The Big DR350 Project. *Updated*

[oxfordmoto]

hi Stev fired up my dr on thursday,carb pissed fuel when first turned tap on but sharp tap with hammer soon put pay to that. Bit of a shake down today but at about 4 fired her up properly set air jet best as i could and then idle. Set off to petrol station, much better throttle response for sure. Snappier acceleration and picks frony wheel up with ease not done full speed run yet back brake need more bleeding plus gonna go over bike tomorrow check boklts extr. Your jets and settings on fcr 37 seem bloody good, will play some more but so far so good. My gutted crf 450 pipe is noisey but sounds really cool...mot may not be easy without some kinda temp baffle....will let you know more soon...thanks for your post saved me a lot of time...regards Rich

[Thedktor]

ENGINE REBUILD 2016

This story started back in 2012 when I took over ownership of a very neglected DR350 that had been stood outside for 4 or 5 years and was in quite a sorry state.

After a lot of work the bike was brought back to a usable condition and was ridden solidly for two years on the trails covering about 13k miles. Having had previous bikes with more modern suspension the old DR needed a lot more rider input to keep it in order over the rougher stuff but somehow the challenge of that was fun, and the refined, punchy engine just never failed to deliver the goods.

The years sat outside had not been good for the engine, the valve seals, rings, bore or all three were past their best - oil consumption was evident from the word go, around 100ml per 1-200 miles and DR350’s do not normally use much oil.

The relevance of the oil consumption coming up, but the bike got progressively harder to start from cold (it's a kicker) until I had to admit defeat when there was just no compression.

Finally got round to stripping it down and expected to find the rings either gummed up or completely worn out. Well, surprisingly they weren't! And no pictures cos I forgot.

However, some careful measuring determined the oil control rings were a little out of spec, and presumably contributing to the oil burning, but the main compression rings were clean and well within tolerance. Interestingly the bore showed no signs of wear at all, despite the mileage.




Not a very good picture, wtih too much shadow, but there really was no wear evident. So what was causing the lack of compression? A look at the cylinder head gives a clue - the result of all that oil being burnt over thousands of miles.




The valves and seats had a lumpy layer of carbon on them, and hence were not sealing properly!











A load of parts ordered up, gaskets, rings, valve seals, and a couple of exhaust valves for good measure. You could argue the case for a rebore and new piston, but I think the piston will outlive the rest of the bike anyway...







A new cam sprocket was also ordered to go with a new cam chain, but I didn’t notice until reassembling some weeks later that it was the wrong sprocket! Some investigation and the older kick start model uses a different sprocket to later DR's, and for some reason I had missed it on CMSNL’s website.




Because of the return costs the sprocket was kept for the other DR, which it would fit, and then the right one could be sourced.

However, on comparing how the new cam chain sat on the teeth of the old and new sprockets I could not detect even the slightest bit of wear on the original sprocket, even after 27k miles of use, surprising.

So the old one went back on, after lapping the valves in, fitting new seals etc.







The last picture is for those that have worked on valves who will know the fun of a little collet pinging out under high spring tension and disappearing for hours, until you finally find it hiding in the darkest most inaccessible part of the garage!





Head bolts going in:




After torquing up the head bolts, then carefully applying sealant to the valve cover, then doing up the many bolts holding it on.... I was most annoyed when one of the bolts spun in the head, with a stripped thread!






There should be a thread in that there hole....

This is not an unusual problem on DRs as the thread is quite short due to the oilway, but stripping threads is not something I do! Regardless, this needed fixing, which meant taking the head off again. Or did it?




Using a long bolt screwed into an adjacent thread the alignment of the drill could be checked in all directions, and jamming the drill's body hard against the frame resulted in a perfectly straight hole. (Mock photo without all the rag to catch the bits!)

Cut a new thread:




And put in a helicoil:




This all had to be done very carefully being right next to the main oil feed for the cam.


Now, in addition to this top-end rebuild was a load more work that needed doing as during the time the bike was out of action I had borrowed many parts for the other DR!

A pair of old wheel had to be dug out and new bearings and tyres fitted, both front and back callipers were gone and needed some old “stock” ones rebuilt. Chain, sprockets, seat, exhaust, hand guards, mudguard – the bike had been stripped bare!

Anyway, got there in the end over some weeks, and a few easy prods on the kick start and she fired up sweet as a nut. Next stop MoT test, and no problem there as pretty much every moving and braking part had been renewed!




Ran it in over a few hundred miles, oil and filter change, then back into service.





I know I've said this before but with the FCR carb and other mods the engine's flexibility, instant response, and pull through the gears really is quite remarkable for its size and age - you would never think it was a 26 years old.

Well, you *can* tell as soon as you hit anything remotely bumpy - if only that engine could be easily fitted to a more modern chassis!

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

if only that engine could be easily fitted to a more modern chassis!

Ain't that the truth.

Beta has access to the DR350S engine for the Alp 4.0.

If they stuck the engine in a modded version of the X-trainer chassis, I'd have to go and buy one.

[Mikekitts81]

Another period of unemployment hit me end of 2011 and I had to make the tough decision to sell my XR650 and KTM-400. But without a bike I would be lost! Fortunately a close friend came up trumps and gave me this project to keep me on two wheels:







Spiders!

















It was stored outside under a tarp for 4 or 5 years and suffered accordingly


Actually quite sound under the corrosion, but never going to be pretty again.




The picture is very flattering as the general corrosion is bad, and all the plastics covered in mould that refuses to come off.

It’s the trail or “S” model DR350, of 1993 vintage. I had the electric start model in the late ‘90s, and they are crackin trail bikes. This one feels noticeably lighter than my other one as it’s a stripped-down kicker, but its always been a good starter. Quite a few useful mods like plastic tank, pumper carb, wider pegs, Vortex airbox, over-sized header and Kientec-modded silencer.

Gave the bike an initial going-over and it needs a good £100 of bits: cables, rear disc, lower shock bush, wheel bearings. Not too bad, well, assuming the chain is ok - its not worn just very corroded…

Chapter 2 to come and covers the first round of getting this old bike moving again.

i was in my garage the other day doing my exhaust cleaning it up for a build iam throwing it on and my wr450f was sitting around there abit unclean for how i leave them every ride i normally come home clean it with the karcher and then check and do filters etc if needed and clean and re lubricate the chain ready for taking straight out the garage again ... anyway as i was doing the exhaust i had a brain fart and tried the ever so popular harpic power 10 plus on my back panels that are white on the wr450f to see if they would remove some old limescale mold and crap and low and behold it shiftd it a treat ...so if your wanting to remove so of that crap use harpic power 10 plus and laods of water after to wash away the crap and chemicals as the narpic stuff is an hydricaulic/sulfuric acid so left to long will melt if not destroy the plastics but works well rubbing the crap off and washing straight off ... a month later now and theres no issues with it eating away etc just make sure you clean it off it turns your whites back white like the daz adverts lol