A blade is Born

Lambchops has gone for a blue print and tweek this winter with the motor here decided to open this thread to reveal some of the finer points of tunning, at one stage I was reluctant to print my secrets as there are some unscruplous characters who charge members for labou rand parts when my labour was always free. This thread would enable members with some mechanical sense in attempting a DIY particularly when garage charges have gone through the roof.

Lambchops dropped the engine here on Wed and with Scotty we set about to dismantle, inspect, and review the costs etc: After checking what needs to be replaced and costs involving crankshaft builders we agreed on a rough budget of around £700 including spares.

Stage 1

Crankcases spilt open. Cases will be de- burred to remove all rough manufacture left overs, edges in the sump area rounded off to allow oil in sump to circulate more effectively rather than being deflected.





Crankshaft bearings appeared to in serviceable condition yet the con rod bearings all had high spots which would need replacement as usual No 3 which normally is the chief suspect lived up to its reputation. The crank will be dropped off to motor engineers to be balanced and polished. Decided not to lighten the crank as we would lose some torque also to keep within budget.

Conrods will be lightened, polished, weight matched and balanced in house. Current weight of con-rod/piston assembly is 583grms intend to shave off 6-8 gms which would increase piston speed normously.





Pistons appears to have some scoring will measure bores, piston to wall clearence and piston ring end gaps, might just need new rings or overbore ones cant really see that as this motor has only done 24k miles. At present these are the parts that are being worked on so will post up the pics on when the motor was split.

Looks a work of art already Mique

You need to go to specs save Wes boy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cant stand for long in the garage with acute Sciatica so found the floor in the conservatory a better option to display all parts for inspection by the owner and close to the old kettle. lol

love reading about all the mechanical teachnical stuff

great idea for a thread Mique, cant wait to see the progress

Top man Mique ! Very interesting !

Thanks Kev

Have a sadistic streak somewhere when I see the owners face etched with a scary grin. Read an article on Tony Scott a top Honda tuner who said Hondas always had bland engines unlike the other three and as much as 21% more can be derived with careful prep. In 1996 I went for the power to weight ratio theme and can honestly say it was the best ride I had on a bike which came in at 138bhp with 162kgs.

My dream machine would be 150bhp -150kgs a 1:1 ratio. The modern bikes can do that quite easily but managing that higher up the rev range is best left to the Crutchlows of this world

if you put your 04 blade engine in the 400 you could probably easily achieve that ratio
would be a fun ride

Still have Les's engine here Dan. Scotty has been eyeing the 04 motor for ages and is hell bent on making his bike look Italian. YUK

masterblader wrote:Still have Les's engine here Dan. Scotty has been eyeing the 04 motor for ages and is hell bent on making his bike look Italian. YUK

The CBR400 will be my main bike next season, well thats the plan the blade is just too hairy for an old buzzard.

I think the 400 will be too hunched up and not as comfortable.
At least if you put the thou in it, it will havr a bit of go.
then you dont run the risk of getting bored.
A 900 will do the same job i suppose ;-)

Worked on rod and pistons with a sander and power file shaving off a few grams with the first apllication looking at a possible 5g in total per rod/piston making 20g off that assembly, the crankshaft has a further 30g off. Total 50g off will lessen the rotational and reciprocating mass would give the motor some extra revs with better responsive.











Piston/rod assembly before

Wow looking great Mique! Cant wait for the summer

If only I had a warm garage this would be completed before Xmas JB. January the crank and head will be at the crankshaft builders in such time the camshafts need attention as well as all 16 valves and retainers. .

Cant understand how the above pics went onto FB??????

Hmm Facebook.. that is odd. Wasnt me boss

It stemed from this puter JB. Photobucket has new soft ware so me and puters dont get on. Just got a selection of abrasives to get cracking before the festive season really gets underway

im liking this build

masterblader wrote:You need to go to specs save Wes boy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cant stand for long in the garage with acute Sciatica so found the floor in the conservatory a better option to display all parts for inspection by the owner and close to the old kettle. lol

I meant from an engineering perspective mate

Thought you were taking the pi** mate , real engineer would have more finese than that. Just a ships engineer always work on the deck.

Camshafts under the spotlight, these are a crude production part with excess metal like the lug (pointed out) this is removed with a power file plus the three rough sections between the cams. The finish will look uniformed with a shine similar to the cam itself shaving off approx 12g.

The inlet cam (1211g) comes in heavier than the exhaust(1177g) coz of the higher lift.

Crankshaft was dressed up with the power file removing all the rough surfaces and excess metal from casting process nothing too dramatic approx 30g before being balanced.

Wow this is great, please keep the updates coming.

wow looking great Mique!! Could you send me the high res pics also please for my rebuild file

Inlet Camshaft modified with three rough sections smoothened out with the lug removed. Managed to shave off 13gms. Weight now 1198gms

very nice Mique

Copy sent for your file LC

thx Mique, dont have the after pics yet though

Great thread!

Many problems trying to lap the valves in, small sucker was still too large, so settled for blu-tak it was slow going but able to complete the job. Valve retainers were scalloped to reduce the reciprocating mass that will spin the motor even quicker. Since LC focused on the power to weight theme the crankshaft, rods, pistons, head, valve retainers, camshafts has weight taken off not enough to loose the bottom end torque.

looking good! be interesting to see before and after dyno results