The back travel I had on the previous tensioner was about 3mm and it opened up to around 4mm in the 3,000 miles of use.  The tensioner extension was 13.4mm when I put it together several year ago - and it opened up to 14mm.  So - it appears I got 0.6mm of new extension and 1.3mm of dent to the aluminum spacer.

On the new spacer after running it for 50 miles - I have 16mm of extension and it is 12mm when pushed back. (The plunger I built has more shaft length so the 17mm measurement is not apples to apples for the stock plunger).  This is an example of my inability to do things right the first time.  I measured the distance between the mount for the tensioner body and the bolt for the plunger - and I tried to replicate that distance in the new plunger and allow only 1mm of back travel....it appears I missed it by 3mm.    I just built a 4mm steel spacer and put it in the tensioner body - there is only a small amount of back travel with the spring pushing on the chain......I rotated the engine over a few times and there is little or no movement of the plunger.

I am not sure what you mean by closing up the hole - do you mean the oil hole I drilled?  The center of my plunger is drilled just like the stock one to allow room for the tension spring.

The 30 weight oil just seems to be too light for anyone trying to keep pressure.  The pump likely has trouble pushing it without some bleed past the rotor at slow speed - and the bearings and orifices don't provide much restriction to it.....so it just passes through easily.  There is likely still good flow - it just doesn't offer much resistance and it does not move the pressure gauge at idle.  (I am going to check the low psi accuracy by connecting it to a T fitting in combination with another gauge and see if they agree).  I am giving up on the 30 weight oil, as it is likely designed for folks building water cooled V8 engines that use 10W-30 oil.....I have dumped the initial filling of 30 weight and will add the rest of the gallon and use some 20W-50 to top up crankcase and run a few more miles on it.  I have ordered 2 quarts of 10W-40 break in oil and will use that.....then switch to the Rotella T6 15W-40.

I have a small oil leak that is blowing a bit of oil on the back of the engine near the starter.  The top end is dry - it appears the oil is coming from the top of the clutch cover gasket where the oil passage is located.  I have been using this gasket for years and likely had the clutch cover off a dozen times as I worked on the DR650 clutch, the Sneezy clutch cam, the tensioner and now the piston swap and oil pump change.  I hate to give this gasket up as it is the one with the steel sandwiched between some form of gasket coating....it has lasted a very long time and does not stick to the metal when you take the clutch cover off.  The new gasket from Suzuki is paper and it has a sealing compound on both sides of the gasket at the top - I suspect it will seal well but it will not be reusable.  

When I sent a head, and cylinder I believe, to Wiseco for them to design a new flattop-dished piston, it was for both the 97 & 94 pistons.

I would use a quick connect coupler and just change them out or remove them.

"I am not sure what you mean by closing up the hole - do you mean the oil hole I drilled?"

I mean the hole in the stop.  It looks to me like you have a hole in the stop and the spring runs through that hole.  I would eliminate the hole, it will increase your spring preload.  It might help a little, but IMO your problem lies in too much back travel.  Your rear guide is very flexible so you don't have to worry about the CCT being too tight.  I would bring that back travel down to .060" or even .040".  If you let that plunger float much more than .060" you lose control over the intake closing point.  Not too big a deal since the DR cam already closes the thing almost at BDC (34 degerees ABDC is pretty darned early).  But it is never good to have any variation in valve timing, especially when you run the piston so close to the head.

DragBikeMike wrote on 07/15/24 at 00:20:08:


Well - I don't know for sure.  I have a big plastic box with my spare parts that includes gaskets and seals for the engine that I have ordered over the last 12 years. The clutch cover gasket on the bike was the one with the metal interior.....not sure when I put it on.  The box had 1 Suzuki gasket still in the bag with the Suzuki part number on it, and another aftermarket paper gasket.

I will order a new replacement and report on what is delivered.  For now the clutch cover has the Suzuki one with the sealant.

Thumperpaul,

In my very limited experience it has become my conviction that if you apply RTV to a gasket joint, with the tip of your finger, not unlike the way you would apply balm to your lips, you will end up with a perfect seal without extreme protrusions.

Cheers, Finn Hammer

Now we are getting somewhere.

I got a new 30psi gauge today, and when I checked it against the 15psi gauge I had they were both reading very close at the 1-5 psi range that was not working on the 60psi gauge.

I installed a valve so I could shut the flow to the gauge off while the oil was cold and likely to exceed 30psi.

I dumped the first fill of 30 weight break-in oil and refilled the engine with the rest of the oil in the jug.  Once the engine was fully warmed up it had 4psi at idle, 10 psi at 3,000 rpm, 12psi at 3,500rpm, and 15psi at 3,000 rpm.

I currently have the #102 bypass jet installed - I will put the #120 back in and see if I can get the pressures down a little bit.

Ultimately I would like to route the bypass oil up to the head....I hate just wasting the oil flow and would like to put it where it could do some good.