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2007 Preparation – Part 2 In the last month or so I’ve been working on the chassis to get it ready for the installation of the engine. All the brake discs have been replaced, again for the rears I’ve used "motorfactor specials" as I did last year…can’t complain about £20 for a pair of discs. The fronts I’ve splashed out on a pair of grooved discs this year. Main reason for doing this is just to aid de-glazing of the pads, last year it took a lap or two for the pads to "clear" at the start of a session so I am hoping the grooves will speed this process up. Time will tell I guess. Along with the discs I’ve completely rebuilt all the calipers with new pistons and seals so I am hoping this will improve the pedal feel from last year. The new wiring loom is now fitted to the car, all the additional electrical bits have also been installed like the fuel pump, rectifier, reverse control box, gear indicator control box, transponder etc. The new dash is complete and is fitted to the car, the old master cut off switch has been replaced with a relay based system. To ensure I keep within regulations I have a master switch on the dash that also has a pull cord attached. The handle of which is on the rear bulkhead next to the extinguisher pull cord, which gives easy access for the marshals should I find myself needing their assistance. Next on the list of things to do was the fuel system, because I am moving from carburetors to fuel injection I had to junk all the old fuel piping, pumps, filters and regulators. Also unlike carburetors I have to install a return fuel line into the fuel tank. After talking to TTS Performance who have vast experience in tuning motorcycle engines we settled on a "dead stop" fuel system. This basically means the fuel comes out of the tank into a filter and onto the pump. From the pump it goes out to a T-piece, one end goes to the fuel rail on the throttle bodies. The other end goes into the regulator, from the regulator it goes back into the tank via the fuel return. Sounds straight forward on paper but took some figuring out on the chassis. As usual Merlin Motorsport have been my life line to getting the chassis ready, always seem to have everything I need in stock along with some great advice. With the electrical and fuel systems now in place we are ready for the engine installation. The Engine When I first thought of the idea of upgrading the engine in the Clubsport the initial plan was to have a standard Hayabusa engine with a few tweaks. However as the idea developed it was apparent that I could improve on the standard engine but not compromise the reliability to much. As discussed in Part 1 of the diary the plan is to design a engine that produces good horse power and a ample dollop of torque but maintain the reliability of the engine as much as possible to avoid unnecessary breakdowns and rebuilds. We are aiming for an engine that will produce a modest 200bhp with around 115ft/lbs of torque. At the start of the project I set the budget of £5000 to cover the engine purchase/development and all the additional changes to the car needed to support the new engine. . Before the last meeting of the year I was planning the engine for next year and already talking to TTS Performance who are based near Silverstone. I used TTS many years ago when I was racing bikes still so I knew they had a vast experience of tuning motorcycle engines. After a number of emails were bounced between them and myself the plan started to take shape. The main criteria is to have a engine with a lot of torque, I remember the old saying "there is no substitute for cubes" when it comes to engine power. There are loads of options to increase the cubic capacity of the Hayabusa engine from the "cheap" to £14k for a 1.9 version. Now there is no way on this earth I’ll be able to afford a 1.9 so I took the "cheap" alternative and decided on the 1400cc, this is basically a big-bore kit. With TTS’s advice we decided on a set of mild cams which are more bias to torque rather than peak power. There is a disadvantage of wild cams in the Hayabusa engine in that it stresses the cam chain which can cause premature failure. Not something I want happening. The next week point of the Hayabusa engine is the clutch, well its fine for a motorbike but when you double the weight and increase the grip tenfold it shows up its weakness. Again TTS came to the rescue with a number of revised clutch parts. So with all this advice in mind we take a trip to TTS and fill up the boot with loads of performance parts…..shopping for men!! So we have the bottom end of the engine covered and the cams but what about the head, well bike engines are very efficient to start with so improving on them is a challenge. For this challenge I used a small company called Sabre Heads, based is Wisbech, Cambridge. I’ve known Rog, the company owner, for a while via the Lotus forums and he constantly got good results from his work. When I asked him about doing the Hayabusa engine he was more than up for the challenge. As mentioned above the motorcycle heads are hard to improve on. The inlet is pretty much perfection, however the exhaust can be improved. As I understand it the exhaust isn’t as good to enable the manufactures to get through the strict emission tests. Anyway Rog worked his magic and made a good improvement on the flow of the head. When I went up to collect the head he was just finishing off the additional breather, the time are care he takes over his work is second to none, he makes a good cup of coffee as well! Rog has a whole host of ideas for improving the head further but with my modest power requirements we decided that this is something to do next season maybe? The last part of the jigsaw was all the additional bits needed to rebuild the engine i.e. gaskets, bearing shells, clutch plates, replacement oil lines and everything else in-between. As usual my local bike shop – Peter Hammonds Motorcycles – supplied all the extra bits to enable the engine to go back together. Joe, from Hammonds, also has the job of putting the engine back together for me and as I type he is just finishing it off. On the 23rd February the car is going upto Emerald in Norfolk to be run in on the rolling road then map the engine. So I guess that is dooms day for me and the engine, will it produce the goods or fall short? we’ll have to wait and see……
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