I found a cheap 2004 F4i for $1000. Basically it needs a new motor and some body work (dent in gas tank, left handle bar bent, no left passenger peg, and left mirror is gone). Besides that, the bike looks clean and looks like it would be a nice bike if I could get it back into running condition, however, thats the problem. I have little mechanical skills, work on my car and do the minor things, but I dont know how difficult this swap would be. I looked on ebay and looks like replacement f4i motors tend to go for $600-800 shipped. Anyways, I was hoping if someone could tell me the difficulty of the replacement and if I should even attempt to recondition the bike. If everything works out fine it should be about $2000 or so (hopefully not too much more) for a F4I. What do you guys think? Could this task be done by someone like me or should I just look for a running F4i instead?

 

If you have ever worked on a car, or have friends that work on cars, you can do it. I bought my bike (CBR900RR) with the motor out of it and putting it back together was pretty easy. It was easier than putting the motor in a car.

I suggest that you pick up a service manual (from HONDA) and look through it. I paid $6.00 total, for a manual on CD-ROM, off of Ebay, for my 900RR. I has been priceless for working on my bike. Just make sure that you get a HONDA factory manual.

Good luck!

 

You may be able to download a manual for this bike here:

http://www.stephygee.com/

 

Thanks for the link 900RR, but I didnt see the manual on the site. Maybe I over looked?

Anyways I do have experience on working on cars (nothing too major, but I can do a lot still). Is a motorcycle jack needed for the swap? I found a guy that said he has a spare motor for $800 with 10k on it- what are some things I should do while the motor is out? Or is 10K still so low everything should be fine?

 

Do you have pictures of the condition of the bike? Will you be getting the broken engine with the sell? If so, check to see what's good still on the bike as you could part the engine out and return some money back.

Anyhow, if you have basic mechanical skills & knowledge, can turn a ractchet and a screw driver, as well as basic understanding of viewing diagrams then you should be good. It would be a fun project. I'm currently doing a motor swap on my 600rr, the wiring is the hardest part, but I'm mixing years so that and not having enough time to work on the project has slowed me down. If you can get a decent working motor for 800 shipped, that's a decent price. Just note that shipping engines will have to be freight and usually costs about 150-200 bucks. Some times, the service company may not deliver to residential areas as a lot of freight companies use big rigs instead os small ups/fedex type box trucks.

 

It will really help you if the bike has the bad motor still in it. That way you'll have everything you need. You may have to put the existing throttle bodies on the new-to-you motor and some other accessories, but like JBaz and I said, it's not too hard. Just don't rush, take you time and think about what your doing.

I used a regular floor jack and a piece of 2 X 6 wood, when putting the motor in my 900RR. It would really help if you have a friend help you, when removing and installing the motors. I did mine by myself. Nothing went wrong, but it would have been a lot easier if I had an extra set of hands. I used tie-down straps to hold my bike upright, while putting the motor in it.

Oh, one more thing, the guy that took the motor out of my bike, put most of the parts in Ziploc bags and labeled where they came from. This would have been a great idea had he not lost some of the parts before putting them in the bags. My point is to get some of the Ziploc bags that you can write on and as you take the thing apart, put the fasteners and small parts in the bags and label them. This will make putting the new-to-you motor back in a lot easier.

And... where ever you can get a factory manual for the bike, get it!

I would jump all over this deal if I were you! Make sure it has a CLEAN title. If not, make sure you can re-title the salvage title, before you buy it.

Good luck.

Note that I will probably be able to view this again, unitl Monday (12/04/06).

10K should be fine, bolt it in and run it. ITS A HONDA!

 

Take lots of pictures as you tear it apart, so you can see how things are routed, etc. Manuals often tell you what to do, but not precisely how it should look.

 

I use a fishing tackel box to store various parts of screws off the bike and they are labeled from where they came from. I work on so many bikes that I have boxes and boxes of assorted screws, nuts, and **** from bikes.

The best way I found out when swapping the motor is to use some 2x12's on the ground, prop the front and rear end using either stands or concrete blocks, drop the motor out of the frame onto the wood, move the frame off the stands (out of the way, frame weights like 20 pounds so its easy to do, RR engine weights about 65-70lbs), then move the new engine and align correctly on the wood. Move the stands away and drop the frame right over the over and bolt it on. Took me seriously 30 mins to do that.

 

Wow JBaz, I wish I would have done mine that way. It would have been much easier, since the whole bike was apart. Next time...

 

i know this is an old thread but man i wihs i would have seen this earlier!!! i used a motorcycle jack to do my drop! and well it is the kind that goes under the motor so it does not really drop it low enough to pull it out.... but once droped i lifted the rear end away from the motor.... now only problem i have is i cant remove the carbs from the head i loosen the 4 screws but it is like it is stuck tomorrow i will be cleaning and re installing the new motor.....