I bought this bike very cheap (£250, about $480) because it had a bit of a tapping sound at the top end, and a lot of the alloy and chrome was pitted due to neglect, it had the wrong front mudguard, the tank and side panels have been badly aerosol sprayed and the rear fender has been brush painted.
That aside, it had good tyres and brakes and had just passed its annual MOT (a UK legal road safety test).


It was tapping and I suspected that could be the cam chain problem, so I bought it and rode it a couple of miles home on a dark and rainy night.  It seemed to be running just fine, but these things really don’t have any power for a 650, do they?

Anyway, yesterday I started to worry when I got the bike up on the lift and drained the oil – there was nothing showing in the sight glass and maybe a pint came out, not 1.8 litres.  This could be bad – what kind of muppet doesn’t put oil in his bike???

Stripping the bike I found the cam tensioner was out by maybe half an inch – I’ll weld on the mod but that wasn’t the problem.  I was also delighted with the state of the bore, the honing looks like new and everything is good and tight.  However, when I looked closer at the bits I took off, I found these:


I guess that's what you can expect when you don't put oil in a bike - at least the bore and bottom end were oiled and ok.  The exhaust cam and follower are worn down by nearly a mm each, and the inlet lobe is chipped too – you can see the scuffs on the inlet follower.  Time to find somebody who’s dismantling a good motor – I dread to think what a new cam and followers would be from a dealer.

While it's apart I'll port the head (the exhaust side is horribly restrictive) and I’ll put before and after pictures up later today.  I was also thinking of skimming the head or barrel to up the compression a little, but while there’s about 4mm of free cylinder above the piston to play with, the valves protrude all the way in when open, and I don’t want to start recessing a standard cast piston in case it weakens it too much.  Anybody know how much you can skim off these before you have to recess?

Main jet was already a 155, the needle spacer is long gone and the slow screw was 2 ¾ out.  I’ll keep that as it is until I’ve tried running her with ported head and freeflow filter, then see what she runs like.

I can see the restrictive nature of the exhaust too – I priced up a Raask header over here in the UK and they’re £140 for the 50mm slash-cut custom pipe and £180 for the 60mm drag pipe.  I’m just wanting the one with the 1.5” internal bore, like this which was posted on here:
Can anybody confirm which Raask system has the 1.5" ID?

Confirm?  That's my photo and pipe.

Man, those rockers are really bad.  I bet the valves weren't adjusted correctly either.  Just shows what someone can do to a bike without having a manual (hate to think they actually had one).

Get a new cam shaft from Lancer...I did.

What do the bearing journals look like in the headcover?

At least it has a fork brace

KwakNut wrote on 01/19/08 at 04:56:42:



Actually these Savages have quite a bit of power, but you have probably already realized that the lack of power from yours was due to the mangled cam and followers.

When working properly you can almost snap your head off of your neck when taking off too hard.  

Yonuh Adisi FSO wrote on 01/19/08 at 09:22:46:

I've tried a couple of others that are running fine, and thought they were really flat too.

My other bikes are a 1986 ZL1000 Eliminator running stage3 filters and dynojet, which will out-drag most sports bikes to about 75, and a ZX12-R with nitrous that puts out around 250bhp at the crank and over 200bhp through the back wheel.

30bhp just isn’t enough - I don't see how any bike with less than 100bhp can be a neck-snapper even with low gearing.  I’ve recently had a GasGas 400 enduro and a KTM 450, both of which produce about 45bhp, and they’re not that quick, but the poor old Savage is positively slow.

I’m afraid I do find the Savages to be very under-powered – but they’re still cute!  

Okay, here we go - before and after shots of porting, just stage 1 stuff with standard valve sizes, nothing radical.
The information below is intended as guidance for the novice to reassure those not familiar with motorcycle maintenance that it's not really all that difficult to port a head - the experts will know more than this, I'm not trying to teach grandma to suck eggs!

Inlet port  
The inlet port is actually pretty good as it comes, it's not a restriction on the motor excpet for the really silly protruding screw coming through the ceiling - maybe not on all bikes!:



Exhaust port  
The most work is here.  I was amazed at how restrictive this port is - it has to be a deliberate design to keep the power down to levels required for certain European and Japanese license categories.  Let's fix it!! :



Chamber  
With standard valve sizes, the key is blending the ridge between valve seat and port (they can be BIG steps), and de-shrouding the valve recesses (get rid of sharp edges, but don't remove too much material or you can drop the compression ratio a little).  Watch those valve seats - one 'doh' with a grinder or sand wheel and you'll be hours grinding the valve in deep enought to cover your error!!:


Inlet manifold
Don't forget the misalignment of the inlet - and the same will apply to the neck of your exhaust.  Just make a template and trim the plastic/rubber to suit.

KwakNut wrote on 01/19/08 at 08:16:36:

Still need to know?  Geez man.  If you do a little looking around you'll find that Raask is only making the 60MM pipe, but you can order the straight or slash cut.

Latest step in the renovation.  Should have taken a shot before I started - they were pretty furry.

Looking better now!

Savage_Greg wrote on 02/05/08 at 15:51:35:
Just old fashioned 8 inch buffing wheels and course/medium/fine polishing soaps.  A whole lot quicker than going down the 400/800/1200 grade wet'n'dry work.  I like to finish with Alu Belgom and a soft rag - I think that's the best metal polish for the finishing touch, seems a bit finer than most of the others.
I don't like coating the alloy when polished - too much risk that it will chip/peel/discolour and look worse than ever.  I just lightly buff it with metal polish every few weeks once it's done, just a half hour job to go over the whole bike, and a good excuse to crack open a beer or two.
Belgom has some wax in it, so when you've polished there is some protection against moisture, but I always put put a good auto body wax on top of the polished alloy as well - I prefer Autoglym, but any good wax will protect the alloy.  I even use wax on exhaust chrome.