Updates

I Spent some time in the davidson lab over break and made some more progress on the 550. Got a skinny tank from a xl175 on there now and I think it looks pretty good. It took some frame mods to make it happen and the crappy welding and grinding is evidence of how new I am to all this. It's straight and solid so I'm satisfied. It's pretty weird to look down and see so much of the cylinder head. I made some progress on the engine too. We've had 30+ degree weather the last few days which gave me a chance to get out in the garage and get my cases back together. I also got to fit up my cycle ex oil cooler adapter and a nifty oil pickup Brian welded for me. Here are some photos.

The tank came from a xl175 used on a dairy farm. 76 was the only year of "Aquarius blue".

I had to knock the seam down on the top of the frame and weld a strip over it for the tank to sit nice and low. A long nut Aaron turned down on the lathe now occupies the hole at the end and is where the tank bolts on.

 Started on cleaning up the CB650 head. Having the right tool makes life so easy.

 Here are some oil pickups. The one on the left is for a 550 engine, middle is for a 650 and the one on the left is for a 550 case using a 650 oil pan. The 650's pan is deeper and has baffles so when your showing off your engine still gets lubed.

The little port on the side of the 550 pickup is for an extra oil pump built into the 550 transmission. The 500 and 650 models didn't have the pump so their pickups don't have the ports. To run the 650 pan on the 550 bottom we modified this 550 pickup.

100% unrelated, Nash got his 750 out a few days ago and broke the chain about a block from home. When the chain broke the 2 links at the end doubled up on each other and busted through his case. Truly a sad sad day. It looks like I'm not the only dumbass rebuilding a honda 4 cylinder this winter!