Technical and Dynamic content from 25+ year Motorcycle Industry Veteran Quentin Wilson. A graduate of The Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in 1996; Quentin has worked for Pro Italia Motors, Team Graves Yamaha (With Bostrom, Gobert, DiSalvo, Herrin, and Henry), Hypercycle Suzuki (With Hale, Barnes, and Rapp), MotoCzysz, Ducati North America, Motocorsa, Alta Motors, SW-Motech, Team Westby Superbike (With Mathew Scholz), and now Photon Marine, all in technical positions. He started racing Yamaha YSR 50s in Southern California in the 90s, transferred to Grand Prix Honda RS 125s in the early 00's. After a hiatus, he then raced a Ducati 848 while rider coaching at track days while working for Ducati. As of this writing he is commuting and adventuring on a Honda Africa Twin 1100 and off-roading with Alta Redshift, and a Honda CRF250X with a Christini AWD system.
I think they used multiple engines as they were available. They may have started with the 401 nailhead but I've also read they also used 425 cu in. Buick wildcat nailhead engines up until around 1970 when most switched to chevy 454 cu in engines. I've read some auxiliary bases never got rid of the nailhead engine carts and continued to use as needed.
Depending on which iteration we were working with at the time, the firing order could have been set to what we called "big bang" or "even" There were two crankshafts and you could clock them to be timed in such a way to have an uneven firing order. It was not easy, we had to modify at least one of the 3 camshafts to make it happen, if not all 3.
One question i did have is when you take the fuel line off will fuel continue to flow from the tank or does the pump stop the fuel from leaking? I see you have a akrapovic system have you done any remap or tuning? Thanks
These guys were really stupid....all that needed to be done was build the motor correctly and balance it and no need to replace it over and over. What a waste. Plain stupidity....and they are engineers???? From where? Bubble gum University?
Cab to hood gasket went bad and snow and rain rusted a hole through the air cleaner to. Engine will be rusted solid in one ofnthe pistons. Total rebuild time. Is it worth it for the truck?
One thing of note, the water certainly had been collected in the air cleaner housing, but the intake of the air cleaner housing is well below the height of the carb opening, so it is doubtful that water got in the engine (of course will check), the condensation from the rust pond in the air filter housing eventually just rusted the carb openings. Heck the corrosion might have sealed it up better for me! 😁
It isn't stealing any power, no. First, it is a restriction... and as a street machine it is a very necessary restriction for cold start-ups. Second, it is something else that could fail. If it does fail, it fails closed and that restriction is extreme and could blow up the engine in a race by overheating the system.
After 25 years of snap-on collection, my recent spate of absolute $#!t tools that are ANYTHING other than snap-on, matco, mac, or lastly 90's era craftsman are reinforcing my purchase of expensive well made tools. Kobalt, husky, most harbor freight hand tools... they are all atrocious
I haven't gotten to it yet... was just gonna hit it with the MAP torch and a vice but I love hearing bizarre chemistry like the acetone/trans oil... that is a new one!
