1993 FE290 rebuild...and more

[Dogmike]

Whats up old friends from BGW? It's been awhile since I have posted anything on here and thought I would share my recent project (and maybe get some tips).
What I am doing is attempting a rebuild on a 1993 Kawasaki FE290 engine out of my club car. This is my first engine rebuild unsupervised (that was about 24 years ago) so basically its my first time but I think I can handle this.

Well, so to start, here's what prompted this rebuild. I drove the cart for around three years and it ran great, this past summer i began to notice an oil leak. Not so much dripping from the engine but getting slung around my clutches and coating the belts causing them to slip, which also caused the starter belt to slip and wouldn't turn the engine over.

I have narrowed it down to 2 places I think it is leaking from, #1 around the clutch side of my crankshaft, I believe around the seal, and #2 is a gasket (crankcase) at the rear of the engine. There are a couple questionable areas but I will look into those after I get everything cleaned up.

So, while I have the engine apart, I thought what the hell, I may as well replace the piston, rings, bearings and most likely have it bored .010 over (just so the new rings will wear in good).

Well that's it for the bottom end. The top end (head) is the only thing that intimidates me a little, ill be needing some advice on that. Well enough of the rambling, here are some pictures. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Dogmike]

More pictures

[Dogmike]

More Pics

[Dogmike]

Pictures of piston, cam

[Dogmike]

And a few more, as i am disassembling the engine I am putting all the parts in bags with the proper labels.

I did run into a problem when using the clutch puller tool, it took so much force that it jammed the puller rod into the first few threads of the crankshaft. I think I am going to have to relieve the hole about 1/4 to 3/8 down with a larger diameter drill.

[lockman1]

Lookin' good Mike!

One thing though...
I wouldn't relieve the crank bolt hole larger, (even if it is just 1/4") it may cause future clutch puller problems!
if anything, just run a tap though it to clean the threads up!

Carry on!

[villebacker]

I also rebuilt my 93 FE290 recently. Pretty sure your major oil leakage is the crankcase seal. I pulled engine and replaced with aftermarket seal and it still leaked. When I pulled engine again I put in new rings, gaskets, seals, etc. I used OEM crankcase seal and now no oil leakage around the crankshaft. I have now have 160 PSI compression and no oil leaks. I went ahead and had both clutches machined while I was at it. Tickled with the results. I went back with standard rings since my cylinder miked to still be standard.

[compmikey]

Very informative pictures Mike. Thank you.
Hey Don, where did you source the parts gaskets and seals for your rebuild? Very useful info about the OEM seal.
Mike V

[villebacker]

I am not Don but this is what I did. I download the PDF in this link (http://goldenpro.fi/wp-content/uploa.../DS-1993-1.pdf) and got my part number and put it in the search box for GCartParts.com. They use Club Car OEM parts almost exclusively and have very competitive prices to aftermarket. If the part doesn't show up when you do your search give them a call and ask for Diane. She is extremely good and helpful to help you find a part. I actually got all my part numbers written down and gave them to her by phone since some of them always don't seem to show up in the search. But at least you can see what the price for each part that comes up will cost.

If I had it to do over I would do it this way again. If you download the PDF onto your computer it makes browsing through it much faster.

Good Luck

[villebacker]

I noticed that the PDF in the link I posted in previous reply only has 74 pages. The one I have downloaded has 140. I tried to attach it in my reply but exceeds BGW attachment size. I will try to find another place to download it.