The ultimate caferacer EP1 - POWERBRICK BMW K1100RS - Full engine rebuild

Hi guys, thank you for tuning in to this episode of our BWK 1100 RS Cafe Racer build. We're building this bike for the Bikeset Show in London, where we display our best builds every year. With this year's show coming up in 4 weeks, I'm going to show you in the upcoming episodes how to transform this engine into a showroom 250. So every build that we do starts with carefully planning out all the parts that need to be coated or replaced. Repairing those, labeling those, so once we start assembling, we're not running into any delays because we're missing a part or something doesn't fit or wasn't coated yet. We make bags like this for every part, with all the contents of the bag and every bolt that is necessary for assembly is accounted for. This way, once we start assembling the bike, we can nearly do it in a single day. Now that everything is unpacked, I can show you the extent to which we prepare the parts. First of all, we have everything powdercoated in matte black by Drogacoating. His work is fantastic because he coats very thin and usually what you get with powdercoating is that you lose most of the detail because of the thickness of the coating. But this guy, I don't know how he does it, his work is fantastic. So once we get everything back from powdercoating, we prepare the sanded down surfaces, so the logos. We sand them down before we pack them, so once we start assembling, they're good to go on the bike and we don't have to sand down any letters or whatever. For the engine casings, we prepare all the surfaces. We sand all of this down so it's flat, clean and once the cover is mounted on top of this, you're not going to see any remaining residue or sharp edges from the powdercoating. If there is any seals at all present in the parts upon assembly, those are mounted prior to packing them up. All the seals that we use, all the new parts, they come from Kparts Holland. He has everything, so if you are doing a build like this, don't save any money on new seals or new bearings. Because there's going to be so much investment in a build like this, once it's done, you're not going to want to run into any issues by leaking seals or bearings that don't work anymore. So, replace those. You're going to be grateful to yourself. Let's get to work. In order to install the oil pan, we're going to want the engine upside down, so I use a couple pieces of cardboard to protect the top side of the engine that's been freshly painted. This engine was coated in a flat black ceramic coating. Before mounting the output shaft into the engine, there's a couple of things you want to check out. First, you want to look at the gears, see if the teeth have any wear that's more significant on one side than on the other. Check the rivets, if there's any play on those. If there is, replace the entire output shaft. If you have a 6 rivet version, save yourself the trouble and upgrade it to the 12 rivet version. Check the rubber bushings, the rubber dampers. See if those have any wear. You take all of them out and just grab them. And then you take this axle and you put these in here. See that there's a converging shape inside the rubber dampers. Make sure that the large gap is on top. It also helps to add a little bit of oil so they slide in nicely. Like that. Right now we're ready to put it into the engine. Prior to mounting the output shaft into the engine, you're going to want to check that these surfaces, where the bearings are, are clear of any residue. And you'll notice that it falls into place. Make sure that the gears are lined up as well. There is a very small cutout that holds the circlip on this side. While mounting this, make sure that one end of the circlip lines up with the mating surface. Once the output shaft has been seated and both mating surfaces degreased, it's time to mount both O-rings and apply the liquid sealant. Now that the water pump is on, we need to route two cables to go to these two sensors. This is only necessary on the K1100. K1100s usually have both of these plugged off. So we're just going to route the cables because once the cover is on, we're not going to be able to reach it that easily anymore. So these are dummy cables. We'll add the connectors later. They just have to be in place for now. Now that the bottom side of the engine is done, it's time to flip it over so we can finish it off with the engine cover. Most of the engine is done right now. The only thing left to do before we can install the bell housing is install the starter clutch. It's a tricky part because it's very important to inspect it before you install it. So what you do is you take the starter clutch apart. You can easily pull these two parts apart. And then with your finger, you're going to roll past all these little springs. If any of these springs doesn't return to their original position, then you're going to have to completely clean the starter clutch. Now this one seems to be fine, so I'm going to install it as is. So we're going to install the first half of the starter clutch. Make sure the gears line up. Then you're going to install the spring positioned like this. Then the second half. And then the starter gear. This ring needs to go over here. Unmissable. If this one is not there, the entire engine is going to be lost. With the engine sealed off, it's now time to install the cooling system. We use Sampo Sport silicon hoses. These hoses have a high laminar flow because it's silicon, meaning your engine will get a lot more cooling. So the last sensor that we're mounting for today that's engine related is the hall sensor. The hall sensor tells the engine when to ignite at a specific position of the crankshaft. If we rotate it clockwise somewhere between 0 and 5 degrees, we're going to advance timing. And by advancing timing, we're going to tell the engine to ignite while compression is slightly higher, creating a lot more punch at lower revs. So that's it for this episode. We've managed to close up the engine. We've laid a good foundation for the rest of the build. The next episode we're going to continue with the clutch, the gearbox, and the swingarm. As we're doing a BMW R1100S swingarm conversion on this build. So stay tuned and follow along to see if we'll make it to the bike show. Thank you for watching. Oh