The damage can be repaired & I would have it repaired. There are companies out there who can fill the damage then skim it to original spec. However this may cost more than finding a good one on say 'Ebay' (ha ha ha, whats the chances of that eh? ) If the head is definately flat & square (check with a mirror by laying the head on it then use a set of feeler gauges all around the head, or another way is to lay a bit of paper on a flat surface & I do mean flat, then paint the underside of the head with an easily removable paint (I use poster paint, very very fine coating) then just gently lay the head on the paper & I do mean gently! After a couple of minutes remove the head & if you have a near perfect copy of your head (the Kr's not your actual head) then you are pretty much there.
If it is square & good then have it repaired!
I have two heads which look brilliant but are so warped its unreal
Ooh there is one on ebay as we speak, not sure how to do the linky thing here but if you just tap KR1S into the ebay search thingy, I'm sure you'll come to it?
Just don't bid too much BM, this one could be worse than the one you have!
It's not easy to find a decent head nowadays. I had a head just like yours but with the pocks a bit more towards the plug. I didn't have any problems with it, used it for about 600miles (then I ruined the plug thread by using a faulty compression tester )
looks like a foreign object has found its way in to the engine. On a standard compression, its probably Ok, I've done the odd race with head like this and taken out the worst with wet and dry (but soon had it repaired afterwoods).
Had a piston break up once, head was badly damaged, but got the deep pits welded and reground
A lot of people would still happily use that head as-is if it's still flat. If it's not flat (or you just want to clean things up a little better), you can take/send it to someone like BDK who can machine the pock-marks out while correcting the squish band, and skim the head flat again. It shouldn't cost too much to have done, and youll struggle to find a head that dosn't have this sort of minor damage.
You'll also find that haveing this done should give you a little more power as the standard clearance between the squish band and the piston crown tends to be about 1.3mm, almost double what is required. For raceing purposes 0.7mm is about right, but for road use you'll want to open the gap a little more to something like 0.8mm or so.
KR250 Tandem Twin (Naked)
KR1 Red/White
KR1S Track Bike (has been put on hold for now)
ZXR750 H1 (Winter project)
Howie wrote:Ooh there is one on ebay as we speak, not sure how to do the linky thing here but if you just tap KR1S into the ebay search thingy, I'm sure you'll come to it?
Just don't bid too much BM, this one could be worse than the one you have!
When I said "whole bike" what I meant was "most of a bike, stripped down and in several boxes with not a single part labelled"
This is why I have put off doing anything with it for three years....
I'm very fortunate to have a fully assembled bike to look at, otherwise I wouldn't have a hope of reassembling it correctly.
Mike
) If the head is definately flat & square (check with a mirror by laying the head on it then use a set of feeler gauges all around the head, or another way is to lay a bit of paper on a flat surface & I do mean flat, then paint the underside of the head with an easily removable paint (I use poster paint, very very fine coating) then just gently lay the head on the paper & I do mean gently! After a couple of minutes remove the head & if you have a near perfect copy of your head (the Kr's not your actual head) then you are pretty much there.
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