Project "Akira" PF Racing

[PocketFighter]

SOMETHING OTHER THAN A CAR!

So next year i'm on a mission to start racing in the BEMSEE F400 EdiAsia series... For those who don't know, its motorcycle racing in a 400cc cup! ANYWAY, this is 2 projects in one....



Firstly the bike!

Kawasaki ZXR 400 H1, I've owned since 2011, rode it for 2 years, started getting overly confident on the road, had a few very close misses on it so decided to take her off the road and track her only! and if anyone has seen my old number plates I always used to have "Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome" on them lol

IMAGES AREN'T IN ORDER WHICH IS ANNOYING, 1st - strip down, 2nd road trim, 3rd pic engine out, 4th current trim, 5th shagged stat and last pic how i'm hoping she will turn out...

Last year I did a track day at Brands Indy, managed to get 4 laps on the 400 and then she gave up ghost, turns out the fuel tank had water sat in the bottom of it, all these ZXR models have the same issue, the end result being heavily rusted and making the fuel dirty! ended up getting sucked through the fuel pump and into the carbs - new pump and carbs needed, carbs have recently been purchased...

IS THERE ANYONE HERE WHO HAS GOOD WELDING SKILLS?

Have only recently just got round to stripping the engine out of the frame and ready for its strip down... turns out i now know why she had a heating problem, thermostat mullered... so thats got the chuck and not being replaced! removed the oil cooler in favour of blanking off plates and also have a smaller radiator (larger radiator racers tape up to keep heat in - even with the oil cooler removed!) so in theory i SHOULD be ok for heating and keeping her at a decent temp.

She's currently pushing about 60bhp (down on power by about 4bhp) the plan is to get her to about 70bhp (anymore is a bonus!) head is off and being sent to a friend to clean and tune, compression is increased - base gasket removed in favour of a liquid gasket (Yamabond/Honda Bond 3) this raises compression a fair bit, crank i won't lighten, just to keep the intertia and engine spinning with a bit of weight for midrange - reason for this i'm not the smallest of blokes so i need as much midrange as poss to keep the pace (great on short circuits)



THE SECOND PART OF THE PROJECT... is me   im a bat fastard so i'm on a mission to lose weight... currently 21stone-/+ i'm wanting to get down to about 16stone... nuff said, watch this space

[PocketFighter]

CURRENT BIKE SPEC

SCM Quick Action Throttle 1/4 turn
Lighter handle bars
SBS front pads
DIC exhaust system + A16 end can
Genuine Kawasaki Race loom (NLA/UNOBTANIUM) rare as rocking horse poo
RAM Air box
Ignitech CDI

[bigcheez2k3]

THE SECOND PART OF THE PROJECT... is me   im a bat fastard so i'm on a mission to lose weight... currently 21stone-/+ i'm wanting to get down to about 16stone... nuff said, watch this space

So your username is ironic?

Looks good. Considered buying a 125 for a winter project but never got round to it.

[PocketFighter]

THE SECOND PART OF THE PROJECT... is me   im a bat fastard so i'm on a mission to lose weight... currently 21stone-/+ i'm wanting to get down to about 16stone... nuff said, watch this space

So your username is ironic?

Looks good. Considered buying a 125 for a winter project but never got round to it.

5'7 ex mma

do it mate, get yourself an RS125 Aprilia, I'll come and help you out!

[Dum-Dum]

Cool looking bike man, I'm just looking for my first "proper" bike in the hope that if I have a bike I might hurry up and finish getting my license.

Looks good. Considered buying a 125 for a winter project but never got round to it.

My Yamaha 125 might be up for sale before Christmas as no doubt it's owner will want rid of it (it's not mine).

[PocketFighter]

Thanks mate, unfortunately for me the current fairing is more asthetic rather than practical... not that im the most aerodynamic out there! But the standard fairing is a lot wider and offers more wind protection!

[procta]

mint! what do you compete in motorbike wise? in case they do pop up at croft.

[PocketFighter]

mint! what do you compete in motorbike wise? in case they do pop up at croft.

looking at competing in BEMSEE EDIAsia F400 series mate, haven't started yet! lol will be starting next year fingers crossed!

[PocketFighter]

So a quick update...

Mums not too happy with me since i got back home lol

Shims were all within tolerence but now i have the engine apart and being cleaned they will get rechecked...

So cams out and head off

Surface rust on cylinder 3 and 4 so a clean up and honing should see that right, cleaned the carbon off the pistons, rings and skirts are to my shock perfectly fine!

Valves are coming out today and being cleaned up

If i have time then i may start porting it tonight

---

Oh and just for a bit of japanese and carbon porn...

Tasty end can!

[PocketFighter]

Well today has mostly been cleaning rather than actually building...

Judging by the state of the plugs she was running rich, not so bad, just means i lacked power but had reliability... then when i inspected the head a bit more, exhaust ports were properly filthy! I thought i had removed the exhaust gaskets...to which i did, removed 4 of them... cleaned it up a bit more and revealed another 8 gaskets!!! 12 gaskets in total making it blow excessively and run even more rich... excellent! Lol

One of the bores is slightly scored, so im deciding how to do this now... do i spend £550 on a new set of oversized pistons (1mm) and get the cylinder overbored... or do i get it honed as much as poss to run standard size... more inclined to go for the oversized, if i want to be competitive then this would make sense

Valves look like they need to be lapped/seated, did a leak test and nothing visibly leaking, but will get them cleaned up and try the test again, fingers crossed i dont need to get new valves and seats, valves have seen better days to be fair, but will inspect them once i've spoken to a mate about the situation

---

Forgot to upload the pics!

[Magenta Sunset]

wouldn't that many gaskets lower the compression a tad?

[PocketFighter]

Yup lowers it a fair bit actually

It's not like a car gasket where it's thin either, they are about 5 mm thick before clamping down, so having a 1cm unsealed gap really messed about with the set up!

Whoever had the engine apart before me, shame on them!

[Magenta Sunset]

no wonder you were short of HP

[PocketFighter]

Going to be over boring it, ive decided, my friend is going to port it out for me also

Predicted bhp i would say around 72bhp

Healthy 10bhp on top of standard, if i start to get really into the power gains and go for the 85+ (is acheivable) then i need to invest a load of cash into it

[PocketFighter]

so small update, not much progress with the bike engine, i've been a little busy with it...

however i am on plan to lose weight, i have lost 3/4 of a stone since starting the thread, i've not done much exercising, mostly changing what i'm eating, that said i am walking the dog more (further and trying to be quicker with it!) so yeah im currently 20.4stone

i'm not doing my MMA anymore so i have to be different with the way i'm eating and my lifestyle - i used to train 2 or 3 times a day, work part time and really cut back the food, i could do this when i was single lol bit harder now with the missus as i couldn't put her through that lifestyle lol

will try get on with the bike this weekend if i can!