Regarding the reply on the oilway no 1 cylinder - If you run total loss and remove the rotor, you must block the oilway in the end of the crank. I have used an aluminium peg (slightly tapered) and have also used a tight fitting aluminium sleeve which (if it is long enough) is held on using the normal end bolt.
Last year at Donnington I had fifth gear strip on the Friday test day, put in a rebuilt spare on the Saturday (race day with Derby Phoenix) and missed that getting the engine in !
But I was ready for the Sunday with NG. The clutch end plate broke in free practice, so I did two laps. In F400 race one, the brake lever was coming back to the bar as the bleed nipple had a tiny flaw and let in air, plus I only had the other race carbs with me , so with that jetting I was getting about 60hp, and doing 1.25's. This meant I was about 15th
This was clearly toad, so we bled and added a Lucas master cylinder to help the braking, (we discovered the bleed nipple a week later) so the bike did stop, but on the 4th lap of Streetstocks the oil seal behind the sprocket blew out and pumped oil over the rear tyre, so I suffered the quickest ever highside.I am sure I was actually reversing through the esses for a brief moment.
Resulting costs :
2 engine rebuilds = £ 800
Bodywork, pegs, lever,engine casing - £100
Test day £120
2 race days £220
Extra f400 races £50
And I did about 10 laps. Don't even want to consider the cost per lap. Especially if you add in the Van, MOT, insurance, Caravan, petrol for genny,bike and van,the list is almost endless.
I actually had a worse weekend in 2007 at Mallory where I did 2 engines trying to finish 4th in F400 Superclub 2007, ended up borrowing a zxr400 just to get the extra points I needed,as it was the final meeting. - I reckon I spent almost double that weekend and the week leading up to it, as I did an engine on the Wednesday test day too
I suppose almost anyone racing 400's for a few seasons will have been through this agony at some point, as these bikes are now so old,all the parts are pretty much near the end of their designed life that they are prone to failure. We now replace ALL of the cam chain system every rebuild, (as I was dropping valves - Read Roger's thread about how the valve timing is affected when the tension isn't spot on).I reckon if I was starting again, I'd do Minitwins - Which are recent bikes, lowly stressed and just as fast as 400's - and can't be overtuned as there is a 72bhp limit I think.However, I have also had two entire zxr 400 seasons with no engine problems whatso ever !! Plus, ZXR's are soooooo beautiful, I have a Repsol RR and repsol RVF400 too, but the ZXR (to me anyway) is the prettiest ever bike. I actually love mine and talk to it quite often.....
- shame as it was putting out 75bhp and was reving really cleanly all through the range - threw a rod and so back to square one
