And back together again …

The new steel driven plates were in JT’s on Wednesday so I collected those but then had to set off straight from work to a meeting in North Wales. 153 miles of some of Wales’ (and arguably the UK’s) finest twisties in the Cayman wasn’t exactly an ordeal The run from Llandeilo through Talley on the B4302 is my favourite road on this planet. It’s just like Cadwell Park – fairly narrow, very twisty but really swoopy with loads of hills, 11 miles of adrenaline.

Friday morning I made a start on the rest of the clean-up operation. Washing the sump pan, baffle plate and gaskets in petrol got rid of the crud OK. I removed the oil cooler and hoses and flushed them and the sump tank through with a pint jug of petrol a couple of times. I threw the petrol away and did the same with some clean stuff. I then repeated this 4 more times until I wasn’t getting any more of the aluminium silt out of there. I rinsed the clutch basket and housing out with clean petrol. There is of course a risk that some tiny bits are left but the engine has of course already run with this oil in it. I’m hoping Mr. Suzuki makes a good oil filter. I downloaded the logs from the last session at Mallory to check on the oil pressure and that was fine. Short of stripping the engine and changing the big end and main bearings there’s not a lot else I can do really.

Once it had all dried off I refitted the sump pan, retrieved the clutch plates from their mineral oil bath and fitted all those and got the clutch cover back on. The sump tank and hoses could then be refitted. The next quandary is which oil to put in there. The stuff I drained out is clearly scrap as it’s black and smelly and full of crud. The Castrol I drained on Sunday morning is also a bit blacker than normal so I don’t fancy using that. I spoke to Darcy last night – he runs a Radical SR4 with a tuned 1400 Hayabusa and says he’s always used the Silkolene Race 15w50 that I was using. I recalled that the first batch I’d actually got from Powertec as it’s what they use in their Hayabusa motors. I’ve come to realise that my clutch problem never was about the oil and was to do probably with having crap heavy duty springs that allowed the clutch to start slipping and knackered the plates. The Silkolene being a bit thicker gives good oil pressure so I decided I’d go back to that. I had to get more from M&P and once it was in there the plugs came out and I spun the engine on the starter till I got 14psi on the dash. With the plugs in she started straight away, I ran her till the water was up to full temp, checked for leaks and switched off.

According to Pembrey’s website they had testing today but when I rang this morning they didn’t as they’d had no bookings. I tried Llandow who initially said yes but they’re running sidecar testing today and they changed their minds and rang me back to say they wouldn’t be able to let me out. Pity, but not a lot I can do about it. So apart from sticking the bodywork back on, giving her a clean and doing a quick spanner check she’s ready for testing at Silverstone next Friday.