clicking noise after replacing piston

dude: the noise is constant and gets louder as you accelerate. I rode it up and down the road and it gets worse as I go faster

wrench: everything was brand new...rod bearings looked good...we checked everything over again.

It sounds like it may be in the clutch or around there. It sounds like gears may be clicking together.

89dude: no...everything was pretty smooth. I only rode it for about 100 feet up the street and back. It was freezing and I didn't want to tick off any neighbors. It did shift smoothly and no bucking when I started moving.

rallen; no we just took the piston out. Took the gas tank off and worked on everything from above. The sound is kind of constant, but hard to exactly hear when I get going on it.

This is his second year on the bike, but last year was his first real hard racing season, Probably about 20 races and many more practices at Raceway Park. I didn't kick it over before we started the project, so it may just be a coincidence that it is happening now.

I hope to drop it off at the Honda dealer tomorrow and I will post what the culprit is.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

ok, just got the call from the shop.

The sleeve is out of round and the piston is slapping around inside. His suggestion was to have the sleeve bored out to fit a new piston.

I just talked to a place that does that and he suggested that I just have the sleeve filled and redrilled so I can use the brand new piston I have. I would send him the piston so he could make sure that is fits before he sends it back.

So my questions are:

1. I waited two years to change this piston. I guess I should do it every year now, especially if my son is going to be racing alot more, right?
2. What are the chances of this happening again. I can take it apart at the end of this season to put in a new piston and couldn't it be out of round again?
3. The fill, redrill process is about $200. The bore out is $200 plus the cost of the new piston. I know the bigger piston will get him a little more power, but since he is not using all of the bike's power now, he doesn't really need a bigger one. Is this the correct thinking?

Thanks again for all of the help and ideas.

Thanks every one for the replies..

The bike was bought brand new in 2008. He rode it at the practice tracks before the races but actually raced a smaller bike that first year. Last year was the first year that he raced it and he is not a super fast rider, so the bike was not really beaten that badly.

We changed the oil the first weekend of every month.

My bad about what the shop actually told me. I was at work so my typing time was limited. They did say that the plating was worn and related it to the sleeve in the older bikes. He said the Nicasil was worn in a place and suggested a couple of places. The first was LA Sleeve, but they were a little expensive and it would take almost a month to get it back.

The other places were Millenium and PowerSealUSA.

This is getting a little out of my league now, so I will do my best to explain what they told me. If I send them the cylinder and the new piston, the will fill the cylinder and re-bore it to fit my piston. The piston is OEM and has only been in for this problem so to keep using it would not be a problem.

Do you think this is the best way to go. I looked at the new top ends and 350 to 400 bucks is kind of steep right now?

Thanks again to everyone for this guidance.

xnational:
thanks I just sent them an email and asked them what they think I shoild do,how much and how long.

Thanks for the help

motofab:

Yes we replaced the head gasket. I think I may try that first and if the noise is still there I will send it out to PowersealUSA.

Thanks for the suggestion.

thanks dude: I will make sure we give it a good amount of warm up time even though the new piston is an OEM.

I just want to get this fixed and get him ready to get going. I have already told him that we probably wont make the March 6th practice at Raceway Park (which was iffy anyway because it is till kind of cold here), but I would like to get out there pretty soon after that.

Thanks

fab:

Just shipped it to PowerSealUSA today for replating and asked them to check if the head was warped.

With all the snow here in Jersey, I think he may not be riding again until he is ready for the 450's

Thanks

I sure hope that's what it was and that this fixes it.

If it doesn't I don't know what else to do. I don't want to take it back to the dealer since they told me that this would fix it. If it doesn't I won't trust them to bring it back there and I don't know enough to rip any more of it apart