Petrol head thread!!!

[billy rubin]

take your nuts in one hand and try this:

[Dark Lightning]

^ Slick, but you wouldn't get me to try it. On the other hand, when I worked as a mechanic, if a car came in with a heating problem, and I could tell the clutch on the fan was bad, I'd show the customer by grabbing a fan blade and stopping the fan. Using a shop rag as a pad of course, I may be crazy but I ain't stupid. That's back when I was young and immortal.

[billy rubin]

hmmn.

i would not do that

try this instead

[MarcusA]

Burn, baby, burn!

[MarcusA]

Once you burn all the fossil fuels in the world, it will be over, well and truly over.

[billy rubin]

next month we go to maine.

https://www.loringtiming.com/

 ill run the 1965 triumph 650 in modified pushrod gasoline, MPG 650/4.

my son has messed up the little ninja 250, so i have informed him that if we cannot get it fixed tomorrow or soon after, he is going to ride the real motorcycle and run for 140 instead of 110.

at the moment the 650 is sitting on th elift with the motor out. i need to check the cam timing-- i want 106/109, and i dont know how much wear has changed that figure since i put the new cams in. i took the head off to re-anneal the copper head gasket, and said, wait a minute-- those holes are big.

id been running a 750 head gasket in the 650 motor. no problem, 76mm is fine on 71mm jugs, but the little gap reduces compression a bit.

im running 11.75 to 1, though, so maybe its negligibel.

ive pulled my long suffering ARD magneto, and ill be installing an electronic ignition with hall effect indiuction triggers. i like the old magneto, but i cannot argue that running the ignition on a rubber belt is not as exact as transistors. maybe ill get an extra 1 percent there.

im running the old spoked wheels because i havent had time to repar the cast wheels that self-destructed last time. and ill be running standard 112 octane fuel instead of the 116 octane methanol blend that didnt do me any good last time. the methanol didnt help me in the top end, whih is where i need help. i get to 131 mph, and the bike hits th ewind wall and wont go any faster. i need a bunch more oomph to go from 135 to 140, and i dont know where it has to come from.

i could do it in a heartbeat with a fairing or some nitromethane, but thats not where my head is.

i want to get there naked, and on gasoline.

so it s a conservative attempt

[Dark Lightning]

next month we go to maine.

https://www.loringtiming.com/

 ill run the 1965 triumph 650 in modified pushrod gasoline, MPG 650/4.

my son has messed up the little ninja 250, so i have informed him that if we cannot get it fixed tomorrow or soon after, he is going to ride the real motorcycle and run for 140 instead of 110.

at the moment the 650 is sitting on th elift with the motor out. i need to check the cam timing-- i want 106/109, and i dont know how much wear has changed that figure since i put the new cams in. i took the head off to re-anneal the copper head gasket, and said, wait a minute-- those holes are big.

id been running a 750 head gasket in the 650 motor. no problem, 76mm is fine on 71mm jugs, but the little gap reduces compression a bit.

im running 11.75 to 1, though, so maybe its negligibel.

ive pulled my long suffering ARD magneto, and ill be installing an electronic ignition with hall effect indiuction triggers. i like the old magneto, but i cannot argue that running the ignition on a rubber belt is not as exact as transistors. maybe ill get an extra 1 percent there.

im running the old spoked wheels because i havent had time to repar the cast wheels that self-destructed last time. and ill be running standard 112 octane fuel instead of the 116 octane methanol blend that didnt do me any good last time. the methanol didnt help me in the top end, whih is where i need help. i get to 131 mph, and the bike hits th ewind wall and wont go any faster. i need a bunch more oomph to go from 135 to 140, and i dont know where it has to come from.

i could do it in a heartbeat with a fairing or some nitromethane, but thats not where my head is.

i want to get there naked, and on gasoline.

so it s a conservative attempt

Good on you for an honest attempt on your terms. Have you considered adding an octane booster containing tetraethyl lead? And yes, use the proper head gasket(s). I know you know it- records are made with a ton of tiny incremental changes that concatenate. You've enough experience that maybe the few small changes you are making will do the trick. Be sure and pack all the wheel bearings before you go. 

[billy rubin]

cam timi g

didnt ike the 108/106 i had. tried 111 on the exhaust but the exhaust valve was coming too close to the piston at TDC.

so decided on this. i was fastest some time ago at 106/109.



maine in three wweeks or so

still have to install a new ignition and swap the final drive gearing

time is short

[billy rubin]

Good on you for an honest attempt on your terms. Have you considered adding an octane booster containing tetraethyl lead? And yes, use the proper head gasket(s). I know you know it- records are made with a ton of tiny incremental changes that concatenate. You've enough experience that maybe the few small changes you are making will do the trick. Be sure and pack all the wheel bearings before you go. 

catching up here

the fuel i generally use is VP C12, 112 octane tetraethyl lead boosted. good fuel. i can still see detonatin with side plugs and 38 BTDC timing.

retarded to 30, using two plugs per cylinder, it doesnt detonate at all. i use up a lot of plugs though

last year i tried VP Q16, 116 octane oxygenated methanol-added gasoline. i was looking for more top end, but it wasnt there. nobody could tell me what to expect from the Q16, but it appears to enhance bottom end, so it makes for a stronger launch on drag racing machinery. but i wanted a boost way, way up on thetop of the power band. i changed the gearing from 135mph to 138 at top, hoping the fuel would push me up thae extra 3 mph. but th emotor could not pull the higher gearing, and would peak out at around 121.

so im back to C12, and ill see what can do. these motors can pull to 175 mph on 90 percent-plus nitromethane, but i still want to run simple. nitromethane and nitrous oxide are too much like just buying horsepower, instead of building it. like running a fairing.

although i have a fairing for it and will eventually put it on to see what i can do.

the head gasket snafu was amusing, what was even more amusing is as i was torquing the last of the headbolts, i realized that id put the rocker boxes on backwards, so the pressure feed to the rocker arms was on the left instead of the right. the assemblies will work either way, but it looks very odd to me. i didnt take it down because it was aesthetics only.

[billy rubin]

fuck the world, i leave for the races in six days. and the machine runs

i got it all together, put some gasoline in the tanks, cycled the accellerator pumps, and plugged in the starter. hit the button.

it did not start.

at all.

tried over and over.

no.

this was very stressful for me, because i was OUT OF TIME.

what to do. i knew i had spark and fuel, because it would backfire. so that meant something less important was wrong. so i took the magneto apart, and it was fine. while it was out i filed the ignition points, which were a bit burnt. but they worked fine on the induction meter i use to static-time the ignition, so they should have been okay. and besides, the thing was still backfiring.

so i popped the caps off the rocker boxes, and readjusted the valves. 0.010 on the exhaust, 0.080 on the intake. i have long since abandoned the practice of using feeler gauges or a dial indicator on the valves when i adjust them. i do it by feel, noise, and angle, and i am good for 0.001-inches listening to the clicking the adjusters make when the gap is correct.

a skill that will not survive this generation. icarus and DL know this.

anyway, i put the starter back n the crank and pushed the button. it fired instantly and settled down to the customary lumpy 1000 rpm idle.

now, i know how to adjust valves, and there are only four of them, with symmetrical cams and a 360 degree crank. so it should have been simple. but whatever, it runs.

i checked the taillights on the trailer, swapped out an 1157 with a bad filament, and now theyre okay.

so now begins the slow and methodical process of assembling every tool, every fluid, every custom part, additional fasteners of metric, SAE, CEI, and whitworth threads that i think i might possibly need. plus duplicates of whatever might break off, fall off, or need to be taken off and replaced.

the goal is 140 mph, but im still trying to catch up to the 135 mph this machine ran before i blew it up the first time. if i get close there other changes i need to make.

if i simply cannot do it, then ill install the full fairing i have waiting and cheat my way up there.

[billy rubin]

the wife cannot go this time, because the number two daughter has a bat infestation problem in her apartment and needs help moving downstairs until they plug the bat holes.

bats under the bed. bats in the wall crevices. up to five bats flying around the apartment in the evening.

bats would not be a problem for me, as i just leave the windows opn and lets the bats out when they come in. but she is concerned about rolling over on one in her sleep and being bitten.

anti rabies inoculation programs are US$5000, and she doesnt have that money.

so its just me and the two sons still living at home. they run the kawasaki, i run the triumph. but maybe theyll try the triumph this time around, if i can suggest it correctly.

i wont live forever, after all.

[Dark Lightning]

Good job getting the bike running. Strange that it got out of adjustment? I still have a set of tappet wrenches, and a tool for adjusting points on V8 GM vehicles so equipped. All kinds of other obsolete tools that I can use on my '70 Chevy truck.

[Icarus]

Dammit Billy a while back I got the impression that you were planning to trash the mag and use a more reliable CD ignition system. 

Woe is me, I am easily confused. Must be all those years of abusing my brain, which has worn it out.

[billy rubin]

youre not confused. i did tell you i was going to trash the mag.

its a dinosaur that runs on a rubber belt, so the spark advances and retards as the belt flexes. its the nature of the instrument.

but the EI needs a battery. i held the battery in my hand and realized that even though it was a weightless shorai lithium iron piece about the size of a cupcake, i didnt have anywhere to put it. i was going to fit it under the carb bellmouths but there was not enough room. nowhere under the seat, because i have an oil tank there. i could put it in the tail section, but i dont have a tail section.

so i finally said shitfire, i dont know what to do. ill think it over and see what i can do by august.

the electronic ignition is vastly superior in actual function, but the fact that i have to fit a battery someplace isnt as easy as it might be. this is a minimalist machine, but all the space thats there has something packed into it.

[Icarus]

The Briggs and Stratton on my lawnmower does not have a battery. Neither did my Honda XR100 bike. Either of them will crank on first pull, or kick for the Honda. Same deal on the Kawasaki KR 175 rotary valve, ring ding, road racer that I built a long time ago.  My Battle of The Twins KR750 road race bike did use a battery, I agree.

Wherever you get the sparks, we will be wishing you well and hope you break the 140 barrier.

The drag equation is something like (rho x V square)/ two. So the difference in aero drag between 135 and 140 is pretty big.....39,382/2 feet per second to 42,353/2 ft/sec .....about seven percent. You need the fairing methinks.

DL please check my numbers cause I have been into the sauce and my arithmetic may be a bit dizzy.