And so it begins.......

Apologies for the lack of an update recently, Liz and I have been quite busy with final arrangements and attending the UKMOC Weekender 2014. An annual get together of all things Ducati Monster. It all seemed to go rather well, but now back to matters in hand.

"I'm going to spend, spend, spend!,"as Viv Nicholson once said. Unfortunately having not won the pools my bank account will have to suffice. So the crank is back from balancing.

What I didn't initially notice was that not only that the crank has been worked on, but the rotor on the end as well as both conrods have been balanced and matched. Things like this I like quite a lot, as in my mind this will help with not only with a smoother running engine but less wear on main bearings and the like.

Now I can tell you that the bottom end of the motor has been completed, I'll post up some pictures when I can as long as Chris has taken some. As I was out on UKMOC duty I missed getting over to the workshop. I hope the rest of the engine work will be completed this coming Saturday. Why? Because sitting on the floor at home is this!

Nick at Reality Motorworks has done a cracking job on the frame and wheels. On the right you will see where the frame number resides, I asked for this to be masked off so I can paint it and leave it readable should anyone need to read it in the future without having to resort to scraping off the powder coating.

Wheels are in satin black and the fronts will be adorned with some new Grimeca discs, Rich says they have Harris centres, Brembo bobbins and Grimeca for the outer. I've no idea but they look great. I'll get the new bearings in the front wheel as soon as the spacers have been machined to suit the 20mm axle.

A new set of injectors have been sourced down at Louigi Moto complete with a nearly new TPS, these replace the ones below.

I still have no idea how you can snap of both right hand side inlet mounts!
So this is where we are at today with some test assembly work going on. This is just as well as the bottom yoke I had intended to use had a very slightly differing offset to the OE one, so back to the old one which is fine, I had just preferred the look of the newer one. That said I'm going to fit a later SSie top yoke as the OE one has been randomly drilled to mount the reservoirs.

And finally, I mentioned in the last update that there was a name. Now bear with me here, with all the mention of a Nice Pair previously this put me in mind of the second album I ever bought. This was a double album called A Nice Pair and contained two Pink Floyd albums, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets. One track is called See Emily Play which I also later found out is the name of Stuart's Nan, so that seemed to be a bit of good kismet.

So come to the IoM in August and see Emily play.

Great news!

Dear Stuart,
Congratulations! Your entry into at least one class at the Manx Grand Prix has been accepted subject to full payment being received. The class you have been accepted into is
Formula 1 Classic TT - August 16-30, 2014 @ Isle of Man
You will receive a separate confirmation email for each class into which you are accepted, so if you have entered more classes than the one above continue to watch your email for further confirmations. You may also log into your account at any time to see the status of your entry which includes race numbers that will be assigned to you at a later date.

Initially we have been allocated race number 104. Best pull my finger and build the lad a bike. Extra tea bags are on order for the hospitality suite.

Another week, another spend fest.
Both heads are now finished and don't they look fine.

 

A Nice Pair

 
V2 Adjustable Pulleys

As you can see one of the few good things that came with the original bike are this set of V2 adjustable cam pulleys. These give the ability to set and fine tune the opening and closing of the valves, not surprisingly most bikes that come from Ducati out of the crate are just given a factory setting. So there are little improvements to be made on nearly every Ducati on the road. If you'd like to learn more why not visit Brad Black's very informative data hoard here http://www.bikeboy.org/. As with most things on this build the pulleys you see above have had to have a strip and clean due to an excessive use of Loctite when not required. The barrels are still away being re-bored and honed so that delays the engine build another week or two as the crank still has to go to be balanced. Both wheels are now in for powder coating as well as a few other components, these should be back next week along with the frame when I can start building the rolling chassis. This should then give you all something nice to view.  That said here's a view of another nice pair. 

  

Another Nice Pair 

Red Adjusters!!!

After a quick turnaround the forks have returned with all new 20mm pistons kits and rebound adjusters, also fitted are new fork springs to suit Stu's weight. The bike also has a name now, but more of that next week.

Like so many projects, after a flurry of initial activity it's all been quiet on the 888 front for a while. Like a snowball at the top of a hill they do have the tendency to get bigger as they roll down, so at some point I do expect a whole package of things to assemble.

So where are we today?

The Rolling Chassis

Well to be honest it's not, but never fear stuff is going on. The frame is away for powder coating into gloss white, wheels and other parts to follow shortly. This is all being done by Nick Anderson at Reality Motor Works, I've had work done by Nick before and it is always of the highest quality, so if you need anything sorted just click on the link above for contact details.
The forks are off to either K-Tech or Maxton for a service and an upgrade with some new internals. It does cost a few bob but I'm trying to make the best I can inside the budget. Although I seem to be following Labour's old policy of spend, spend, spend, maybe we should call it Gordon Brown Racing.

The Engine Recipe

Casings 900SSie
Crank 900SSie (to be balanced)
Gearbox 900SSie
Pistons Standard 94mm 888 (Flat tops)
Conrods 748SP
Flywheel 749R
Alternator 996RS
Alternator Casing 996SPS
Cams Standard 888
Barrels 748S
Heads Standard 888 1mm skim

749R Flywheel

996SPS casing and 996RS alternator

The Engine

Some highs and lows, sort of as expected really. The highs are that the heads are now rebuilt. These looked so different at Louigi's last week  that I didn't even recognise them! One new valve guide was fitted as it was cracked, all the valves have been lapped in by hand. Next they have been fitted with lighter action RS springs, these give less resistance to the rotation of the belts and subsequently a little more power. Now these are really only suited to higher revving (racy) engines due to their lighter action so the tick over will be set higher at about 1800rpm. When at speed more of the sealing action is aided purely by the action of the valve moving north at speed. Clearances on the closure shims has been set to zero effectively, again to aid sealing, this was precision set by Chris by using a diamond lap to polish shims to his exacting satisfaction.

Chris dummy assembled this to show me the difference in pressure between the two types, and it really is staggering when you press down. Those of you with keen eyesight will see the difference between the standard and RS springs. The heads have been skimmed as well to give a slight rise in compression as we are using standard flat top 916 pistons. 

Standard cams and valves are going back in and with the other tweaks being made this should still give enough power to be competitive without failing to finish.

Before

After

It looks stunning when complete, you really need a perspex side on an engine to fully appreciate what's inside.

This week I have to drop of the 748S barrels for a re-bore, Nikasil coating and honing to suit the new pistons. We've had to do as the original barrels have such a hard coating that the engineer has been unable to get a decent hone from it. The upside is better cooling with the 748 barrels, the downside is another bill. Once that is done the crank assembly can be built and go away for balancing. After that is done this lot can start to go back together with new mains and gearbox bearings.

My thanks go out to James White of Willow Services and Guy Burton of Burton Engineering for their kind offers of a set of tyres each. (It's in print now chaps!) This means a great deal to me as they are friends that have come on board to assist with as much passion I think I as have to finish this project. I think together with the main sponsors we can build a bike that will do Stuart proud at the Classic.

In the meantime I have a set of knackered throttle bodies to sort out!