Update from 9/10/08

This is the latest in the installation of the TR-6 motor in the frame.  The cylinder and head are upstairs having the pistons fitted, valve guides installed and the decision being made whether bigger exhaust seats are needed for the considerably larger inconel valves.  The delicate balancing act between how much power is needed versus how much can be produced before the head splits and/or the cylinders are knocked off the engine cases comes into play.

This bit of mental math usually causes Jim’s (the owner) eyes to roll back in his head.  Keeping the engine heat manageable is part of the reason for the big exhaust valves.  The effect of the big exhaust valves upon driveability (that is surprisingly important at Bonneville) is somewhat mitigated by the ability to change blower drive speed, and percentage of nitro.  The engine heat buildup will also be more of a factor with the reversed head.

I will need to take a page from the Britten design book that made use of conduits and ducting to manage heat and feed air in the engine bay of the legendary V-Twin roadracer.  If we have opportunity to do a billet head, the stability at elevated temperatures is so much better, the only heat consideration at that point will be the under-seat temperatures (aka “nut roaster”).

Some attention to the design issues of the early iron Hemis is needed to try and avoid certain flaws in the valve train longevity choices as the run-time of this combination will ultimately be much longer than a quarter mile, and while the valve train survived three miles at 8,000 rpm the first time, the pressure loading on the intake side and the heat loading on the exhaust side will be considerably higher, and survivability is a must.

The assembly of the first real bottom end will begin next week and we hope to have the frame out of the jig and fitting the wheels and forks in time to show it at the Slimey Crud Run Ocober 5 here in Madison.  An intergrated oil tank/rear bulkhead along with the fuel, battery and varuous ancillary devices are yet to be done, so stay tuned as the work continues.

Cheers!

Bill

Latest Triumph photos

Here are the latest photos of the Triumph.

The image above (posted last time) shows the bottom ends intact on the frame jig.

Here they are broken down and ready to start procuring the needed parts for freshening and reassembly.

This is what is left when a 29 pound block (from this post)  is machined to make the blower manifold.

These photos show the blower, manifold and head set together to verify that they do in fact fit as an assembly.

Second Bonneville Project Officially Underway

Having run the 1967 Triumph T-120 Bonneville on the salt last fall and run afoul of a cosmetic technicality, the suggestion was made by the tech officials to return and compete in a less-constrained class.  Being the free-spirited types we are, the decision was made to go back with a similar bike in class to the Ducati we ran last year and are returning with this October.

The first question was “what”, then “how” and then “why?”   Jim Haraughty was the principal of the project, so he elected to stay with the 650cc pushrod format.  The logical choice was to stay with the Triumph 650cc pushrod platform.  This answered the “what”.

The record he opted for was the A (special chassis construction) Pushrod Blown Fuel.  This will involve a chassis built by guess who (the “how”).  The Blown part caught my attention as I had just found a cute little 2-lobe Roots-Type supercharger and didn’t want no stinking mufflers or exhaust restrictions (turbos) on this one.

I haven’t built a blower bike in many years and the thought of blown Methanol with a whisper of Nitro sounded sort of fun.  Poor Jim’s eyes got about as big as pie plates when the mention of Nitro came up and a visit to Arnie Heller’s shop on a billet aluminum buying spree didn’t help.  Arnie is my frame of reference on turbo/gas/nitrous used on the Ducati project but he has always had an aversion to Nitro as being unpredictable and destructive (coming from a guy who replaced cases and cranks every two races with the gas/juice combination that made enough hp to go 219 mph).  Discussing his current project and his exposure to Nitro got Jim going, but at the end Arnie did admit that “there isn’t anything like it”.

Workin’ for the week’s end…

Knowing the weather was doubtful for any activity on the salt at all, everyone was up and in the truck before daylight.  It was still dark as we rolled out to the pits across the salt, but a faint glimmer of the beauty to come could be seen to the east.

We pretty much had our pick of the pits as there were only a quarter at most of the entries there on Thursday.

While unloading we were greeted by a photographer who called himself “Porkpie”.  He was an engineer for Porsche living in Germany but coming to the salt for the SCTA Speedweek and the BUB events as well as the World Finals each year.  He said he had adopted the name from the British slang for “second chance” as he had been a streamliner pilot and crashed hard a number of years ago.  Realizing he had been given a second chance at living, he made it a point to return and enjoy the racing he loved and not “wait until there was enough time”.  Using the backdrop of a spectacular sunrise (see the last photo in the gallery) he took photos of both bikes and the crew.  We are waiting for him to send the CD of the shots at this time.

Following much the same routine as the previous two days we went to the starting with a jet change to make the first run of the day.  The bike’s performance was sluggish again, even though the same jets that had yielded the one good run the day before were in it.  The exhaust gas temperature stayed at a sluggish 1400 degrees indicated and the power just wasn’t there.  I turned off after the first mile and we went back to try and figure out what to do next.

Thursday’s Child

Returning to the salt on Thursday morning we all were looking forward to the day.  Jim needed to prove the bike capable of accomplishing the mph goal and I hoped to get a chance at the next license level.

Jim’s first run was a success as he was able to run 107.813 mph on a 97.320 record.  It was a big lift to everyone and we looked forward to the next one for him until he mentioned that the run had been done in third gear rather than fourth as it wouldn’t shift.  The entire 2nd mile was run at 8,000 rpm.  While those of you used to Japanese bikes may not see the significance, the British twins owners and Harley riders know what a mile at those rpms can do.   On his next run, even though the bike did shift into 4th gear, the valve train showed its unhappiness with a rather lot of noise and the bike was parked, but not until having run 10 mph over the existing record.

The Ducati began the show with a missed call on the jetting and an early termination to make the needed changes.

Day One

The trip to the SCTA World Finals at Bonneville Speedway October 2-6, 2007 provided mixed results for the Team MS/Motorcycle Performance racing effort.  I did surprise myself with the speed I answered “yes” to the question of coming back next year.

I want to thank the Home Team for their efforts:   Fred Weege (motors and electronics), Nick Moore (wheels, tires and suspension), Steve Dale (paint and bodywork), Bill Shields (trailer and procurement) and my wife Patty (patience and sense of humor).

Also the Away Team:  Jim Haraughty (coaching and procurement), Bob Crook (rig driver, gear and mechanicals), and Chris (Louie) Lamour (mechanicals).  Without both of these groups’ efforts, the project never would have gotten off the ground.

The first day there was designated as Tech Inspection.  We arrived at the speedway at 2 a.m. their time and spent the night in a parking lot at the truckstop occupying that exit on I-80.  Needless to say, everyone was a bit slow on the uptake, but soon the anticipation of getting on the salt restored the vigor lost in a cramped, cold truck.

Approaching the entrance onto the salt itself you became aware of the expanse covered by the salt flats themselves.  Once we were waved onto the flats, the drive to the racetrack was another 8 to 10 miles.  As the sun came up we were joined by more racers heading out, sometimes 4 wide going 60 to 70 mph towards the pits.

Aspirations

As we began this expedition it appeared to be the attempt at the Production Pushrod Gas record.  The project soon took on a life of its own.

Jim Haraughty of Team MS ran last season at Bonneville during the SCTA event known as Speed Week.  We were peripherally involved with the preparation of the bike, a 1967 Triumph TR6 he previously raced in AHRMA, a vintage roadracing organization.  Due to a few issues with the bike on the salt, a full-power run wasn’t possible.  This led to the comment “If you want to go next year I’ll come along to help”.  Little did I realize…..

During the course of the following year work progressed on the Triumph to improve the power delivery.  While working on the motor the thought occurred that this would be a possibility of sitting around out there for days with nothing to do.  The next thought that went fleetingly through was “why not build a bike?”  Little did I realize……

Having undertaken quite a number of ventures in the past that I had no initial experience in I suffered no delusions of ease or simplicity.  Drawing upon experience in diverse fields of endeavor such as roadracing at Daytona, Top Fuel Motorcycles at Gainesville, TranAm cars, Top Fuel Dragsters at Indy, Funny Cars, and cylinder head porting, helped but there were still many unanswered and unasked questions.  Anybody who thought they were going to go out there and be successful the first time combined the two unpleasant qualities of arrogance and ignorance.  The best to be hoped for was attaining realistic goals, licensing to the capabilities of your equipment, and not damaging yourself and whatever you were in (or on).

Deciding on a power plant platform was narrowed to two.  The Suzuki Hayabusa is a phenomenal unit with sturdy construction and good power output right out of the box.  Ducati offered the 999 platform that we really didn’t  have as much experience with, but after seeing the movie the possibility of a reduced frontal area and vehicle height held possibilities.  It would also be the only one of its kind in the world, a feature that held appeal for its individuality but obstacles due to its being untraveled ground.

In the end the Ducati won out and its durability and package size proved to be two distinct benefits.  There is also a certain snobbish cachet to the marque that helped mitigate the humble origins of the project.

Having a 200mph plus goal in mind and not a lot of time to do it required the use of a boosted motor package.  Naturally aspirated required too much skill, time and knowledge to accomplish the goal.

A brief update on Bonneville 2007

A brief update on Bonneville 2007 field trip

Due to unforeseen circumstances our Bonneville expedition has been delayed until the SCTA World Finals October 3-6.

The motel we made reservations at in January burned down in February.  We were assured that being rebuilt by August was “no problem”.  Well, in July we get phone call that due to construction delays there will be no accommodations at that motel for Speed Week in August.  The next closest accommodations were 3 to 3 1/2 hours away.

This moves us to the World Finals event that is held at Bonneville as well.

Our thanks to the SCTA staff for their help in making this possible.

Construction on the bike has been progressing, but of course not at the rate anticipated.  Making nearly all the components of every major system is a very time consuming process, especially if they are expected to work!  The space allotted for the different components seems to have visibly diminished and having the luxury of non-layered system access is becoming more and more challenging.

All in all we are close to start-up and testing is now a definite possibility in the foreseeable future!

August 8, 2007 update:

Well it runs!  It started so quickly that all we did was look at each other dumbfoundedly  and quickly recover to keep it running and watch the oil pressure gauge.  What was initially thought to be a lean idle condition turned out to be a too-rich mixture and after a closer approximation of the correct pilot jet was installed we discovered the backfire capabilities of the system.  Evidently the too rich condition left a noticeable amount of gasoline in the turbocharger and the long intake tract caused a lean backfire that blew the carburetor completely off the turbo inlet with enough force to make a noticeable mark in the fork tube.  It was just like pushing the button on a detonator when we went to start it up that time.  Lesson learned.  After a bit, things settled down and now starting is not the adventure it was then.  Soon its out to the driveway dyno for the project to see if the chain flies off when wheel speed gets to over 170mph.  Stay tuned, it should be exciting!

Meanwhile the slog continues with the deadline only 6 weeks away.

Cheers!

Bill