Well I have started the rebuild and will post it on ThumperTalk in case it might help out others. I know there has been other rebuilds but you never know when new info might help out.

Let me start with the bike. 2000 XR 600R bought used but I have put tons of miles on it. I GPS trails for a living and ride about 8-10 hours a day for 10 days and then take a 5 day break so you can see all the miles I rake up.

When I bought the bike the guy that owned it had painted part of the frame red and I waned to go back to the silver/gray frame. He also did a very bad job of painting it but I knew I would have to do a complete tear down to get it right.

The top small end of the rod was way out of round and making some really bad rod knock so I wanted to get a rebuild done before it all came apart out on the trail.
My biggest problem was getting this done and still working so I used another bike while the rebuild is taking place. I am using a local bike shop that I have used for many years and they are a great shop to use in my area. They build some outstanding bikes and are just a great shop to work with. The shop website is http://speedaz.com/ I will be posting pictures to show the progress. Here are a few to get started but I will also add a lot of spec info. Later...Clint

the engine teardown


more teardown


tranny


Wiseco 11.5 piston


Wiseco piston


HotRods rod and bearing


The old frame paint


Still that bad red paint job

Ummm, how do I get a job GPS'ing trails for a living?!? :-)

Yea I get that question a lot about my job...

Here is the frame after a lot of sanding to get the bad red paint off and repainted with the silver/gray. Man it looks a lot better. I will get the swing arm and rear tire back on today. Later...Clint

OK guys, sorry for the delay on getting info back to you. Work keeps me off the computer a lot. The rebuild is done and the bike is all back together. I installed the engine back in the frame and took it back down to Speed Merchants for the start up. The engine looked great and these guys did an outstanding job on the rebuild. The bike fired on the 4th kick and sounded great. No problems at all. With snow on the ground and very cold temp I have not done a break in run yet but will get that done maybe this weekend. I have some more pictures that I need to upload and will report back after the break in run. Later...Clint

Man the bike is running great. I am down in Tombstone right now and adding a lot of miles on the new engine. No problems at all. I did add a new Moose stator while it was town apart and loving that as well. The power is a night and day difference from the old tired engine. This is like riding a brand new bike again. Later...Clint

I'm gutting my pig right now and reading all these threads.

You chose a 11.5:1 Wiseco piston? How does it run on 91 octane?

I was considering going with an 11:1 but didn't want to deal with any potential octaine head aches.

Yea I am not having any problems with the 11:1 at all on 91. I had a fear as well on pinging but have not heard any at all. I also used the Hotrod rod with the old crank...this saved a lot of money. Hope that helps out. Later...Clint

There are a couple of threads that discuss the comp ratios of Wiseco pistons... It seems that the 11.5:1 turns out to be lower comp ratio than advertised. It actually works out well though as it is a bump from the stock ratio, but still keeps you in the ballpark for running pump gas.
Here's one of the threads: http://www.thumperta...mpression+ratio

Just about all of the aftermarket pistons make less compression than advertised. My JE 10.5:1 is actually ~9.9:1. I don't know the compression height of the Wiseco XR600 pistons, but I would expect compression to still be right around 10:1.

What ever it really is ...it is way more than it was before the rebuild. The kickstarting is not bad but you can sure tell the differerance. The power is night and day difference... I am very glad I did it for dang sure. I had heard that the Wiesco was a lower compression before I did the rebuild but I would have to say that it is really hard for me to believe now. Later...Clint