I haven’t got round to finishing the blog post about the Brands weekend yet. The less said the better really, Friday testing was OK but not stellar. Qualy on Saturday was marred by air in the clutch hydraulics meaning I couldn’t downshift, the race on Saturday was in monsoon conditions and I couldn’t see a thing and on Sunday my rear cover pins sheared and I trailed the bodywork round for a couple of laps before spotting the black flag and coming in. I wasn’t desperately upset about the damage to the car, I’ve certainly had worse and I didn’t think it would be terribly challenging to repair.

I removed the rear cover and stripped all the brackets, spoiler etc. off it. The main spoiler was OK, the the side strakes definitely weren’t, the hinges were OK but needed rebonding in once the GRP was repaired. Clearly the pins at the front had sheared, the cover had flipped back and the hinges had hit their stops then ripped out of the GRP. Since the spoiler was attached all the way across the back of the cover that had remained attached and it was its attachment to the hinge plates that was holding the whole lot onto the car. There were cracks across the wheel arches and the narrow bridge below the airbox intake had broken making the whole thing was pretty floppy.

I cleaned up the inside of the GRP with acetone and set about patching it with resin and chopped strand. Once this was sorted the panel was much more rigid again and I could then sort out the airbox cover. After lots of measuring I mixed up some of the 2 part foam and built this up so I could cut/sand it back to a shape that would fit over the airbox. I then oversanded it a bit and smeared it with filler.

After several cycles of sanding and refilling I had it looking roughly as I wanted.

It then got a liberal coat of high build primer followed by a bit more filler to sort out the defects made obvious by the paint. After a couple more layers of primer I cut this back and waxed it up ready to make a mould from it.

The rear valance also got some attention as this had sustained a bit of damage, it’s also fair to say it was a bit tatty beforehand anyway the previous paint job having been a bit rushed. The light units on the right hand side had been melted, I think the flopped over rear bodywork had been deflecting the hot exhaust gases back onto the valance.

With loads of layers of wax on the plug I masked off the bodywork with parcel tape then daubed gelcoat onto it. Once that was tacky I started adding layers of chopped strand mat and resin.

About 12 hours after the final layer I made my first attempt at separating the mould from the plug. Although the edges were easy enough to separate indicating that the wax had done its job getting the two bits apart proved quite tricky. Eventually I gave it a few taps with the rubber hammer while prising it apart as hard as I could and it popped off neatly. And here it is after some trimming. It’s not perfect but it’s plenty good enough and any minor defects in the final part can be sorted before painting it.

The next stage involved attacking the rear cover with Ken Greenway’s favourite tool, the angle grinder. I chopped away all the foam etc. and enough of the old part of the airbox cover so the mould could be plonked back on and the new shape grafted on by laying up GRP on the inside.

Separating the mould was much easier this time and I was quite pleased with the result although it needed quite a bit of work with filler to tidy up the join.

Once I was happy with it I tidied up all the other repairs to the cover with filler and got it prepped for painting. The first coat of primer went fairly badly – it was going swimmingly well but unbeknown to me (as it’s in the garage and I spray up in the garden shed) the compressor had tripped out and as the pressure dropped the gun started splurging gobs of high build primer everywhere. It took a bit more work before the surface was ready for top coat and by now the end of the weekend was looming so I had to compromise a bit. The top coat went on well and the finish is generally good although there are a few minor defects. That said the finish is quite a bit better than last time I painted it and from anything above a couple of yards away it looks perfect and that’s all you need for a race car!

On Sunday night I just managed to drop the cover into position and glue the hinges on with the 2 part acrylic cement. Monday evening I then lifted it off and bonded the underneath parts with PU sealant. While that was drying I set about the somewhat mangled bits of aluminium that together make up the spoiler and the side strakes. The spolier was pretty easily salveagable as was the offside strake but I had to make a new strake up for the nearside. By the time I went in on Monday night they were all back in place on the bodywork.

At this stage I could be confident the car would be ready so I booked testing for Friday at Snetterton. We’re on the 300 circuit which seems to be quite popular with racers, I haven’t driven that configuration before so it’ll be good to get a few laps in on Friday.

Tuesday saw new vinyl cut and this was applied and the car given a quick clean ready to load up on Wednesday evening. This shot shows the new profile to accommodate the airbox. the vertical shutline is a bit wide but then it was before, the sidepod actually needs repositioning a bit further back. The sidepods need repainting anyway so I’ll address that when I get round to that.

Now I’ve got the vinyl graphics stored it’s very easy to cut them out on the vinyl cutter and sticking them on only took a few minutes. It was then time to get the motorhome loaded up ready for the long trek on Thursday night.

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On Monday evening I decided it was time to fit the engine/reverse motor and needed to fit the chain first. So I fitted a new sprocket – after much deliberation I fitted one that gears me for about the same as I was at the end of last season. That was a bit too high for some circuits but I’m hoping a combination of my improved driving plus a more powerful motor should mean it’s about right. I’d already got a new chain via my trade account at M&P so chopped it down to length then on Tuesday got it rivetted on.

And then I was off to London on Wednesday not getting home till late on Saturday so that was it until Sunday. I was now very conscious of time pressure, the first race is now less than two weeks away. I’ve got no chance of testing before then and realistically wouldn’t have even if the car had been ready sooner. I also won’t have time to get it mapped. In the expectation that the car [b]will[/b] be ready for Donington I’ve booked the untimed practice session on the race day.

I fitted the engine/reverse mount along with the lower chainstay section then got the isolator and battery fitted and connected up. I connected up the remaining coolant hoses and refilled the system. Then it was time for the bits I’d been putting off – rewiring the engine bay to connect up the engine loom and all the sensors. With the new layout the oil pressure sender, oil temp sender and the fuel pressure sender are all close together so I made up a small sub-loom to connect them along with the water temp sender and connected that into the main loom via a 6 way multiconnector. With that done I could check that the dash worked and that the sensors were displaying correctly.

I then sorted out all the wires for the main loom side of the engine loom connector and got the terminals crimped and soldered onto that. With the starter solenoid connected up to both the isolator switch and the starter motor that was about it. At this stage lots of components were just dangling in the engine bay but I didn’t want to tidy them up till I knew everything was working. The time had come to try switching on the ignition. This was very undramatic as absolutely nothing happened at all. What should happen is that the fuel pump relay should click on for a few seconds, you usually hear the fuel pump while that’s on ad you usually hear the throttle butterflies move. But none of that happened. So reached for the secret weapon – the bike dash – and plugged that in and tried again. This told me that the ECU certainly was alive, it all lit up, the neutral light came on along with the low fuel warning light. Also there were flashing FI and ignition key symbols. So I nipped into the house to the Kawasaki manual and worked out how to display the fault codes to discover four of them on there – 35, 34, 56 and 67. 35 is “Immobiliser Amplifier Malfunction” so I wasn’t too pleased about that but the other 3 were trivial expected things, 34 is the exhaust valve actuator, 56 the radiator fan relay and 67 the oxygen sensor, all of which are indeed absent.

I checked that the immobiliser module was correctly plugged in which it was, then turned my attention to the key and antenna which I’d dismantled from within the ignition switch assembly. I undid the tape and tried turning the key round so it poked through the antenna ring from the back as I wondered if it was pushed in too far. This did the trick as next time I tried it the flashing key symbol had gone along with code 35 and I just had the 3 others.

So I refitted the oil cooler and filled her with oil then tried the starter button without having the stick coils on. The engine turned over but I didn’t get any oil pressure. I wasn’t terribly surprised as all the hoses were empty along with the cooler itself and the filter housing. I turned it for a little while but had really run out of time and the battery was starting to drain so I abandoned for the day.

On Monday evening I disconnected the oil cooler and filled it with oil then backfilled the feed hose. A bit of cranking with the oil filter loose soon saw oil dripping from the filter housing. With the filter tightened I was then seeing over 30psi just on the starter button. I then refitted the stick coils and tried starting her but the battery was a bit weak. There was a spark and the FI system is running so I was confident everything’s good to go.

But I was wrong! Spinning away but not firing. Fitted a new set of plugs but no better. Decided to have another look at the fault codes – there’s now code 23. Camshaft position sensor. That would be because it wasn’t plugged in. A few seconds later and she’s running with nice blue gouts of flame from the ports

On Tuesday I got the exhaust manifold fitted. My original plan was to get a new one made but in the end I haven’t had either the time or the money. The block and port dimensions are identical so it fits fine, it’s probably just losing me a bit of power. I then discovered I couldn’t start the engine. Immobiliser again, it seems the key position within the antenna ring is critical. I really don’t want to have to refit the actual ignition barrel so tried stuffing the housing with a big lump of blutac which seems to work OK.

Once that was done I refitted the reverse motor and made some mounting brackets for the starter solenoid and the voltage regulator along the top edge of the engine mount just above the reverse motor. During short stints in the garage during the week I got the rest of the wiring tidied up and refitted the exhaust manifold.

The Donington finals came out and I discovered I wasn’t in either the race or the untimed practice session. A phone call to the 750 Motor Club office confirmed that they hadn’t received either my bulk entry form which had been emailed in January or the form I’d faxed for the untimed practice No problem for the race as there were still spaces but the untimed practice was full.

On Saturday I refitted the rear undertray and the rear framework and silencer. I also fabricated some steel plates with welded on captive nuts to replace the M8 rivnuts in the rear aluminium channel the bodywork bolts onto. I discovered I had a problem in that the battery wasn’t receiving any charge although it was fine when I’d checked it at the first engine start. A broken connector in the rectifier outlet plug explained this so I found a similar female blade connector and soldered that on.

Sunday was then the big push to try to get the car finished and road tested as I was due to leave for London early evening for a few days. I had to completely replumb my breather system and catch tank. The ZX10, in common with the R1, tends to naturally breathe a lot of oil out and needs a system to return the oil to the engine. I’d spoken to Tony Gaunt and was planning to copy his system. The first requirement was to modify my catch tank to stick a hose onto the bottom of it to return the oil. It has an M6 bolt in the bottom to drain it so I removed that, drilled the hole out and tapped it to M10. I then turned down a short length of aluminium, threaded one end of it then bored it out and screwed this into the tank so I could attach a hose to it. I then had to find some way of mounting my catch tank as high as possible within the engine bay which proved quite tricky and took me ages. Once that was done I connected the gearbox breather via a tee piece with one hose going to the top of the tank as a breather and the other to the bottom with an inline one way valve to allow the oil to drain back to the engine. The breathers on the top of the cam cover were connected to the other spigot at the top of the tank. That took me till lunchtime.

I then refitted the rear bodywork which of course needed modification to accommodate the airbox. After making a cardboard template I took the angle grinder to the GRP and gradually trimmed the hole until it fitted around the airbox. This left only a thin strip of GRP across the front edge of the bodywork so I reinforced that with a strip of aluminium. In fact the airbox doesn’t protrude very much at all and doesn’t look anywhere near as bad as I’d expected. My original plan had been to mould a new bulge but it’s been too cold for GRP work and in any case I simply haven’t had time. I’ll get that done after the Donington race meeting. Here’s a pic of the engine/airbox, I didn’t have time to get a shot of the modified bodywork.

I refitted the clutch slave next then made a start on modifying the sidepods. In their wisdom the committee have decided to enforce a completely flat floor and despite their assurances that this wouldn’t affect existing cars (other than those they were targetting as pushing the boundaries of the aero rules) the new rule makes the sidepod floor immediately behind the front wheel non-compliant. So the fix was to fabricate some aluminium panels to cover the floor and provide a flat floor with a vertical surface in the wheel well. This took longer than it should and it was getting towards late afternoon before the sidepods were ready to fit.

I was getting very pressurised by now since I needed to leave the house at about 6:15 and hadn’t packed my stuff for 3 days in London. I got the sidepods refitted followed by the rear valance, then the bulkhead panels followed by the seat and harness. By the time I cleared the way out of the garage and got the car out onto the drive it was after 5:30. I got in to find the pedal end of the throttle cable had come undone so I needed to get out again and sort that. I then set off down the drive to find the clutch was out of adjustment and slipping too much so I got the car back up the drive to adjust that. At 5:45 I set off down the drive again to find I got into third gear and then couldn’t change down due to some problem with the gear linkage. So I had the car stuck at the end of the drive in gear. David helped me turn it round then I just had to drive it back into the garage and abandon it to have a quick shower and throw some stuff into a bag for my trip.

So, here I am in London. I won’t be home till late Wednesday evening, I’m working till 6:30 on Thursday and am in Cardiff for the day on Friday. Hopefully the gear linkage just needs some adjustment but I’ll need to do a bit of dismantling to get at it. The car still needs a few minor things doing like race numbers, a bit of heat insulation here and there and I need to upload a map to the Power Commander. I really hope I’ll get chance to get the car out on the road before the trek up to Donington on Friday evening but it’s all going to be a bit touch and go.

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After a week without progress I spent an hour in the garage on Sunday. I guess I’d been putting it off as the next job was sorting out the wiring loom in the car. The wiring coming into the engine bay isn’t a problem, 2 multicore trailer wires plus one I added for the throttle position sensor, but once in the engine bay it had become a bit of a mess. the main problem was the multiple earth wires for the various sensors – fuel pressure, oil pressure, coolant temp etc. So I chopped out all the messy stuff and cleaned up what was left to get all the oil off it.

Brian emailed me to let me know he’d finished the oil cooler take-off and did I want it posting back. With Friday off I’d been tempted to nip up to collect it but the weather forecast for Friday included lots of snow so I decided that wasn’t a good idea! The part duly arrive on Monday having been delayed by aforementioned snow and I wasn’t disappointed. As you can see from the photo it’s very compact and looks like it should be just the job. The original adapter I’ve been using has ports tapped 1/2″ BSP with adaptors to connect the -10 JIC hose connectors onto but Brian decided to get some -10 JIC connectors welded onto it directly, I think mainly to keep the thing more compact. The welding was of course done by Bob at Concept Racing.

Because of the complex shape of the O-ring etc. Brian was originally thinking of trying to use the OEM base but decided in the end to bite the bullet and machine the whole piece from billet, including the groove for the seal. We worked out that the funny looking indentations and channels in the OEM item are there simply to vent void space around the oil pump in the casing to atmospheric pressure so Brian’s done simple versions of those as you can see here.

And here’s the new part alongside the OEM part and the oil cooler take-off I’ve been using. The new part weighs 160 grams, the OEM part 310g and the old billet take-off adapter 590g. Of course I’ll still need the remote filter head but it still amounts to a significant weight saving. The most important thing though is that it’s much more elegant, takes up less space and I can now run a remote filter that’ll be much easier to get to.

I ordered my remote oil filter head with the required fittings, I also ordered some new hose to replace all the oil cooler hoses, they’re a bit worn in places where they’ve chafed a bit, especially the one running across the engine bay floor. On Brian’s advice I’ve got a filter head that takes a 20mm threaded filter – most of them are 3/4″ UNF and the problem then is that a bike filter (which are usually 20mm) will go onto the 3/4″ UNF stub but won’t tighten properly and can blow off with catastrophic consequences. I got the stuff from BGC Motorsport who stock a remote filter head that will allow me to fit the standard Kawasaki filter.

On Saturday morning I got the new take off plate bolted onto the engine. I stripped the fittings off the old oil cooler hoses and cleaned them up ready to make up the new hoses. I also drilled and tapped the new oil filter head to take the oil temp sender.

Brian had also sent some revised engine mount parts. The main engine mount plates are bolted onto the rear bulkhead via aluminium angles and these failed last summer. The old angles were 25mm x 3.2mm, the new replacements are machined from 25mm x 25mm solid square bar. Although the bolt holes are rebated I still needed some longer bolts so popped over to Swansea Fasteners to get some new ones.

On Sunday morning I was about to get the engine suspended from the hoist to lower it into the engine bay when I remembered that I’d wanted to modify the water pump housing. There’s a small spigot that goes to the oil cooler that I’d previously blocked off by sticking a small length of hose with a bolt clamped in it. This tends to get in the way of the gear lever a bit so I wanted to try something else. When I came to remove it I found that one of the bolts was loose, and this turned out to be because the little crankcase stub it was screwed into was split, presumably having taken a knock when the bike went down So I cleaned it up, stuck some JB Weld in it then tapped the bent segment back in then re-tapped the hole a little deeper to take a longer bolt.

Going back to the water pump housing I cut the spigot down, ran an M10 tap through it then ground down the head of an M10 button headed screw down and fixed it in from the inside with some JB Weld. The housing could then be bolted back onto the engine.

The ZX10 engine has adjustable engine mounts, both upper and lower gearbox mounts on the right hand side are threaded bushes so the width can be adjusted but the upper one on the 2009 engine is much longer so I swapped over the old ones once the engine was in the hoist. I then ran out of time so lowered it onto some wooden blocks till I can get out there again, next job is to install it in the engine bay.

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It took a while untangling the wiring and getting the engine loom out of the car. Although the initial connection to the engine loom was reasonably tidy every subsequent addition – various sensors etc. – made it progressively more untidy. Then dousing it with oil made it horrible to handle. But eventually it was out. I then set about cleaning up the engine bay and split the chain and removed that.

It was then time to make a start on the loom for the new engine. The first part was to label all the connectors on the loom so I know what’s what. Oh for a nice Haynes manual with a colour wiring diagram! The Kawasaki manual has the wiring diagram in black and white and to make it more interesting it’s spread over two pages which makes tracking the 50-odd wires that cross the page real fun. With all the connectors identified and labelled I then stripped off all the loom tape, in this case it’s all adhesive backed so that took quite a while. Then it was time to start cutting bits out, the easiest bit to start on was the lighting wiring as I know I don’t want to keep any of that – by the time you’ve cut out the wires for the headlights, sidelights, indicators and brake light quite a bit of wire and a few connectors are gone. I then worked from the main handlebar switchgear which is also going. I kept a record of all the important wires from the last time I did this and the important ones remain the same – the main ignition feed, the starter button, engine kill switch, clutch switch etc. On the Kawasaki there’s a bank of 5 relays in a relay box which include the headlight, fan, fuel pump and starter circuit relays along with one that doesn’t get used. The starter circuit is complex with inputs from the handlebar clutch switch, neutral switch and sidestand switch along with the starter button. This wiring can all be stripped out leaving three wires running to the ECU, one of which tells the ECU the clutch is in, another tells it the starter button is being pressed (this enables the starter motor) and the final one tells it that the sidestand is up and the engine is either in neutral or the clutch is in (enabling the FI system).

My previous install was with an American loom and ECU which doesn’t have the immobiliser circuitry but this one’s a UK model and therefore has complex immobiliser circuitry with a transponder in the key. On these bikes if you lose your keys and the master you have to buy a new ECU and ignition switch. So I made sure I got the ignition switch and key with the engine, I’ll need to strip the transponder receiver out of the lock and tape it into the loom along with the key. Like most bikes the loom also incorporates a tilt sensor which shuts off the FI system if the bike falls over and while these can be either mounted upright or filled with silicon a neater fix is to snip the wires off and bridge the input (blue) wire and the output (yellow/green) wire with a 68kΩ resistor. This steps the +5V input voltage down to the required +4V and keeps the ECU happy. This photo shows the stripped loom ready to be tidied up and rewrapped.

In addition to stripping lots of wires and connectors out of the loom I also added a couple, splicing in wires to give me a tacho feed for the DigiDash along with a throttle position feed. These wires were then bundled with the other ones needed to connect to the BDN loom and I set about rewrapping the whole loom. And here’s a photo of the end product along with the box of wire offcuts.

Meanwhile I’ve shipped the oil filter take-off casting up to Brian for him to have a think about the best solution for the remote oil filter. His initial thoughts involve machining a cover for the side of the casting currently occupied by the oil cooler take-off and machining a take-off to go where the filter usually sits. I did ring Brian at BGC Motorsport to see if he could supply an off the shelf sandwich plate and blanking off adapter that would fit but drew a blank.

After New Year I ordered some new connectors from Vehicle Wiring Products, the multiconnector I’d used to connect the engine loom to the main car loom used 6.3mm blade terminals but didn’t have any latch so I had to hold it together with a cable tie. The new 12 way connector has nice little latches and is a bit more compact. Once all the terminals for this were soldered on and pushed into the terminal block I finished off the loom by sorting out the immobiliser transponder. The antenna is circular and incorporated into the ignition lock, it wasn’t much of a job to remove this from the barrel and tape the key inside it.

Having received the oil filter/cooler casting in the post Brian has had a few ideas about sorting out a solution. We did have a chat over the phone and it seems that the solution is going to be massively more compact than the assembly it replaces.

And to finish this blog entry here’s a link to the annual stats for the blog for 2012

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With the Birkett out of the way and the car back in the garage at least in one piece if not functioning very well I had a few weeks break before venturing out there again.

The first job was to get the engine out, so I made a start by removing the rear bodywork, sidepods and the rear body mounting frame along with the exhaust and undertray.

There was then another lull during which I tried to source a take-off plate to re-plumb the oil cooler and filter mounting the latter remotely where I could get at it better. With it in its current place it’s almost impossible to get at and every filter change results in an engine bay full of oil. A post on Locostbuilders led me to BigCC whose website offered an oil filter relocation kit with a rather snazzy looking anodised billet take-off plate as shown in this pic. I ordered that then soon got an email telling me they no longer sell them! I also contacted Muzzy’s in the States who do lots of these kind of parts but they don’t do one for my engine.

I did think of trying to make one myself but then came up with the cunning plan of getting my younger son Chris (who’s doing an engineering degree) to draw me one in solidworks with a view to attempting to persuade the nice Mr. Baldwin to make one on his very nice 3D milling machine. Said Mr. Baldwin actually did a bit better than that and said if I got the current oil filter mounting casting to him it shouldn’t be difficult to make something.

With the engine bay accessible it didn’t take long to drain the cooling system and disconnect the electrics and oil cooler. Once that was done I hoisted the engine out and got it onto the engine stand to remove the sump. The inside of the sump was pretty blackened supporting the diagnosis that one or more of the cylinders has significant blow-by – it’s usually shiny in there.

I also took off the oil filter and oil cooler take-off assembly so I could compare it with the one off the new engine. With the old engine stripped of the parts I need to transplant I got it off the stand and got the new engine on there. Off came all the bits I don’t need – various hoses, the exhaust, sump pan, oil filter and its casting etc. Here’s a photo of the mating face of the oil filter casting, I was a bit surprised by the little chambers to either side of the oilways which have tiny grooves clearly venting something but I can’t work out what space within the engine castings they’re connected to, I suspect something to do with the PAIR system.

And here’s a photo of the side of the casting that the oil filter spins onto. If I can’t get a new take off plate made up then plan B is to get a spin on adapter made to go onto here.

It’s surprising how much stuff needs doing to the engine before it can go in the car. After cleaning off the old sealant the billet sump and pickup were bolted on, the old clutch cable mount removed along with a few other brackets, the thermostat housing taken apart and its front cover swapped around to reverse the direction of the spigot, the small bleed nipple blocked off. I’d ordered a new 16 tooth front sprocket from Talon Engineering to replace the old 17 tooth one. I’d originally miscalculated my gearing and have been struggling to get the car geared low enough all season. The trouble is it needs three M6 tapped holes to bolt the reverse gear to it. Brian had previously drilled and tapped the original one but suggested getting Talon to do it before they case hardened it. This added about £50 and a month but saved Brian a few hours and expensive drill bits! Here it is bolted onto the engine.

The engine’s breather system is having a major revamp. It seems it’s an issue with all the Kawasaki engines – Adrian had trouble at Silverstone using the stock plumbing where the breather goes into the airbox. When the engine dumps half a litre in there over the course of a session that’s not a good thing! Gary Goodyear and Tony Gaunt have also had issues and Tony’s solution has been to have a breather from the top end of the engine into the catch tank with a further hose with a one way valve back to the main crankcase breather. So my first job with the new engine was to sort out the cam cover. With the PAIR valve covers removed I took out the reed valve housings and removed the reeds. On the 06/07 cover I was able to tap the holes through into the exhaust ports for M8 screws but on the newer engine the holes are ever so slightly larger so too big to take an M8 thread. So I helicoiled them then stuck some screws in there. To provide some breathing I drilled holes through the bottom of the PAIR housings, these holes sit above the middle of the camshaft carrier blocks so won’t be subject to direct oil splash. In the pic here you can see the pair of screws at the top with the breather hole about the centre of the photo.

With that done I made a start on cleaning up the engine bay before cleaning myself up and heading off to the Liberty Stadium to watch the Swans take on Man Utd.

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Regular readers will know that I initially got a really nice low mileage 2007 ZX10 engine for the BDN. Sadly on my second test day in the car I spun and ran the engine backwards resulting inn a bent crank. This engine has had various parts raided off it over the ensuing months – clutch plates, cylinder head etc. I’d already attempted to strip it completely but had hit a snag in that I couldn’t get the clutch nut off. I’d tried 2 different impact drivers (one electric, one air), a breaker bar etc. and it wouldn’t budge. So on Tuesday evening I took a hammer and cold chisel to it and eventually removed it but it was destroyed in the process. With that off dismantling the engine to get the gearbox out of it was easy enough.

On Wednesday evening I made a start on getting the engine out of the car. The first job was to remove the rear bodywork which just requires the removal of 4 bolts and unplugging the wiring sub-loom. This went pear-shaped though when one of the four M10 cap bolts decided to shear off rather than undo. A small remnant of the head stayed on the bolt which prevented me pulling the bodywork mounting frame off the car. After trying all sorts of things I resorted to cutting the bolt with an angle grinder, fortunately there are 2 spacing washers that gave me room to cut without damaging anything important.

Then on Friday I then removed the sidepods, drained the radiators, removed the drivers side bulkhead panel and undid the manifold nuts. With the chain slackened I removed the rear sprocket and got the chain off the front sprocket. With the airbox removed I could then disconnect the wiring and plumbing from the engine, undo the mounting bolts and hoist it out of the chassis. With the engine bolted into the engine stand I then got going stripping all the ancillaries off it – starter motor and its clutch assembly, oil cooler takeoff, clutch, water pump, oil pump etc. I again hit a snag on the clutch nut which didn’t want to move. I tried to rewelt a steel clutch plate onto a 4 foot length of steel box section and ran out of welding wire necessitating a trip up to Machine Mart. With my 90 kilos on the end of a breaker bar it eventually played the game.

I turned the engine upside down in the stand and removed the small sub-sump that houses the oil pickup. I gave it a tap with the rubber hammer to dislodge the RTV sealant and heard something rattle inside – the little aluminium bobbin on the right in this picture. The bolt was in the main sump. The bobbin and bolt on the left are from the spare engine – I eventually identified the parts as the bolt and bush that secure the bottom end of the front camchain guide. Often this sort of bolt is supposed to be threadlocked in but the Kawasaki manual doesn’t specify that, it is however supposed to be torqued to 25Nm which is quite high for an M6 bolt. I think it’ll get some threadlock when it goes back in this time!

This had actually taken all day on Friday. On Saturday morning I finished stripping the engine – although the manual says you need to remove the cylinder head to split the crankcases you don’t. So with the cases split I removed the gearchange mechanism, the selector forks and their shafts then removed the output shaft and the transmission shaft. The only sign of damage anywhere was a scuff on the casing behind the main clutch housing where it looked like either the little bush or the bolt might have been stuck for a while possibly explaining some of the noise I’d heard. The trouble is you only need very minor damage to a shift fork to get gear shifting problems so my plan was to simply swap the whole gearbox over from my original engine. This was a very clean looking low mileage 2007 engine when I fitted it and only did a few sessions on track at Llandow before I broke it when I spun so the gearbox should be like new.

By lunchtime I had the gearbox installed, the crankcase back together and with the engine back in the engine stand refitted the oil pump, water pump, the new bolt for the camchain guide, starter motor clutch and start motor, clutch housing and the alternator cover. It was then time to go off and watch some football, following which I got the clutch reassembled and its cover refitted and refitted the drive sprocket and reverse gear. The rear sprocket was a bit worse for wear, partly due to the misalignment due to the engine mount problem but it looks like I haven’t been lubing it enough. So I stuck a replacement one on, this time a 52 tooth instead of 53 which will give me an additional 3 mph or so in top speed. At Silverstone last year I was occasionally hitting the limiter down the Hangar Straight just before hitting the brakes for Stowe and I’m hoping I might be going a little bit quicker this year.

On Sunday morning before heading into work I refitted the throttle bodies, oil cooler take-off and filter then did a quick clear up. In the afternoon I refilled with oil and made a start cleaning up the engine bay. For some reason this engine throws oil out of the breather very readily, especially if I overfill it. My catch tank has a little air filter on top of it and the engine tends to push out a mist of oil resulting in a dirty oily engine bay.

When I took the engine out one of the mounting bolts was missing, the one from the top end of the front stay on the right hand side. I presumed it had just vibrated loose but when I came to bolt the engine back in I found the thread had stripped so I stuck a longer length of stud in there with a nut on the end. Once everything was connected up again I turned the engine over without the plugs in but couldn’t get any pressure. So I slackened off the oil filter and turned the engine until oil came out of the filter then retightened it and tried again with more success. So the plugs went back in and I rather nervously pressed the starter and after an initial backfire and gout of flame from the headers (no silencer on) she started and ran fine. I still hadn’t refitted the chain so I sat in the cockpit and checked I could select all 6 gears and get back to neutral which I could. Phew!

So I was a happy bunny but still had lots of work to do. I got the chain/sprocket refitted and tensioned, the wiring tidied up and the bulkhead heatshield installed by which time it was close of play. On Monday morning I got the reverse motor and it’s bracketry installed and plumbed in an additional length of hose to the catch tank to hopefully reduce the amount of oil it chucks out. I got the cockpit bulkhead panel refitted then managed to get the right hand sidepod refitted before it was time to head into work. No rest for the wicked so I only had an hour or so after work before heading back into work at 7pm. I got the other sidepod, the rear bodywork frame and exhaust fitted.

On Tuesday morning I got the rear undertray and engine cover refitted then as soon as I got in from work in the evening I slapped the rear valance on and reprogrammed the dash for the new gear ratio. Then it was time for the second moment of truth. I’ve never been out in the car in the dark before but it wasn’t terribly dramatic and the important thing was that everything worked just great. All gears present and correct, oil pressure etc. fine and after 10 miles I got back to find a nice clean engine bay with no oil leaks. I also filled the fuel tank while I was out. To say I’m pleased would be rather an understatement.

Having had the engine in bits all over the garage floor it’s massively reassuring to have been able to take it out for a spin before going on track. I know some folks thought I was a bit bonkers going to the trouble and expense of IVA and registration but I never doubted the usefullness of being able to take the car out on the road and this evening is more proof of that.

So, next stop Silverstone and the 62nd Anniversary running of the Birkett Handicap 6 Hour Relay Race. I’ve got testing booked for Friday then the race is on Saturday. It’s massive fun with 67 cars on track at a time with huge speed differentials. It’s also a rare opportunity to drive the fantastic GP circuit, Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel are very fast and flowing as are the new Abbey and Farm curves. In the dry our RGB cars are amongst the quickest out there and you spend the whole lap overtaking. In the wet they’re pretty terrifying with poor grip from our tyres and very poor visibility due to spray from all the other cars. Can’t wait!