Engine complete!
Final days before AMA Dragbike race.
Loganville, GA
Ok everyone, this is how the engine build went down…
2/20/08 I took off of work to start assembling the engine. I had some errands to run in the morning so I got a late start on actually assembling the motor. The first step was to cycle the rod bolts five times for each rod per instructions from Falicon. I started this at 3pm, by 4 pm I was done and ready to put the rods on the crankshaft.
This is when I came to my first issue.
Not enough bearings for the rods or the crank. When I ordered them I assumed they came in sets like they do for cars. NOT! They come individually. This means I had half the amount of bearings I actually needed. In a panic, I called everyone I knew to find the other half. Livengood Motorsports came through by finding a set of them locally. Dodged the first bullet.
2/21/08 I delivered the engine block to Livengood Motorsports so Brian could install the head and degree the cams. Brian did a fantastic job of cleaning up the inside of the head. (See the before and after pictures.)
Brian looks at my handy work and I notice a change in the composure of his face ever so slightly. My heightened sense of panic causes me to ask him what I did wrong. He told me the pistons were in backwards. Much to my displeasure, he was correct. So I proceeded to repair that issue in his shop. Dodged the second bullet… After an hour of work. He would have the head on by Friday afternoon.
2/22/08 My third day off of work to get this completed. I went to McDaniels Collision to finish repairing the fairings for the bike. James touched up some of the battle wounds I suffered in Atco, NJ. While I was buffing the fairings, Brian called to let me know the engine was ready. Then the phone rang again, it was Stephanie calling to let me know the Corvette we own stranded her in a parking lot.
At 1:30pm I went to pick up the engine from Brian, then to go rescue my damsel in a dress. (Notice the order of priority…)
3:30pm I am back home and ready to start the engine installation. (After a brief and unpleasant conversation concerning my order of priorities.) Picture this; one person with mechanical ability, none having to do with a Hayabusa . Another person, being female with little mechanical ability, a bad back, one 350 lb engine and one frame that would like to have an engine back in it.
I have to admit, Stephanie saved the bike from falling off the stands once, this made up for the time one year ago, almost to the day, when she knocked it over in Valdosta.
Other than that near miss I got the engine in largely on my own.
At 2am I started the bike briefly and went to bed.
2/23/08 I start the bike and run it up to temperature per Brian Livengood’s instructions. Next I load it up in the trailer and take it to Livengood Motorsports for the dyno break in and tune up. While on the dyno I realize something that had a very high potential suckage factor. The bike would not downshift past 4th gear. Something in my gut told me this bullet was not going to be dodged like the previous ones. Brian thought it might be something as simple as the shift mechanism.
I took it home and proceeded to dismantle the shift mechanism. Unfortunately, everything seemed fine.
2/24/08 I talk with a friend, “PT”, who confirmed what I already feared. The issue was in the transmission. Good news is I do not have to dismantle the cylinders or head to address the problem. Bad news is the engine has to come out of the bike.
After 4 hours of work removing the engine and dismantling the lower case, I get to the output shaft where I suspect the problem is since I had replaced the output shaft with an APE billet one. Sure enough, I find were I had installed a #%&*ing spacer in the wrong place. Who would have thought something 1mm thick could cause this much work?
By midnight I have the engine back together again.
2/25/08 I call Jon Hawkins from JR Motorsports for help. I am not going to try and put this engine in by myself again. I already blew my left nut down my leg trying to get the thing in by on my own two days before. I kind of wanted to keep my right nut intact and in its correct location.
Around 8 pm we started and had the engine in by 9pm, much easier with two people. By midnight I had everything connected and ready for fluids.
2/26/08 Back to Livengood Motorsports for the dyno run. We start the bike up, do some engine break in runs and watch water leak from the bike. I end up tightening some hoses and the water stops leaking. When we were finally finished the bike had 223 hp at 6lbs of boost and 269 hp at 10 lbs of boost which I never run at.
Next problem, as we go to take the bike off the dyno there was another puddle of water. I figured the bike scared the piss out of itself, but my brain told me that was an unreasonable hope. Brian told me what it really probably was, a bad water pump. Now it is 4pm and I have to find a water pump, get it on the bike, load up the RV and be on the road by 9pm.
A good friend and fellow racer Don Chavous had another one laying around. I met him, ran home installed it, started the bike and no more water leak. Another dodged bullet.
At 9:18pm the RV was loaded and ready to go… or so I thought. I hit the systems test button on the control panel of the RV and realize we have no fresh water. 30 minutes later that was taken care of and now we are on the road.
2/27/08 I go to Valdosta Technical college to do some recruiting. On the way there my Tom Tom navigator gets a bit confused and sends me down an access road along Interstate 75. My gut tells me this not the right direction as I head in to some mangroves and 75 disappears behind me. Sure enough 3 miles later I am facing a dead end on a 2 lane road with a 33 foot RV and a 12 foot trailer. Some new cuss words were brought to existence at this juncture. I had to back up a half a mile to an area where there was a cell phone tower and a narrow service access to it. After bouncing off the fence a few times, Stephanie got me guided in and I was able to turn around. That was a very effective way to test the strength of your relationship with your partner.
2/29/08 I took the bike to tech inspection, while waiting in line I look down at the ground and have a heart attack. The bike was leaking water again, back to the trailer I go to see what it was. I am not able to find anything. I tighten a few hoses and drive it back up to tech. No water leaking. This is starting to cause concern.
3/1/08 In the morning I start to warm the bike up before my first time trial. Everything looks good. I go in to change into my leathers come out and there is the water puddle again. A good friend, and once again, fellow racer Bruce Sampson, gives me a little nugget to chew on. Maybe your head gasket is leaking. ARGHHHHH!!!! Is what I think.
Now I start ripping off fairings and lift the tank. At this point another good friend and fellow racer Pat comes over. Ever the optimist, Pat tells me it will be something simple and stupid, he adds. Two minutes later I find the water neck loose to the back of the head. No more water leak! I dodged another bullet.
To sum things up for the race. The bike ran a 9.3 at 147 which is the fastest I have ever been. The run was not very good considering my 60 foot time was 1.8 secs when I normally run low 1.6’s. I went 2 rounds in PRO ET 1 and 2 Rounds in Street ET. I got waxed in Street Fighter because I ran through some oil on the track and lost traction.
The bike runs great and I have to thank Brian Livengood, Ken over at Velocity Turbo, Jon Hawkins at JR Motorsports, Stephanie for her constant support, Cliston “PT” Williams, Don Chavous, James at McDaniels Collision, Scott at CP Pistons, Sean at Falicon, APE and Jason Keranen at AMSOIL. Everyone of these people gave me some form of advice that helped make this project work.
Now it is time to win some races….
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