2 mm all around in the bores this morning, which I found surprising as the cylinders clearly have been off before.

[pdxjim]

Looking good Wade!

Yeah, matching the transfers is the one thing I didn't do this go 'round, ether.

As long as I had it apart, I def should have, but I'll save that one and other top case mods for next time mine's apart.

[85RZwade]

I can't remember which, it was either Bell or Robinson said there was no benefit to matching the transfers to the cases, but that no tuner could resist doing it. I don't know if it's true, but hopefully it helps you feel better about it!

[tacky1]

I do all mine, Makes me feel a little better that it flows up in there, Theres a lot you can take off the ports on an Elsie, they are pretty safe out of the factory. The factory squish is ridicously big on them, I cut mine back to 1mm, Still safe.

[85RZwade]

holy before and after, Batman! You could throw a cat through that intake port. What is that porting like to ride on the street? I'm trying to make a plan. Thanks for the pics!
Just compared a Banshee reed block to the LC block I took out last night...wow. I need to read and re-read some more, but although I think YZ85 blocks are supposed to be the hot ticket, I may use the Banshee parts since I have 'em. Seems like an upgrade...yes?

[tacky1]

Really nice. Rides class. Didn’t loose any lower end. Lol, the elsie isn’t know for that anyway. Pulls like an absolute train from 7.5k all the way into the red in every gear. Stock gearing. Pwk’s on it and Tyga pipes, I love it.

[85RZwade]

The Tygas are sweet looking pipes, but not in my budget. I do, however, have a couple of die grinders and a sharp set of burrs!

[75RD350rider]

Beautiful work!!

[pdxjim]

Wow, Paul, you didn't half hold back on those.

I'm looking forward to seeing what EE has done with my LC cyls. He called it a "Stage2 Hot Street Tune" He recently shipped them direct to the pipe man Garrett, so may be a bit before they're back in my hands again. Can't imagine they'll be anywhere near that aggro.

Did you say your LC engine will be going in a aircooled frame, Wade? Sounds like you've got a sweet pile of parts to work from.

The TZ swingarm has me quite jealous.

[85RZwade]

Yessir, I'm building in/around a '75 RD350 frame. I like the TZ parts, too...







But as you can see, it ain't all pretty! I have reason to believe my TZ housed a Kawasaki triple at some point in it's racing life, and someone clearly didn't get the chain line worked out adequately. Happy to receive suggestions how to repair this damage; all I can think of is having some aluminum welded on and then smoothing in down.

[tacky1]

I think that’s the best way to fix it. Weld it and smooth it off.

[Hooligan]

I was hoping for 65, but I'll take 60! I was surprised there was no effort to match the cylinder transfers to the cases, as I've read that no tuner can resist...they're right there, right?
I measured 64.2 mm all around in the bores this morning, which I found surprising as the cylinders clearly have been off before.

65? The LC was rated at 47hp from the factory. There is no way a stockish LC is going to do anything near 60hp.

[85RZwade]

My seat-of-the-pants dynamometer is over five decades old now, hasn't been calibrated in a long time and frankly has always measured a bit optimistically.