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I have a granite cutout from a kitchen sink that I use to clean up gasketed surfaces on engine panels after scraping off the gaskets.  Works great for that but I don't know about more critical mating surfaces.

So if I'm capturing all this correctly, stock RD (or any motorcycle in the '70s probably) would have had no resistor in the plugs or caps - now the thing to do is (was) to run NGK resistor caps + stock B8ES plugs.

Since the B8ES is no longer made, use BR8ES + stock caps?

You guys have all been helpful, I had a suspicion tuning this thing would not be like a '70's Japanese stroker.  It likely never was much of a screamer.  It actually has a lot of torque for what it is, kindof like the rotary valve Kawasaki's I've had in the past.  High RPM's though, when I have gotten them out of this motor, aren't really "worth it".

If you haven't seen my previous post about this thing, check out the piston.  It's a wacky design.  I'm not sure why they tried this piston pattern (it is correct and OEM).  To my knowledge the '57 was the only year they messed with this idea, toward the very end of their 2T street bikes.  Afterward they largely moved away from 2T's and focused on their 4T's.

Message me the stroke and your email and I will send you a picture of a printout of the degrees starting at 1* BTDC and up to 25 or 30* BTDC. It is possible to make an educated guess from that point, I may even have an engine file close to give you a starting point. Also if you know the compression ratio, that helps too.  No I can't post a %#!$ picture here, lol, being old sucks.

Hm.. I'll have to do some measurements to figure that out.  I do have a spare cylinder and piston that may help.

you're over thinking it.

put a dial gauge in it, find tdc. make a pointer to point to tdc mark on the flywheel. then you have your pointer to time at the firing mark. yes, its really that simple. 

btw.. sweet bike. 

Duh.  You are right.  I really overthink things sometimes...  It's already marked on the flywheel so I need to get TDC, then adjust this flywheel shell back to where it needs to be and then use the existing markers to create a new marker on something else. That will work.

Thanks! I love it, I want it to look just like this but run like a top.  All the way up to 50mph lol.

Pun intended.

I have a '57 Parilla 125 2T and I cannot find the timing degree in any manual I have (I have the originals in Italian, still not there!).  Does anyone have an idea what ball park degree I should shoot for?

Frustrating part is that the flywheel is marked for TDC and for firing, but the markings are on this outer shell on the flywheel which has broken loose over time and will now move freely once the engine is heated up.  The magnets don't move, just this outer ring.. I have to come up with some other temporary way to mark it for a timing light. To add to that, you have to take the shifter, kicker, engine panel AND flywheel off to change the timing. 

It runs, always has, even after I moved the stator plate around and test rode different setups.  I had it running pretty well and was really getting it on it in top gear then it immediately cut out at high speed - I think I may have almost detonated or something.  Instinct had me pull the clutch immediately when it started cutting out and the engine just totally cut out. Checked everything out and it didn't see any any damage anywhere, retarded the timing a smidge and it runs ok but bogs and is slow rev now.  Could be the old plug it has in it, or could be because it got too hot..

While likely not the digital look you are after, Scitsu makes awesome ... electronic  tachometers that are reminiscent of factory race bike tacho's but have no mechanical parts. They sense the pulses from the plug wire and use an internal battery to move the needle.

Digging up old thread here - What would the performance benefit to a banshee crank be? Are they lighter?  It would be nice to have banshee ignition options but that alone wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Still looks like a great place to plop a fold out chair and crack a beer.

So I was puzzled about the look of these pistons, and after a parts number search they are as I suspected - Banshee.  1UA00 stamped inside so they are OEM Banshee pistons.

Without the tang removed, how well would this have run??

Motor cleaned up fine enough!  I think the poo actually helped strip the crummy rattle can paint job so that's a plus.

Engine now 100% broken down and dried off.  Unfortunately I am not the first to crack this one open - had at one time had a detonation and was rebuilt, however it was all correctly assembled and seemed to have been a good job.  Crank bearings are way tired but not the rod bearings 

I'D BE IN AT 150 IF I WAS LOOKING.  that things a turd that may be saveable. tell him if he wants that money he should take better care of his shit.

Oh you should have seen the swamp of shit we traversed to get to this end of the yard where it was.  I leave pissed off every time I go to a yard and, after hours of digging through what is essentially garbage, being told they want eBay+ prices for it.

Searched high and low at the junk yard for an RD400 bottom end and happened across this one in a shed that was ready to fall over.  It was on the ground, didn't want to turn over at first but it broke free.  Cylinders aren't ported but heavily rusted.  Obviously a total rebuild if even possible, but I was actually after the transmission for my 350 build anyway.

They declined my offer of $100 for it all, understandable at first. But then he was telling me he could get $250 for the bottom end alone so I didn't bother negotiating from that point.  As it sits right now, I highly doubt that it's worth much more than my offer... or am I off base?  Obviously every bearing is junk and its possible the rust in the bores is beyond repair, especially if it's already bored over (no pistons could be found).  Who knows what the inside is like, however the "exposed" part of the crank once I turned it over was clean metal.

Is that "stuff" corrosive?

I've always heard it can be, especially to raw aluminum. Plan on plugging holes and spraying it off this evening. From far away.

I've had my eye on this motor for over 10 years at the junkyard but he always wanted way too much for it.  This trip I discovered the situation there was only getting worse - pigeons. 

It turned over still.  After he gave me a much more manageable price of $150, I manage to.. uh hum.. scrape out enough to get a socket on the head and remove it - STD bore.

Took the plunge.  I'll follow up after some serious poo removal.