I now have a couple of months off, and I have some big plans. The spare NC engine arrived from GF racing and so I'm in the process of stripping that down. The plan is:

-Blueprint
-Match rods and pistons
-Balance crank
-Skim and port heads
-cryo/REM treatment on internals
-Am also looking into the nitriding the gforce did on their rings, valves and bearing shells

Going to be a few months project for me, but I'm really enjoying the work so far. I have taken a billion pics (mainly for me when I reassemble) but I'll try and post up progress as I go.

The other thing I have been keen to setup is the FCR's that I bought a few months back:









The bike went on the dyno earlier this week and Chris Osbourne did a great job of tuning them. The end result was a best run of 63.5hp, but he said that he didn't have the correct mains for the front cylinders, so when I get those, it should come up to 65hp. Other things that I need are some new needles which seem to only be available from Japan and the accelerator pump diaphragm also needs replacement which should be all attainable. Here is the dyno graph:



I had O2 sensor bosses welded into the front and rear cylinder collector pipes so that the 2 heads could be tuned more accurately. I am quite pleased with the results as this is still the stock motor.

However, after picking up the bike yesterday disaster struck and I had a fast-ish car crash The bike ripped the chock out of the van floor and end up on it's side in the back. I haven't had a chance for a good look, but damage looks like:

-Dented tank and snapped vacuum spigot
-Fork stanchion bent and/or bottom yoke bent
-Punctured oil sump

Not the end of the world, but really annoying. I was pretty lucky though as I walked away with just bruising. Unfortunately, this will proabably set the engine build back a few weeks as I now need to buy a new vehicle before the insurance gets sorted. Here is a pic



Engine build pics coming next....

Sorry to hear about your accident, lucky to walk away with just bruising
Those flatsides look awesome

Luke, that pic with your VAN does not look very nice Hope you are ok and you can get is sorted soon with all.

Thanks for all the replies!

Micpec- Yeah, it wasn't the best thing, but main thing is that no-one was hurt. The bike didn't have any fairings on, so I was most worried about the Gerd rads getting damaged, but they are completely untouched! Phew!

Been quiet for a while, so time for an update.

The bike still isn't fixed from the accident I have most of the parts now, but after swapping out the replacement bottom yoke, the front was still twisted so I have had to send the whole front end up to Hamilton for straightening. Hopefully I'll be able to get a working bike back for the 2nd round of the summer series in a couple of weeks.

Apart from fixing up the bike, I have started the race engine build:

1989 NC30 engine with ~25k (km) on the clock


GF Racing Slotted RVF camshafts:


HRC style oil cooler:


Heads off and a lot of crap throughout the cooling system:


Cleaned up!:


Clutch out:


Alternator out:


Sump off:


Cases split:


Next up- The cases are off to Headmasters in town for cleaning and checking for squareness and a cylinder hone. All the bores are in good nick and are all in tolerance. I also ground off any casting flashes on the cases.

In the meantime, I ordered up the new pistons (NC35), rings and pins and when they arrive, will also go to Headmaster along with the crank and rods for matching and balancing.

Also started looking at the heads. The plan is to skim them 0.5mm and then (maybe!) do some porting to to the intakes. I have read pretty much every single thread on here on DIY porting and to be honest, the jury is out regarding whether or not I can do an affective job. I have been chatting to Mike Norman about which areas to look at and most is very delicate and intricate work! I'm also reluctant to plough in there with a dremel without knowing what the bikes dyno sheet looks like first. Fortunately, I have some spare heads if everything goes south!

In the meantime, I started cleaning up the valves, chambers and exhaust ports:

Coked up exhaust ports:


Chamber and ports:


Head before:


Cleaned exhaust port:


Intake + exhaust valves:


Also got my shim material back and it measures 0.508mm +-.001 so that is what I'll need to get the heads skimmed by.

Picked up some parts just before Christmas and am really happy with the results!

Cleaned cases:




Honed bores:


Skimmed + cleaned heads:


I have since cleaned up all old gasket material from the deck surface and case cover surfaces. All threads have been chased with thread restoration bits.

Reached a bit of a hiatus with this until I receive the gudgeon pins from the UK. They were sent before Christmas so should arrive any day now! Then as soon as I get the matched pistons/rods and balanced crank back from the tuners, the whole lot will need packaging up and off to the US for REM/cryo! Then assembly begins.

Not entirely sure what to do about painting this thing though. All the original paint has gone in the cleaning process so now I'm back to bare metal. I was going to get it repainted back to the original colour, but am wondering if maybe I should do something different!?

Going to be superb mate. Clean motors are cool.

Luke, very nice and clean spare engine you've have there. Keep on posting, lovely to read the progress of it

As for another colour (not standard black) it has been done before in Lamborgini orange....

Haha - Don't think I'll be brave enough to do anything that bold!

I have been doing some digging and I'm tempted to go for the RVF400 TT-F3 engine colours here:
http://i609.photobucket.com/albums/tt17 ... 4001-1.jpg

So black heads and covers with silver/aluminium block. Think that would look pretty sweet!