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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 26 Feb 2013 21:47 #574305

  • zed1015
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Another project i've been working on since december between the cafe racer and my 1428 Moriwaki.
Not much on tv tonight so i thought i'd copy and paste it over from the Z1GB site in one hit :) .


I've been asked to rebuild the engine / engines of the famous Orient Express turbo funny bike.
Originally built by Jack o'malley (founder of Orient express performance) this bike was imported from the states by the late Steve Tong and is thought to possibly be the first of its type to be brought over here to england.
Here's a pic of the machine as it should be.



And here as it has been for nigh on 30 years since it blew over the line at long marsden




I have now got the engine and spares on the bench for inspection


Pulling the barrels reveals the the cause of the engine failure .
Both center pistons suffering from detonation and the excesssive heat that running 30psi of boost will create.




A little mystery for now is how this lump of sump got ejected from its moorings ?


Initially i thought the the camchain had snapped,wrapped around the crank and had destroyed the main bearing cap with shrapnel exiting through the sump, but a quick inspection revealed the chain is untouched and peering through the hole shows the cap intact and everything turns freely
It should all become clearer once i get the sump off


A couple of gems were revealed whilst sorting the good spares from the bad
"New" welded crank from Chris Applebee still in the kawasaki box soon to be woken from it's slumber.




And belt and braces approach to clutch slip .
Who need steroids :lol:




Well! i pulled the sump this morning and found nothing wrong downstairs that could cause the sump damage.
Nothing unexpected but more interestingly nothing i expected either.
Oil pump is std, no rear pick-up, not even a gate and the black sludge is only clean oil and assembly lube.
Everthing is in excellent condition so far and if you didn't know it could have come straight from the track yesterday.



Crank is just a welded std one, nowt special or lightened and no cap support or hd crankcase studs.


Same for the gearbox .
Apart from evidence of freehand undercutting it's std z900.



My theory now is that the area around the sump plug was already damaged and weakened previously by maybe jacking up the bike on the sump pan etc and when the engine blew, the cases were pressurised enough by the turbo to simply pop out the fractured piece.

Bit of an update.
After very close inspection most of the engine parts are either worn out , unsuitable or just plain buggered and all the usable parts that don't need any major work are in this pic and are mainly from the spare engine.



This thing is fighting me all the way and both heads need everything re-newing, the seats are pocketed and all the correct cam caps need sorting as they were all mixed up in a box with some others.

Burnt valves,sagged springs,odd retainers and old style square keepers.
All this needs replacing.



Have chose to use the spare crankcases as the others have been bored out for a big block and as a result will be more prone to flexing and will be weaker around the barrel studs.
On the upside these cases have had the groove for the bearing retainers machined on the inside of the case in BOTH case halves for a more robust construction so it's just a matter of flipping the bearing 180 deg to fit and they will also help reduce the halves moving independantly



Groove in lower half which the std cases don't have.


All this means is that there are now several large boxes of tasty parts currently winging their way from Pitstop Performance in the US to help fill in the (large) gaps.
Not so much of a rebuild now ,more like start from scratch


Postie finally delivered a big box of goodies from the US .
Almost every internal part is being replaced .




Even bought a complete refurbed undercut gear cluster.
It's a joke that this item shipped from the states cost nearly half the price delivered than the cheapest quote we got for labour to undercut our own.



While we were waiting for the parts to arrive the cases etc have had a trip to the aqua blasters so i could make an immediate start on the re-assembly.
A few hours work saw the Oil pan gate, HD case studs, valve guides , oilseals and gear selector fitted



The barrels are now away getting bored for the 72mm MTC turbo pistons so this gives a few days to sort out the head.
The seats were pocketed and even tipping the std size valves left no clearance with the thinnest shim so fitting oversize valves gets everything back in usable range.
Now just have to open up the throats to match and take full advantage of the larger valves.



Main bearing cap has been machined for the support plate so the bottom end can be finally rebuilt.




Barrels bored to take the 72mm MTC turbo pistons, rings have been gapped and fitted to all except no-4 piston which will be used for deck height and valve clearance checking on the dry built top end.
Liner tops have been piano wired and i've 'O'ringed the outer stud holes to help reduce oil seepage from the copper head gasket.
The holes for the rear outer studs on the original cast barrels tend to taper towards the center from each end and can become restrictive for the top end oil supply when fitting the larger hd studs so these have been bored out to a constant diameter throughout their length.




A couple of zip ties on each little end stops the 3 loose rods running on their bores


Then test assemble the top end and degree in the cams


Haven't got any timing figures for these cams as there's no id on them so will have to settle on something like 109 in /113 ex lobe centers which is in the usual turbo setting range.
This will have to do for checking valve to valve clearance and squish (the valve to valve clearance will change with the cam timing so i'm going to have to check it at different LC's to see what the safe range is.
A piece of soft solder squashed beween the valve heads on overlap and measured with the vernier will tell how close things are.



With all the clearances sorted out it's time to put the top end on pemanently.
Camchain 'O'ring filled with rtv, sliced flush with the cylinder top and outer oil stud 'O'rings installed ready for head gasket.
Hd cylinder studs are plain unplated steel (pre APE) so the 8 exposed ones get the heatshrink trick




Copper headgasket gets a coat of spray-on sealer both sides and goes on after fitting the Liska idlers and tensioner.
Holes in headgasket were to small to go over the heatshrink so that was trimmed flush with the barrel face too.




A not so short while later the head is on courtesy of some APE nuts and copper washers throughout.
Cams run in new bearings with Liska top idler and APE billet mounting blocks completing the ensemble.
After some research i've identified the cams as Megacycle race turbo cams and found the timing figures to suit.
110 degrees inlet and 114 exhaust which make me very happy as my 109/113 guess couldn't have been any closer :D




Nearly done. just waiting for the cam cover , a few nuts and bolts and an oilseal to finish it off.
Next pic's should see it finished and then on to the turbo and carb,

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Last edit: by zed1015.

ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 26 Feb 2013 21:56 #574309

  • 4TheKZ1000
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Great build, bike and posting. Thanks, really enjoy it.... B) B) B) B) B)

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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 26 Feb 2013 23:59 #574333

  • Motor Head
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Thanks for the write up. Good job.
Any water injection or retard under boost on the old set up?
That should be one hell of a ride. :woohoo:
1982 KZ1000LTD K2 Vance & Hines 4-1 ACCEL COILS Added Vetter fairing & Bags. FOX Racing rear Shocks, Braced Swing-arm, Fork Brace, Progressive Fork Springs RT Gold Emulators, APE Valve Springs, 1166 Big Bore kit, RS34's, GPZ cams.
1980 KZ550LTD C1 Stock SOLD Miss it
1979 MAZDA RX7 in the works, 13B...

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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 00:59 #574344

  • donthaveakawman
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very nice probably not for beginners, do you have a patent pending on "Orient Express"

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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 06:52 #574378

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Motor Head wrote: Any water injection or retard under boost on the old set up?


Yes! In the first pic's you can see the Bill Hahn ignition which has boost retard facility.
No alky injection though.
AIR CORRECTOR JETS FOR VM CARBS AND ETHANOL RESISTANT VITON CHOKE PLUNGER SEAL REPLACMENT FOR ALL CLASSIC AND MODERN MOTORCYCLE CARBURETTORS
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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 08:38 #574385

  • NakedFun
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Very cool. I am always amazed at your abilities during these projects and for the most part, what the European builder tend to do, with the tools and space they have! It seems like they tend to build things over here that no one would try unless they have a full on macine shop, 5,000 sq. ft shop, etc....

Cory
2008 Kawasaki Concours 14
1999 Kawasaki ZRX1100
1976 Kawasaki KZ900

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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 08:41 #574386

  • wireman
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Attachment popcorn_2013-02-27.gif not found


B) B) B) B) B)
posting from deep under a non-descript barn in an undisclosed location southwest of Omaha.
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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 09:30 #574387

  • roy-b-boy-b
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Wow ! Thanks for the nice read for my morning wake up.
1979 LTD Street Fighter.1977 KZ1000

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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 10:40 #574395

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I love to see "old school" race bikes resurrected B) B) B) way to cool and you are doing an outstanding restore job :whistle: :woohoo: .
what is amazing is how few mods were done to these early race bikes as far as the bottom end.
I probably have pics of the bike here with baugh riding it for O'malley here in my old photo's with orient's paint .
2005 Kawasaki mean streak
2000 325 H.P. mcXpress turbo Hayabusa
1979 kz 1000 mk II ATP turbo
1975 Z1 960 cc Mr. Turbo
1975 Z1 1428 big block ATP turbo
1976 Kz900 1103 cc ATP turbo
1985 GS 1150E
1983 GS 1100E
1997 Suzuki Bandit 1200S
2001 Kawasaki EX 500 Ninja
1972 Honda cb750 (836cc turbo)
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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 11:49 #574406

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I hope you're going to have a video of it running.
1975 Z1 900
1994 KX250 Supermoto
2004 KX125

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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 14:45 #574416

  • zed1015
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turboking wrote: I love to see "old school" race bikes resurrected B) B) B) way to cool and you are doing an outstanding restore job :whistle: :woohoo: .
what is amazing is how few mods were done to these early race bikes as far as the bottom end.
I probably have pics of the bike here with baugh riding it for O'malley here in my old photo's with orient's paint .


By the looks of it they just kept upping the boost until they blew, this is probably the best it has ever been, Just hope it stays in one piece :laugh:

Would be good to see some pic's in the original colours as we have been searching the net in vain for some.
The plan was to maybe paint it that way if we could find some decent pic's, possibly find another set of bodywork and have both colour schemes.
Any details/information of the bike while it wss still in the states would be very usefull and appreciated.
AIR CORRECTOR JETS FOR VM CARBS AND ETHANOL RESISTANT VITON CHOKE PLUNGER SEAL REPLACMENT FOR ALL CLASSIC AND MODERN MOTORCYCLE CARBURETTORS
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ANOTHER project,Orient Express drag bike rebuild. 27 Feb 2013 15:03 #574417

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