Racing is not for the faint hearted. I remember back in the early 80s, a TZ 350 engine from Japan was A$5000, the same as a new bike. But Yamaha at least made parts for racers available retail. Ten years before, we campaigned a Honda CR250 in national motocross. We melted a piston and ruined the barrel. That was a A$2500 bike, ready to race. We ordered a new top end. And a month later a van pulled up and a man got out and gave us a crate about the size of this one. Inside we found a brand new factory motor/gearbox for A$1500. It was a full works, fingerported motor complete with dyno sheet. 35hp @8000rpm. I think they mist have got the part numbers wrong. There was a note inside. It read. "Honda must win." We did. That bike and motor is out there somewhere today. I wonder if they realise what they have.
Absolutely insane Engine Component prices used to be a 10k Superbike was if bought as parts over the counter closer to 40k 🤣, The profit margin on parts is outrageous.
@@PalmerPerf_ I have owned three R1's all from new. A 1999, 2006 and a 2010. Never raced them and none ever got ridden on damp roads/rain etc. They all still look like showroom condition. In Australia I'd get a good 5 months a year of spring summer & autumn weather with plenty of weeks of fully dry roads. All three ran perfectly and never had a fault. I do miss riding them now but our Draconian road laws and speed penalties and fines are so outrageous they simply can't be used as designed. Cheers.
Thanks for demonstrating the 90° crankpin spacing, watching those pistons doing that funky dance is as good as listening to one at full chat😊. I love the CP4, so this little series has me captivated.
I think that is a reasonable price from Yamaha for a crated engine with ancillaries ready to go. People are paying a lot more than that to go car racing. For instance, Lotus Twin Cams are 30K plus VAT from Neil Brown, they may have even gone up again since I last heard!
I buy new/secondhand bike and never leave bike motor alone. Takes me about 3 months to buy a low km wreck at auction. Usually 20-25% of cost of my bike. Sell the bits I dont want and and up with motor, wheels...... for 10% Buy some spanner is my moto :)
FYI during a bike tour of Europe some years ago I visited the Ducati factory and we were shown the Ducati Scrambler production line. They assembled the engines dry and I questioned this. Before final assembly to the bikes they fill the engines with oil and attach an electric motor (wasn't shown how) and turn the engines over to lubricate them (no spark plugs ?). Maybe all manufacturers do this, car engines as well ?
I remember on a Triumph tour they would run all the newly built bikes through a preset procedure on a Dyno then immediately drop the oil for re-use in the next bikes! (Filtered of course).
Thanks for posting! Very interesting. I would comment that the costs involved, compared to what "Proper Racing Car people" pay for a car engine compare VERY favourably. I know from bitter experience. Simple Formula Ford 1600 engines come in about the same price you mention for 105 BHP that needs rebuilding round about a couple of rebuilds during a season if you are at the sharp end of the grid. Some people are much cheaper, but if you want the best..... as they say. I personally would go for the new engine every time as you have a known product in buying brand new. ( No grotty threads or bits missing.)
Lotus twin cam for Lotus Cortina historic racers are 30K plus VAT from Neil Brown. Swiftune charge 20K for Mini Cooper engines. Makes this look good value.
Hi. I'm currently rebuilding a 2015 R1 engine and I've wondered about priming it. If you didn't have your own method for priming it, would you go with running the starter to get oil circulated? Thanks
@@_justinR1 Hi, spark plugs out and crank it on the starter is worth a go but a lot of the time it won't spin the engine fast enough. If you've pre filled the oil filter, oil cooler and during rebuild prefilled the oil pump as much as you can and also used a proper engine assembly lube it should be ok 👍
Ahhhh, I meant to add that in to the video but completely forgot!!! Yes, the 2020+ engines can be bolted in to an earlier chassis but you have to use the older inlet manifolds with some adaptor plates that one of my contacts has made. 👍
I have a question. Do you use a torque wrench when installing sump plugs and oil filters? I'm ask this as I continue to be horrified when I see dealerships "hand tightening" the oil filters in particular. Yikes!
On some normal in line 4's (the gsxr for example) you can but the R1 would vibrate itself to bits if you removed it due to the crossplane crank arrangement.
The machined finish is pretty good to be fair but I always do a bit of manual finishing of any machined head on a rather large high quality surface plate with fine grade emery stretched over it, pretty old school way of doing it but it's always worked for me. Thanks for the question. 😁
Good question, surprisingly few big bikes have cassette gearboxes. I guess it's more expensive to manufacture the engines like that. Personally I love the ZX10's because of the fact they have a cassette box than can be pulled out in under 30mins 👌👍
Yes, it will be ran in on the Dyno and then any map tweaks done. I can fit the newer engines in to the older bikes, just requires some inlet manifold adaptors and some mapping tweaks 👍
@PalmerPerf_ another question, if I install a 2020+ engine in my 2016 r1 do I have to change the harness and ecu as well or it should work with the 2016 one, thanks again for your help
