FJ Land speed racer

[fj1289]

Kookaloo!
 
Just registered for the Colorado Mile!   https://www.usmileracing.com/category/us-mile-news/

Now, just need a bike ... and a plan!

Had nearly a year to think through things things since last year's rainout for SpeedWeek at Bonneville, and a little time getting to know the ECU, injectors, and nitrous system a bit more.  

Lots of testing on the 89 street bike the past few months - and luckily no con rods trying to escape like last year.  Over the next few weeks it will get returned to full street trim, and the 84 drag bike will become a dual purpose race bike -- both drag racing and land speed racing.  

The biggest upgrade for the program this year will be having the engine built properly - by Randy at RPM of course!

[Firehawk068]

One of these days, I gotta come down and see your projects 

[racerrad8]

One of these days, I gotta come down and see your projects 

He is going to need a significant amount of help to get this all done...

I know you have a lot on your plate, but check with him, I am sure he would appreciate the help.

Randy - RPM

[fj1289]

One of these days, I gotta come down and see your projects 

Just make sure your tetanus shot is up to date!  After the Bonneville thrash last year, my garage still looks like Fallujah after the Marines and the AC-130 Gunships got done with it...

After I get some bearings and spacers for my "back up" ThunderAce rims, I'll need to come by for a tire changing party.   

[Firehawk068]

One of these days, I gotta come down and see your projects 

Just make sure your tetanus shot is up to date!  After the Bonneville thrash last year, my garage still looks like Fallujah after the Marines and the AC-130 Gunships got done with it...

After I get some bearings and spacers for my "back up" ThunderAce rims, I'll need to come by for a tire changing party.   

Just let me know when. Tire changer is ready.
And if you need any help at your shop, I might be able to break away some time to lend a hand.

[fj1289]

Alan - will welcome the help.   The next three weeks will scarce - think I'll be gone all but five of those days.   After that my schedule slows down.  I'm going to try to fence off a full day of each of those remaining weekends to get it done!

[racerrad8]

Had nearly a year to think through things things since last year's rainout for SpeedWeek at Bonneville...

Glad we did not try for Bonneville this year...

http://www.usnews.com/news/features/news-video?ndn.trackingGroup=90080&ndn.siteSection=ndn1_usnews&ndn.videoId=29416140&freewheel=90080&sitesection=ndn1_usnews&vid=29416140

Randy - RPM

[fj1289]

Had nearly a year to think through things things since last year's rainout for SpeedWeek at Bonneville...

Glad we did not try for Bonneville this year...

http://www.usnews.com/news/features/news-video?ndn.trackingGroup=90080&ndn.siteSection=ndn1_usnews&ndn.videoId=29416140&freewheel=90080&sitesection=ndn1_usnews&vid=29416140

Randy - RPM

No doubt!  And it sounds like the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials at the end of August are questionable too...

[fj1289]

Hard to believe this was a fully functional drag bike trying to break into the nines a year ago.  With a bit of work and a little luck it'll be ready to run 200 mph in 5 weeks!

[fj1289]

Making progress!  Where we stand now:


Subframe came off first for mods.  A bit of cutting and grinding to fit the flat under tail from the Bonneville mods from last year. 

The long swing arm goes in next - a modified FZ1 swing arm originally from the original drag bike build.   


Fiberglassed in battery trays to the under tail.   Not legal for Bonneville, but should be good to go for the mile.  Put the batteries in the tail will clear up a lot of needed space in the middle of the bike.   


Moved the coil mount from the street bike to the race bike.  LS1 "near to plug" coils (used in vettes and camaros).  This placement allows use of the stock Chevy plug wires.  These aren't even the "strong" coils -- the Chevy "Tahoe" coils are even more powerful than these.   But these haven't had any issues firing off 100 HP worth of nitrous, so they should be good enough!


Large nitrous shots for (fairly) long duration requires a large supply -- 5 pounds should be enough! 


Freeing up space in the center lets me put the nitrous solenoid where I want it for easy access and a fairly straight shot to the throttle bodies.


Next will be sorting the fuel system (low pressure feed pump, sump, high pressure EFI pump, and fuel return) and electrics. 

[Firehawk068]

Looks like it's coming along nicely.

I always thought those nitrous bottles had a siphon tube that runs to the bottom? 
Or does yours not have the siphon tube?

[Pat Conlon]

Chris, are you going to use Randy's EFI system?

If so, will the Microsquirt ECU do what is needed on your NOs system? I assume you are going to use a wet system.

Parhaps a MoTec would be better?

This will be fascinating to watch come together.

[fj1289]

Alan - these bottles have had the siphon tubes removed.  Pretty common on bottles used in bikes - especially when the bottle is mounted vertical in the swingarm.   As I understand, most car installations mount the bottle at an angle and siphon tubes are used. 

Pat - yes, this is essentially a prototype for Randy's EFI system and is now using the same Microsquirt ECU.   It's a very capable controller - not in the same league as the MOTEC - but less than 1/10 of the cost!

I'm running a dry nitrous setup with the Microsquirt adding the required fuel.  I went this route because it is much more reliable way to ensure the additional fuel gets there when it needs to - no additional fuel pump or solenoid or wiring to fail on the fuel side.   The Microsquirt sends the activation signal to the nitrous solenoid so it's not possible to activate just the nitrous side. 

The FJR injectors are actually larger than the 1st gen Hayabusa injectors, so there is a little more power potential before needing to change things - plenty of injector for the sickest 1350 you'll ever build!  But, if you're going to start playing with a turbo or dry nitrous and need larger injectors -- it turns out the Subaru WRX injectors slip right into the FJR throttle bodies and wiring clips.   I'm running a set of "pink" injectors from a WRX STi and have plenty of duty cycle available for the dry nitrous (up to 120 shot so far) while using E85 fuel (which requires about 30% more fuel than running gasoline).   

I am more than impressed so far with this EFI system - very good bang for the buck!   

More to follow on the EFI and the nitrous system... 

[fj1289]

If anyone is interested - here is the entry list as of a couple days ago.  The website says there are still a few spot remaining.

Motorcycle list:


and the car list:




Will be cool to see the H2 and the H2R run in anger.  Sure hope the H2 is derestricted -- would suck to be limited to 186 with the potential to run 200.  H2R has been claimed to run 220's - 240's.  It will be interesting to see how will the supercharger deals with the thinner air -- as I understand it, the thinner air tends to push a turbo out of its "sweet spot" and it loses efficiency (creates more heat) for the same boost levels compared to sea level.  Wonder if it's the same for a centrifugal supercharger?

I also want to see the De Tamaso Pantera run -- that's been my favorite supercar since a kid.  Gotta love a supercar with a muscle car soul 

[racerrad8]

Chris has set a very high goal, but we are going to do are best to achieve it.

We are getting down to crunch time and while we thought we had a solid plan, things have a way of unraveling quickly.

So, the plan was to build a solid bottom end and use the full drag race, ported & flowed cylinder head with some really big valves & cams that Chris has been using all along. Well, a couple of weeks ago Chris pulled the head to send to to me from the test engine he has been using and found a cam lobe had died. So, the head arrived, I was able to get the cams sent out right away to Web Cam and they said one one lobe damaged they could get that turned right around and shipped out last Friday. Well, the cams shipped today, but I can tell you that is much better service than I ever received from Mega Cycle.

Now, since the head was on the engine and running, we figured fix the cam & drop it onto the new RPM long block...

Well that came to a screeching halt this afternoon. Since the head was sitting in the corner until I got the cams back for the install I never even looked at it, but I probably should have...

So, today I flipped it over one to find either too much timing, not enough cooling or too much nitrous has started burning the head away between a couple of exhaust seats.




So, tomorrow will give me some direction on plan B regarding the head.

We had a little snafu and got the incorrect piston ring pack and the correct one will be ordered tomorrow. Man "XC" & "XG" sure sound a lot alike when ordering according the the vendor.

Chris was hoping to use his big bore case, but since someone welded some strengthening gussets on the front of the case, the gasket surface is severely warped as you can see by the black ink left behind from a flat sanding block. Then there was the custom case studs someone made and modified the case to fit that I was not comfortable with.







I had a fairly new XJR1300 engine that we are using for the base of this project.

So, Chris already had a race prepped, balanced & nitrated crankshaft as well as a fairly new set of Carrillo connecting rods. I decided to have the big end of the rod checked & re-sized. The Carrillo rod bolts hit the inside of the case due to the physically larger rod & 12pt rod bolt. I turned the head of the bolts down for clearance so the new case did not have to be modified.

I also had the crank rebalanced based on the new pistons & lighter rod bolts. If you look closely you can see some of the rod edges relieved and all of the small ends were lightened to the lightest rod. The pistons were also balanced to the lightest one. My balancer is not one to add weight, but he likes to take away whenever possible and he is so meticulous that the new drill holes & grind marks you see on the crank counter weights were all that was required to get it perfectly balanced.


















Bottom end going together




As work progresses over the next week or two, I will try and update as I go along in search of 200.

Man, September 4, 5 & 6 is coming up quick...

Randy - RPM