BlueSky

Looked at the old short block a little trying to determine what was knocking and it isn't obvious. The counter weights appear to be tight. I'm thinking it must indeed be a rod knock. These don't use rod bearing inserts, so I assume the rod comes machined to the correct dimensions to fit the crank. A new rod is $80. I'm also assuming it isn't either of the two main bearings. I may get around to disassembling the short block and figuring it out just out of curiosity. Way back when in the late 40's or early 50's, my Dad worked at the small town of Windsor's power generating plant which consisted of several diesel engines turning generators. I remember him saying when a rod bearing started knocking in those diesels they had to manually hone the rod and rod cap to refit the rod to the crankshaft. They used a lot of bluing to refit it. And as I remember the old chevy sixes had babbitt rod bearings, early 50's or so.

If I understand correctly, that rod splashes oil on the stator to cool it. Without the oil the stator will fail prematurely.

Those are beautiful motorcycles!

One thing that you could check that is a little trouble is the oil level in the fork legs. If it isn't the same it might cause some steering issues.

To do it right, the carbs need to be stripped and then soaked in carb cleaner. There are lots of passages in these carbs. I have the CD mentioned. The name in the return address on the CDs is: Dean Dietrick from DEPERE WI His email is in this thread https://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?119186-Bought-Carb-Rebuild-Video-by-Damon-Ferraiuolo

Checking the compression with the engine cold makes a difference. Checking it without the throttle wide open makes a difference.

Contact Cowpuc and see if he can tell you how to get rid of the gear whine. He said he got rid of it on a couple of Voyagers.

190 psig is great compression. Thinking there is a problem with 190 psig is wrong in my opinion.

What a Stache!

Well, the new Kohler Courage short block is installed and running. It was a lot more work than I thought. I ended up watching a lot of videos on lawn mower repair during the job. They were interesting for the most part. One guy who calls himself Tyral Dactal makes some good videos. The governor shaft fell inside the engine so I had to open up the new block and fish it out. All of the bolt holes in the block were not tapped and the screws are self tapping which I found to be a pita. I took the cover off my old block to see what the governor shaft looked like and it isn't obvious why it was knocking. the top balancer is tight and the rod appears to be tight. Perhaps it's the lower balancer. I haven't read anything positive on line about the Courage engines. My knocking engine has a total of 64.5 hours on it.

A very loud backfire sounds to me like intermittent ignition. I would check the ignition components for that cylinder. Just wild guessing here.

What a toy!

Most car engines compression ratios were reduced in 1971 and at the same time, they changed the hp ratings to crankshaft hp so the 302V8 that came in my 70 Mustang that was rated 220hp had a hp rating of about 145hp in 71. In the 70's and 80's I was continually buying and selling old cars. It was a disease! Most of the cars I sold for a small profit or the same as I paid for them. Some I forgot were 1966 GT Mustang which was a special edition with the "pony" interior and chrome exhaust tips coming out the rear valance, another 59 chevy Impala 4 drhdtp ($100), 64 Buick Wildcat, nice low mileage car, 65 Dodge dart 2dr hdtp with the 273 V8 and 4 speed (death trap), 73 Mercury Cougar with the 351Cleveland V8, 69 Mercury Cougar that was the donor car for the 351W engine FMX trans, and 9" rear that went into my 70 Mustang. I put the Mustang drive train in the 69 Cougar and drove it about a year before selling it for more than i paid for it. I used to say that I wish I had all of the cars I've ever owned stored in a warehouse. But, I can't afford it and as far as driving them daily, I'm very happy with today's vehicles. My dream car that I never was able to buy was a 65 - 67 Corvette.

I test rode a 2002 Voyager that had 34k miles on it back in 2010 before I bought a big bike. It also has a loud whine problem. I since have read that Cowpuc bought and resold a couple of these and he adjusted the "balancers" if memory serves and got rid of the gear whine. Anyway that loud gear whine kept me from buying it. I later test rode a 2006 Goldwing and it was so much easier to ride due to the low cog. Loved it but didn't love the price. The owner of the Voyager sold it, bought a Harley Glide, later sold that, and bought a RSV.

Some ingenious people out there with too much time on their hands!

I owned some neat old hot rods such as a 56 Chevy Convertible, 59 Chevy Impala 2 hdtp with the 283 4barrel V8 and 3 speed manual with electric overdrive. The OD rear that year was a 4.11 ratio and that car was surprisingly quick. I bought a new 65 Chevelle with the 300hp 327, 4 speed, posi rear and put 100k miles on it in 4 years a lot of it 1/4 mile at a time. I owned a 69 SS396 Chevelle 4 speed posi, 70 Mustang fastback that I exchanged the 302V8, C4 automatic, 8" rear to a 351 windsor, FMX auto, and 9" rear after owning it 7 years. 79 V8 Mustang 4 speed, 82 TransAm, 86 Monte CarloSS. Later I owned a 95 Mark VIII Lincoln with DOHC V8 and now a 2005 Dodge Magnum with the Hemi V8. I can truthfully say that I would not want any of those old cars today. The 79 Mustang was the first of the bunch to have AC. I like the modern cars much better. Out of all the cars I have owned the Mark VIII Lincoln is my favorite closely followed by my Hemi Magnum. The newer cars are better in every way. They are more powerful, get better fuel economy, handle better, stop better, more comfortable in most cases, and last longer. The new GT Mustang, Camaros and Dodge Chargers/Challengers with the 392 V8 will blow the doors off any of those old cars.

Futher googling reveals more about the nova: "Harley got so far down the line as to have built 30 engines, 12 complete bikes and the die-cast tooling for the production crankcases. .."

So, I googled harley nova engine and read that Porsche developed the engine. I can't find out who if anyone they sold the design to.

Seems to me that raising the forks in the clamps would decrease the rake and make the steering less stable but at highway speeds the lowering of the bike's front end should make it more stable aerodynamically.

As I remember Harley had to get Porsche to design the high hp V-twin engine in the Vrod. I wonder who they would get to design a V4? Maybe Yamaha since Yamaha seems to be determined to abandon all the V4s.

Seems parts would be scarce but it definitely is a cool bike! What size engine does it have? Never mind. I just googled and found out more about it, 600cc.

Lean burn may be one reason Ford is using so many turbocharged small engines in their vehicles now. The 2.7L turbo V6 F150 has the highest mpg ratings of the full size gasoline powered trucks I think.

I and my buddies cut out those warm up butterflies. We didn't want the resistance in the exhaust to keep us from winning our drag races.

That's hard to believe. I wouldn't believe the oil was changed unless it could be proven. Maybe if the oil was the old Quaker State? If that is true, my truck and car are building up a lot of sludge because I change the oil every 5k miles and sometimes I only drive them 3k miles in a year. 150k and 111k miles on them.

At least one engine that I am aware of, a Toyata V6, tended to sludge up with the engine failing due to too small cooling water passages in the heads. This was done to promote clean burning for emissions reasons. But, the oil got too hot, turned to sludge and the engine failed. Toyota denied engine warranty claims for a while even though owners had receipts for their oil changes until they finally realized it was a design problem. Engineers push engine designs trying to achieve lower emissions, better fuel economy, and more hp and sometimes it causes problems. Way back when 1976, I bought a used 74 Ford Stationwagon 400cu in V8 with about 40k miles on it from the chevy dealer. I talked to the second owner who said he bought it with 29k miles and changed the oil every 3k miles. He said the only complaint he had was with the gas mileage, 9mpg. I recurved the distributor centrifugal and vacuum advance and it got 16mpg on a trip. Anyway, it started smoking on startup not too long after i bought it. I thought, no big deal, I'll replace the valve seals and fix it. But, when I removed the valve covers, I found lots of sludge as well as worn out valve guides. I assume the original owner did not bother changing the oil the first 29k miles. After that when I looked at used cars, I tried to look down the oil fill tube to see how clean the head was.