restoring a Up-Tite 87 250 XC...

I picked up a '87 250 XC.
It's a project but it has some special bits.
George Erl (Up-Tite Racing) ported and prepped this bike back in March 1990.

The bike has been left out in the weather, neglected and abused. The previous owner attempted to fix the bike when it wouldn't start. He snapped off the ignition side crank stub threads (Lefthand threads not righthand), took a hammer to the ignition hub, and more.

Back in its day, somebody cared for it though. There's enough good here to work with.
Time to get to work tearing it apart...

here's a couple more pics...
Not sure why they show up upside down.

another try at getting images oriented correctly.
hitting this page from my iPhone, the images look OK.

and some more pics...

the plastics are wasted. I might try to bring them back.

see the hammer marks on magneto hub and crank stub broken off...

here's George's signature, March 1990. It was hidden behind the pipe. So we thought this was just a junk bike.... this was the main reason I decided to rebuild the bike.
Notice the extra ground wire to case.



George's handiwork. Look at the beautiful intake porting. Nice knife edges. The long rod and bottom of piston showing





exhaust side porting... and the single ring piston showing. New for 87 models I think.

Nice find. Bring her back to life. With lots of pictures please.

Will do. I've got plenty more pics. The motor is apart and heading to the machine shop. Frame is now bare, and ready for powder coating.

As a comparison of stock vs. good porting, here's the intake port on my 86 430 AE. It's just raw casting. No smoothness.
This 250 was made to FLOW and Breathe! Can't wait to ride it.

i ve had good luck wetsanding the shrouds...you will want to stick with the originals...the dc replacements for the 87/88 bikes are ridiculous...nice find, not many of have the 87/88 250! different than the earlier 250 bikes for sure

Thanks, justintendo. I'll give that a try too. I did a test rub with rubbing compound and it made a big difference, so I think they might clean up OK. I know there's a process and others have done it. In case they don't look good, I bought another tank and set of original shrouds off craigslist.

I see you have an 88 250. Cool.
I haven't seen many even advertised. It will be nice to bring her back to desert riding condition.

Taking parts off the frame.

Nice rusted rear drum





the SEM-MIC ignition - stock on a XC


a nice Up-Tite coolant Y to re-use

the up-tite y is pretty cool.. i bought the same bike new in crate (minus the goodies) back in the late nineties.
not long after the sem started doing the infamous "backwards running"..the aluminum brain box can go bad..have had motoplats on since..
would be interesting to know the porting specs!

taking the motor apart... first the head and cylinder.
The piston is a 66.69, that's the 1st over. It also has small gouges on the top, like somebody was trying to time it by putting something in the spark plug hole.



working on getting the SEM hub off...


cylinder and head off. notice the spark plug hole in the head. Knackered as they say...


close up of the head, more evidence that someone was messing around...

In-the-crate fresh would be great. In the late 90's eh? That was a score.
I have a PowerDynamo ignition from Penton Racing ready to go in. I want some watt output to run lights and whatever else.

I now suspect that George did more of a polishing than a porting, seeing that the the piston is a stock piston not a radical piston.
Although he certainly opened up the ports more.

Not sure if you have it in the states but I find that vime works really well at getting all the dirt and grime and even boot scuff marks off of plastics and makes it look like new again...... also works really well on white boots

Doesn't look good but it's not too bad. Nothing that can't be repaired or replaced. I believe it's in good hands now. Gonna be a nice addition to your collection.

I don't think we have that brand name in the States.
But I bet we have something similar. Thanks.

Yep, a little grinding work should smooth the head nicely. One step at a time. Waiting for the report from the machine shop.
Thanks, hoping to get the bike back to nearly new condition.

From the looks of the "knackered" plug hole and gouged piston dome I would bet the brain-e-acks that "worked" on the bike prior to you shoved a screw driver into the plug hole to lock up the engine so they could beat the tar out of the flywheel to try to remove it. That just proves that some people should leave their hands in their pockets and just back away from anything resembling a tool.

At any rate, nice find and give that girl some long overdue lovin'...

let us know what you do for a piston...
im not aware of aftermarket pistons for the 87-88 250. wossner has some listings but they are for italian engine, not the long stroke swede. andy has oem pistons but they are listed for the swede powervalve engine..which is the same but has a pv..he says they will likely work..
if yours is first over, there is only a second over available after that. so maybe dont bore unless needed. mine has several hundred on the oe stock bore and is still at 215 psi. but i need to do a refresh just as the piston has a ton of time on it. i currently have a 430 engine in the chassis.
bought the bike from a dealer i had bought out. gave it proper break in when i was in 11th grade and has been a faithful companion since

Yes, rwgregory you're right. They shoved something in the plug hole to lock it up. Thanks... its nice to decipher the clues of what previous owners did.
There's more interesting things inside the cases that we found, but I haven't posted those pics yet.