Turns out the cylinder block only had to be honed! Boring the cylinders COULD (although I doubt they would have charged me this much) have cost upwards of $90...per cylinder. The grand total to get it honed? $33.90. Nice. Also, this means that I don't need to buy 4 new oversized pistons ($199 USD). Instead I cleaned up the old ones (good thing I didn't toss them, eh?) except for #2 (which has a stuck ring and is therefore toast) and inspected them. 3 and 4 are in great condition. #1, however, has enough damage that I need to order not 1 but 2 new pistons.

I ordered a gasket set for the engine, new bolts for the engine (old ones are either rusted, fairly stripped or totally ruined), one new piston [need to order another...damn my lack of patience], and 4 sets of piston rings.

I don't have any pictures right now. Boo.

This past Friday I worked on the bike for the better part of the day. It was incredibly humid out (it felt like I was working in a rainforest) but I did as much as I could.

I removed all 22 of the nuts and bolts holding the cylinder head on and finally removed it. the block came off fairly easily but the pistons were stuck in there pretty good. A little wiggling and they were free. I then removed the pistons and removed the oil rings.

Looking back now this was a waste of my time as you will see in a little bit.

Next, I cleaned up the block as best I could. I sprayed it with engine cleaner, let it sit for 10 minutes and then sprayed it down with the hose. I then scraped and sanded off what was left of the gasket.

I knew that the cylinders would need to be either honed or bored and judging by the amount of rust and some advice from people with more knowledge than I, boring seemed to be the only way to go. Finding a shop to bore out a block is more difficult then it seems. Long story short, it happens that Allison's grandfather used to work for a place that does this sort of work and he decided to share this information with me yesterday. Sometimes things have a way of working out, don't they? Head and Block hopefully will call today and let me know how much they had to bore out the cylinders. I can then order the appropriate over-sized pistons (hence why my previous work was a waste of time) and some other parts that I need to put the engine back together.

Oh. I also started reassembling the carb assembly and removed, disassembled and started cleaning the forth carb (I left this until the end so I remembered how the other three were to be assembled). I'll also need to order some new fuel line tubing as they are starting to get quite fragile after 30+ years.

Here is a picture of the engine and the cylinder head which I'll need to clean the crap out of.

So with the engine out I ran into more difficulties. It seems like the difficulties come with REALLY seized bolts/screws. Who knew that almost 30 years of inactivity would cause so many problems?

I had all of the screws loosened on the head of the engine except for two. Turns out (after looking on the SOHC4 forum) that those two are the most difficult to remove as they tend to get very corroded. Mine were no exception. They are awful. Definitely need new ones. Especially since I had to drill the head off both and had to drill out one entirely. This process took entirely too long and was somewhat stressful at time but long story short, I got them out and the head came off.

This is what was underneath.

The cam chain looks great!...I think.

The past couple of days/nights I have been loosening and remove rocker arms, cam shafts, etc. etc. It is kind of a jumble of bolts, screws, rods and chains. So much so that I need to be crazy organized which is right up my alley!

A lot of nuts and their respective positions.

This is what the engine looks like right now.

I am very close to removing the cylinder head cover. One more screw needs to be loosened and I certainly can't start wailing at it with an impact driver at 11pm so it will have to wait for tomorrow. Once that is loosened I can lift the head up and get a look at the pistons.

A lot of progress within the last couple of days.

1) That bolt that was seized? Picked up my father-in-law's dremel and chopped the head off of it.

2) Got the rest of the wires and bolts that held the engine to the frame free.

3) Removed the back tire.

4) Struggled like hell with the chain only to end up cutting it off the bike with the dremel.

Finally...

5) Removed the engine! Woot! With the help of my dad. See the proof below.

Pretty sure my dad pinched his hands between the engine and the frame right after this picture was taken.
With some wiggling around the engine came out. It weighs roughly 175 pounds.
Here it is in all it's dirty glory. It actually looks pretty clean in this photo.
This is what it looks like right now. The bike is a hell of a lot lighter now.

Next step: Get the head off the engine and start dismantling it to get at the seized pistons.

I haven't taken the engine out yet because I've come across some difficulties.

1. One of the bolts holding the engine to the frame does NOT want to come out. Specifically, the nut doesn't want to turn on the bolt...probably because it is rusted/seized. My dad came over and tried to help as well but to no avail. What can I do? Well, I am going to drill into the head of the bolt to weaken it and then grind it down so I can punch it through. This will take some time and I will have to get a new bolt (luckily they should be relatively cheap through Honda)

2. I need to remove the drive chain BUT it does not have a master link which means I cannot break the chain without permanently breaking it (read: I would need a new chain). My dad is confident that the chain is in really good condition so yet another reason not to break it and drop $70+. So my only recourse is to remove the rear wheel. This, like the bolt, will take time.

IF the engine works, then all of this is worth it. If not...well, then it's not. I have to keep telling myself the engine will work, the engine will work.

Today I began removing the exhaust pipes. I started at them with brute force...didn't really work. So i realized that I had to remove a couple large bolts which held the pipes in place and that made removal much easier. When I started to rotate the left exhaust pipe (needed to remove it) it split in half and rust poured onto the floor. Nice. The picture below shows the left exhaust pipe in two pieces...with a pile of rust nearby.

The second one came off much easier.
Tomorrow I will remove the last two and then disconnect everything from the engine in preparation to remove it. Fun!

All spark plugs are now out. The fourth and final one was a PAIN to get out but with some patience, penetrating oil and a johnson bar with a 1 in, 18 mm socket, I prevailed.

Now that the spark plugs are out I was able to get some lubricating fluids into each cylinder. I found a post on a forum I now follow (sohc4.net) that said a 1:1 ratio of transmission fluid and acetone works the best for unseizing engines. One bottle of nail polish remover (thanks Allison!) and an equal part ATF and I was good to go. I've heard that this process can take as little as a few hours (not in my case) or up to 1-2 weeks. I'm guessing more towards the latter end of this scale...We shall see.

One final thing to note. I went to my parents' tonight to help both my Dad and my Mom with 'computer troubles' (I am their pro bono tech guy. woot.)  when my Dad hands me the registration papers for the bike! So cool! If (when!) I get this bike running it would be a lot more difficult to get it on the road without these papers. I'm so glad he kept them.

We got back home around 4pm from Peacock Point and what was waiting for me at the door? My parts! Wow! Now that was fast.