Parts is parts

Just posting a few shots of the various parts that are accumulating.  It's nice to start a project like this and have spare parts available to experiment with.  Previous bike and engine projects have been one-offs and that presents a problem when failure is encountered- the need to wait for a replacement custom part, usually the weekend before a race!  Now we'll have the ability to have 2 complete engines plus a host of spare parts.  What luxury!

Most of the parts are produced to my specifications by the indicated vendor, the rest are standard aftermarket performance parts.  Thanks to Barry from Celtic Racing for referring us to Skip Dowling of Orient Express, a great source for all things OEM and aftermarket in the SportBike world.  Skip was able to get us the parts we need at very reasonable prices.  A shout also goes out to Fred Renz of Yoyodyne, a great resource for hard to get exotic parts and just about anything Brembo manufacturers, even the true GP equipment.


Castings:  a lot has been said about these parts and the great job Harmony/TPI is doing so I'll leave it at that.

Chassis Castings:  great parts from Harmony/TPI here too.

J&E Pistons:  producer of top quality pistons for motorsports.  These are a high compression version of their ZX6-R product.

Carrillo connecting rods:  What is there to say?  If you want the best rod, you buy a Carrillo.

Oil pump gerotor and custom drive gears:  fron Melling and SDP-SI, respectively.

Tungsten crank counterweights:  From Midwest Tungsten Service.  These bolt on counterweights that nest inside the con rod I beam area help keep crank and overall engine cases as narrow as possible.

Brembo front brake calipers and master cylinder from Yoyodyne:  Again, if you want the best, you get Brembo.

Ohlins TTX front damper from Motorsports Spares, who usually deal with 4 wheel vehicles, but had the knowledge of the generic Ohlins components to help us source a suitable solution for our front spring/damping needs.

Cometic gaskets:

Lots of misc bolts, seals, bearings, etc.

More misc parts, mostly from Orient Express:

I'm starting to amass quite a collection of parts.  Soon this chaotic jumble of parts will defy entropy and assemble into an organized machine capable of scorching the track.

That's all for now.

Flip-Flopping the Crankshaft

We've made good progress on the crank so far, one aluminum test part and 3 final steel parts all have the first lathe operation complete with no crashes, broken tools, or other mishaps.

Now we remove the 3 jaw chuck front he lathe and replace it with a 16C collet nose. The collet nose will allow us to hold the part very accurately from a previously machined feature.  We'll then indicate the length of the part and run the second lathe operation.  This operation creates the features for the generator main bearing journal, the front bank cam drive, and the tapered stator mount.


3 jaw chuck in first lathe operation:

16C collet nose for second operation:

Now just a few button presses and the 2nd operation is finished:

Repeatedly running the program finishes out the parts for now:

Now we are finished with the lathe work.  Next up will be putting the parts in the 4th axis on the mill and creating the 2 sets of offset throws for the connecting rods and the sprocket teeth for the cam chain drives.  once those features are complete I'll put the part up on a manual mill and drill and deburr the main and rod bearing oil holes.  Unfortunately, that will need to wait a week or so for some client work on the mill to be finished.