nick7 said:
Hey Paul,
Next time you run the CBX, it would be fun to see a video...hope you can keep the oil in, am wondering what it sounds like? How long does it take to do the valve clearances?? Are they shims or simple screws?
Regards Nick
Hi Nick
on the CBX, the valve clearances are set by swapping great big shims, 24 of them, thankfully the setup is shim OVER the valve buckets. I say thankfully as the cams are very long, and are driven by not one but two cam chains. Getting all 24 bang on the money the first time took me several hours, measure a valve clearance, then depress the bucket and take the shim out to measure, then do the math, then find the most correct sized replacement shim from the $200 valve shim kit I purchased, and was also able to re use some of the existing shims by swapping locations. The first time I did all the clearances with the engine out of the frame which made things fairly straightforward. Now that the engine is back in the frame any future valve shim adjustments will require a bit of time to even get the valve cover off, requires removing the three dual coils, the spark plug wires, a total of twelve large bolts from the upper engine mounts, spark plugs for cylinders 1 and 6 to be able to get at two of the engine mounting bolts, and so on, just to get the valve cover off......
with my single Mikuni HSR 42 carb I am still dialing in the base jetting, I started out of the ultra rich side of things as I do not want to blow up a very fresh motor, the bike is still smoky rich, and I wound up taking off the fuel pump and regulator and going to a straight gravity feed as the fuel pump was overwhelming the float needle valve even with the regulator set as low as it would go and even using a float needle valve from Mikuni intended for use with a fuel pump. I just submitted another parts order to Sudco International for leaner jetting ranging from three sizes of progressively leaner pilot jets, and so on, waiting on jetting bits as no one local to me stocks any of these bits, not even the two Harley dealers local to me who routinely fit a Mikuni HSR 42 carb to Harley's, but those carbs come completely pre jetted for the specific Harley application, unlike what I am working with.....
as for exhaust sound, the 6 header pipes are set up three into one and those two resulting pipes are then are collected into a single pipe (with a adjustable mechanical waste gate in it) that spins the compressor side of the Rajay turbo, then exits the turbo into a large diameter dump pipe, with absolutely no sound deadening except whatever the turbo suppresses. It is rather loud, but in a silky screaming kind of way, I have only done a total of 50 miles so far, definitely need a good set of earplugs, and there is an annoying exhaust resonance at around 4,000 rpm, which is easily solved by spinning the engine just a bit higher.
once I get the basics sorted, I will shoot a bit of video and post it. This build took me way out of my normal comfort zone, I learned lots of new skills, and I am quite proud of the end result even though it still needs some tweaking, especially some time to sort the carb jetting before I really start cranking up the boost...... I welded in an Oxygen sensor bung just after the waste gate, but I have managed to screw up my Innovate LM2 by trying (very unsuccessfully) to update its firmware, and have just sent it back to the manufacturer in the United States for repair, which I am told is going to take a few weeks, bloody hell
Paul LeClair
) or make a die to squish the bare cable end into a square shape. The die is simple. Just file two matching 90 deg V-notches, each into a small piece of flat steel so that when placed face to face they form a square hole (of the right size). Sandwich the end of the cable between the two notches and press them together in a vice. I've done that on several occasions when recycling rotary cable inners and it works perfectly.
