Engine Build Advice for 78 GS1000 Roadracer

[rcp]

I'm way behind on updates, buit will be posting some and some photos over the next week or so.

Engine Stage 1: done and tested. The engine is built, with replacement
transmission, reinforced & modified GS1000G clutch, GS750 higher
pressure/higher volume oil pump, lightened shift drum, welded (and
possibly balanced) crankshaft, balanced 10.25:1 Wiseco 3.5mm overbore
pistons, Web 109 grind .425" lift camshafts, APE & Kawasaki
shim-under-bucket tappet conversion, H.D. valve springs, APE H.D.
cylinder studs and nuts. All external surfaces below the cylinder head
coated with flat black KG GunKote.

Engine Stage 2 will be: the new big-port GS1000G head, with oversize
stainless intake valves & stock exhausts (all back-cut), new valves
guides, valve job, and 1 cylinder ported for me to use as model for
porting the other three, much higher compression as the head was
already significantly decked, plus VM33 Smoothbores carbs and an oil
cooler.

No, there wasn't supposed to be two stages, but time marches on an I needed it running for the VRRA Quinte TT the first weekend on June.

"Back in bowl":


When I get the rest of the engine building photos uploaded, I'll go
through the details of that, as I don't think I've posted anything
since reassembly began.

I have learned so much through this process, and have absolutely
knackered myself in the two weeks leading up the race weekend. The engine's a doozy though. Race report with vids to follow very shortly.

- Richard

[rcp]

2009 Quinte TT Race Report - part 1

This weekend before last (Jun 6 & 7) was the VRRA Quinte TT at
Shannonville Motorsport Park. I entered the Period 3 Heavyweight and
Period 4 Formula 1 sprint races, and made tentative arrangements to
field a team in Friday's endurance race.

On Thursday, the engine finally went back into the bike. That night, I
was up till 3:30am finding places to fit everything into the car and
trailer, then Friday morning, drove my wife to her final exam,
returned to the house (to pack the stuff that needs to fit into the
passenger seat!), and was off to the races.

http://s563.photobucket.com/albums/ss79/rcp-ca/2009-Racing/?action=view&current=2009QuinteTT001-1.jpg

I didn't make it in time to enter the endurance race, not that it
would have mattered, as I would spend the afternoon working on all the
finishing touches for the bike - swapping shim-under-bucket shims for
the sizes I'd obtained the evening before, mounting the cam chain
tensioner, installing the carbs (stock VM26s), and re-installing the
footpegs. I got all the work done just a bit before dark. The bike
didn't fire first try, but didn't seem to even be trying to fire, so I
suspected electrical issues. I pushed the beast back up the incline
(no starter or generator on HMCS Dreadnought), pulled a plug and
balanced it on the cylinder head, then gave it another bump start. No
spark at all, but I'd chosen the known good ignition from last year to
avoid having to chase those issues again, so I was pretty confident
the problem was somewere in the hastily reassembled wiring. I made
myself some tea and dinner to settle down and keep myself going, then
following the meal, had a little walkabout to visit folks and clear my
head. When I came back, the very first thing I checked revealed the
source: the main fuse, though it looked fine, had corroded terminals.
I guess that's what happens when you store it under some masking tape
applied to the tank, and then proceed to trailer it around. I cleaned
up the terminals with emery cloth (apparently I'm lacking this
critical spare), and then the bike fired right up.


Here's helmet-cam video from Saturday's heat races, apologies for the
sound, but I had zero time to try to rig up a foam microphone baffle.
Just be happy I found the time to test it on a ride into work and
therefore you don't have to watch them upside down.

P4F1

http://vholdr.com/node/29704

P3Heavy

http://vholdr.com/node/29702

In P4F1, I was expecting to beat the slow guys, and to be absolutely
blitzed by the fast ones. This is the class with theup '89 GSX-R750s
and ZX7s, and it runs concurrently with P4F2, the FZR600. There's two
how-am-I-doing markers for me in this class at Nelson: how long till
the front runners lap me, and when does Johnny Whiteboots (John
Crossley) come past on his FZR600, then how long can I keep him in
sight? I did surprisingly well this time, in that I didn't get lapped
at all, and held on to Crossley longer that I have before.

I won the P3 Heavy heat race. Greg McEwen, whom I believe to be my
main competition (he won the title last year), was having ignition
problems with his Rickman KZ1000, was riding his Seca 550 instead. I
was caught after the first lap by Steve Brown on his TZ350 - he
started dead last, knifed his way through the pack, and was apparently
soon on my tail. He passed me on the front straight, our bikes are
reasonably matched on Shannonville - I've got more power, but he's
much better at getting onto the gas earlier than I am when coming out
of the corners. Shannonville's Nelson circuit is 1.8 km long, fairly
tight and "demanding & aggressive". I stayed on the gas as he passed
me, and we were side by side heading into turn 1. Turn 1 is a lot
bumpier on the outside where I was, so I was basically hoping (never
having raced him or seen him race before) that he'd just back off and
give me the slot. No just luck - he's a goer. I managed to keep him
close, and tried to line up a good exit from the last corner in order
to pass him on the front straight. Unfortunately he pulled up with
overheating problems. He apologized afterwards for throwing up his
hand and moving a bit left - he thought I was on his right. When I
thought about it - that's exactly were I should have been - I'd
already seen what trying to go around the outside lead to. I think it
just never occured to me to cut back to the inside after the throttle
pushed me out towards the wall on the corner exit. After that, it was
a lonely, but fast ride to the finish, with a few lapped riders.

That night I did some maintenance: oil change and re-torque cylinder
head nuts, as this was the new engine's break-in. I shimmed the clutch
springs with some used spark plug washers in order to get rid of the
clutch slippage that I'd been experiencing - it made shifting
annoyingly slow, as you had to ease the throttle on. The metal plates
looked fine - just a couple of small hot sports. Annoyingly, I
stripped the clutch cover bolt hole that I'd had welded up to repair.
I think I may have to replace my Canadian Tire tap and die set with
something better. Some case bond goop on the threads and a glop of
silicone over the head would have to do for now.

(continued)

[rcp]

2009 Quinte TT Race Report - part 2

Sunday morning's sole practice revealed the clutch spring shim and
bolt fix had worked, and that I hadn't forgotten how to ride. It was
raining a little, but the only parts of the track where I was finding
it damp and slipppy were the usually-WFO exits of turns 1 and 4.

First race of the day was P3Heavy, I was up to the hot pits early,
eager to go kick ass. We were delayed a bit, and the bike got cold -
thus it took me three attempts to push start it, leaving me at the
tail end of the pack heading out for the sighting lap. I found this
annoying, as they were going so slow. So on the back straight, I
goosed it a bit to round a few of them, and when I braked for the
hairpin, I immediately tucked the front. Victim of "Cold tires, cold
brain", as my friend Scott Lilliot once told me. I was in disbelief as
I skidded along the pavement behind the bike - I can't be crashing! on
the warm up lap? Then the familiar tumbling sensation kicked in and I
got alternating views of ground and sky. Yup, we're crashing all
right. Thankfully, I missed taking anybody else out - my buddy Bert
said he was watching the front tire coming at him and getting awfully
close. When I came to a stop, just off the track, and did a quick
mental body inventory (nothing but a whack on the left elbow), I
hopped up out of the way, and over to the bike. The bike was drooled
some oil out onto the track from a cracked left-side engine cover, and
it appeared that all the left side foot and hand controls were cleared
off. We pushed it off onto the grass and then took inventory. My
helmet cam was flopping, so I removed it. I was obviously, (to myself
anyway) without any serious injury. The bike was, ok, in need of new
stator cover, probably handlebars, tach (we don't need that), clutch,
shifter, linkage and footpeg, oh, and a big ugly, multifaceted dint in
the top corner of the tank. How unbelievably stupid.

I got the marshals to ok me to hop the wall and walk back in, walked
to the medical centre, with some quick conversations along the way
revealing I'm not the first to crash in warm-up (or warm-down for that
matter). The EMT cleared me, after questions and treating the small
friction burn on my elbow. So I went back to the pits and started
seeking what I'd need to repair the bike to go back out for Race #7,
P4F1. After obtaining some JB Weld, I tracked down one of the other
GS's there that weekend (only two others?), and he happened to have a
GS1100 in his trailer that he'd just bought. I went and fetched my
deadblow, impact driver, plastic mallet, and we leaned the bike over
on a milk crate and pulled off the cover. I brought it back to my pit
and started gathering the other parts I'd need from my spares. I had
handlebar, grips, clutch lever all ready to go, but the footpeg and
linkage were unsure - might have to drill new mounting holes in the
aluminum mounting plate. The GS1100 engine cover was iffy too - I
didn't know if it really was the same as the GS1000.

It was about then that my racing friends Rudy and Bert showed up,
escorting the Dreadnought home, as well as street riding friend Alain
Galarneau who had arrived to spectate. So I put them all to work - to
finish scraping gaskets off the GS1100 cover, stripping broken parts
off, transfering controls to the new handlebar, mounting a replacement
number plate, and sorting through the various footpeg & rearset parts
to see what we could do to replace the peg, lever and rod. It became
apparent that the GS1100 cover was not an exact fit: the mating
surface was the same (or damn near), but none of the lower bolt holes
matched up, and those had to hold the oil in. There was a flange of
aluminum though that covered one of the GS1000's lower threaded holes.
So I jury-rigged a heimann transfer punch[1] out of an old bolt and
the angle grinder, got some long bolts to align the cover, then
center-punched the drill location. I drilled the hole, and the
alignment was fine, but there wasn't a flat, parallel bearing surface
for the bolt head - instead there was a rounded angled one. We put on
a washer and just hoped it would work - and it did. The rest went
together reasonably well, but we didn't have exactly the right length
linkage rod for the shifter (some SV1000 stock rearsets that I had
matched the bolt spacing of the first-gen SV650 Vortex rearsets that
had been on the bike). So the lever was a bit lower than I would have
liked, even after having ground a bit off the threaded length.

With a race to spare, we passed tech inspection, and Alain went up to
the stands to spectate. I rode my bicycle up and checked the gridding:
fourth, front row outside. Pack to the pit and started suiting up.
Then the loudspeaker barked, "Attention in the paddock, attention in
the paddock, First call for race #7, P4 Formular 1 and P4 Formula 2"

To be continued....

- Richard

[1] Thank you MIT TechTV Machine Shop HowTos for showing me what those are:
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/24-how-...machine-shop-1

[steve murdoch]

Great read, Richard!
I hope the "to be continued" has a happy ending.
I talked to Jim Kotsi, who crashed the Kawi in the endurance race and he said the same thing about checking his ego.

[theDoktor]

Richard, I have a few questions for you about your bike. First of all, I hope you had a successful race season. I know what you mean about Mosport- that back straight is really long.
First of all, did you ever get your pistons coated? I've got a set of Weisco 1085's that I'm thinking about having Swain Tech put their ceramic TBC coating on the top & the PC-9 coating on the skirts. I'm concerned what the change in thermal characteristics will do the the expansion of the pistons & the proper clearance to use for the piston-to-wall clearance. I want to keep it as tight as practical to keep the ring end gap as tight as possible. I will adjust the end gap as required, but I need to start with it as small as possible.
When I originally built my bike many years ago, I used Gun Kote as well as Gear Kote after rebuilding the tranny; no regrets. The original owner, a local Suzuki Service Manager & drag racer had previously had the crank welded. Now I am concerned about the clutch basket durability. Does anyone still do an upgrade on the stock basket that you know of? I installed a Lockhart Competition oil cooler & VM29 Smoothbores, degreed the stock cams & called it good. I've got a GS1000G top end as spares, but for now I plan on staying with the small port head for maximum port velocity at normal street speeds. Check out the picture of my bike in the Owner's Gallery. It's the white & dark blue GS100S replica.
I'm now working on stage 2- updating the suspension. Would you have any specifics on the exact years & models for the forks & wheels? What are you using for front brakes? How has the stock GS1100 aluminum swing arm worked out for you? Any need to brace it? I just picked up a set of Ohlins shocks that will hopefully work with the GS1100 swing arm.
Thanks for the help & good luck next season.

[steve murdoch]

Sorry to say Doktor but Richard had a BAD accident at Mosport this year.
The last report i heard was from a couple weeks ago and he continues to receive therapy at a clinic near his home near Ottawa.
p.m. sent.

[salty_monk]

Lets hope he's feeling a little better for Christmas!

[theDoktor]

Thanks for letting me know about Richard. My best to him for a full and speedy recovery.
Just the thought of an accident on a bike at a place like Mosport gives me the shivers, It's a very fast track & the run-off space goes away very quickly. I used to live in WNY, and the local SCCA chapter that I belonged to puts on regional sports car races there. I've seen a bunch of pro sports car & F1 races there as well.

[Big Jay]

I've got a set of Weisco 1085's that I'm thinking about having Swain Tech put their ceramic TBC coating on the top & the PC-9 coating on the skirts. I'm concerned what the change in thermal characteristics will do the the expansion of the pistons & the proper clearance to use for the piston-to-wall clearance. I want to keep it as tight as practical to keep the ring end gap as tight as possible. I will adjust the end gap as required, but I need to start with it as small as possible.

You can run those Wisecos at .0015" without any coatings.

Jay

[rapidray]

Do what you want but I won't run a Wiseco piston tighter than .0025 piston to wall clearance. CPs, yes, depending on the application. Wisecos, NEVER! Ray.

[Big Jay]

Wisecos are a high silicon material. I have set hundreds up like that. 836 Hondas even tighter.