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BusyLittleShop

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Everything posted by BusyLittleShop

  1. Hiya Johnnie... Even though Freddie Spencer had an RC45 during his High-Performance Riding School days he would instead dice with the students on his VFR... I think that the 5th gen VFR (98 to 01) has more sport and less tour than the other generations... Freddie Spencer's RC45 serial number 6...
  2. In my learned opinion VTEC (Vacillating Torque Engine Compartment) was successful on heavy autos but it's been 50 / 50 when applied to lighter weight bikes because of the unwanted bump in the power ban...
  3. You're correct... Honda did used the RC45 tooling to make the engine for the 5th gen VFR 800... specifically adding bearing support structure to carry a swingarm pivot... My friend Makota San previous job was Chief Engineer Honda R&D who invented Honda's VTEC... he calls VTEC "his baby" and recalls his boss being super skeptical of the idea working at all... Makota San down on cannery row...
  4. Hiya Ron... the orange BMC will pass more air than a K&N... but you might need to remap the ECU... K&N are designed to pass just as much air as the stock paper and thus no remapping...
  5. Understanding how an air box works and the reasons why a stock box is a safer bet... If you have ever had the gas tank off your late-model sportbike, you will notice that the front of the fuel tank doesn’t hold fuel; it holds an airbox. In the old days, when you bought a new bike, it had an air-filter case attached to feed the carburetors or the fuel-injection intakes. All the sharp, young guys would immediately rip off the filter case and replace it with four sock filters. Reduced airflow resistance. Much better performance. One day in the late 1980s, they began to rip off the airboxes of their new bikes and their engines fell on their faces. They lost a bunch of performance. “This can’t be happening! Putting on sock filters always worked before.” But it turns out the industry found a way to boost performance by making what is known as a resonant airbox. We have all in an idle moment blown across the mouth of a beer bottle and heard the "whoooo" of the bottle resonance. As air goes across the mouth of the bottle, it creates a low pressure, which causes air to flow up. That deflects the air away from the mouth of the bottle. Then the air goes back in, the airflow from your mouth goes back across, and the cycle repeats, rapidly fluttering and producing that deep tone. The compressible air in the bottle is acting as a spring, and the slug of air in the neck of the bottle is the mass that vibrates against that spring. This intake airbox from a fuel injected Honda is just a glorified beer bottle. Instead of the engine blowing across the mouth of it, its four throttle bodies are sucking from the box, pulling its pressure down. Air rushes in through the ducts in the fairing to fill up that low pressure. The next cylinder sucks the bottle pressure down and more air rushes in and restores the pressure. If the volume of the box and the mass of the air in the intake pipes are correctly chosen, the box will hum like the beer bottle. The trick is to get your engine to draw air from the box when the pressure is up and then the box refills when the pressure is down. And that is why ripping the airboxes off and putting on old-time sock filters resulted in a reduction in performance. In a specific zone of rpm, a resonant airbox can boost your engine’s torque by 10 percent. That’s worth having! My friend Stephen called long distance from England because he just installed a $900.00 HRC air box on his RC45 and saw 120HP on the dyno... mmmmm... together we wondered if the stock box be modified??? We found that stock RC45 throttle bodies are 46mm but the air box was restricted to 40mm... no problem... I'll bore the air box out to 47mm on the milling machine... I drew up plans for 47mm bell mouth based on the stock 40mm bell mouths and purchased a block of black Delrin... I'm not happy doing repetitious work but I labored long hours to machine 4 each bell mouths with my best accuracy... Don't you love when a plan comes together especially if it turns out perfect??? Now I had an unrestricted air box with my own 47mm bell mouths... it was the best I could do to replicate HRC $900.00 air box... not to mention I wanted to keep my home made K&N filter... Time to put the Mod to the test on the dyno... this is Dave at Chandelle Motorsports... No joy... I lost 1.8HP on the dyno... so bigger is not better in this case... a whole week worth of work shot down in flames... it seems Honda got the intake velocity right for a stock pipe after all... air boxes are like tuned instruments... alter the holes and the tune just makes sour notes and power suffers... Mr.RC45 fueling is not the problem... my air box will remain stock because our air box works like a finely tuned instrument... any wild ass guess mod disrupts this highly engineered resonant to where to you're producing nothing but sour notes... The airbox inlet tubes, or “horns”, are specifically designed to provide a resonance that can increase the total airflow by up to 10-15%. Second guessing these can cause the engine to loose power and increase the intake noise as in my case... RC45's stock intake horns are there for homologation purposes only and do not directly feed into the airbox only the HRC intakes feed ram air into the airbox...
  6. Mileage is a loose standard because wear depends on so many variables... A more accurate standard of chain wear is after the 3rd adjustment because that is undeniable evidence that the factory installed grease is beginning to fail to lube the critical pin roller junction hidden behind the X ring... the length of the chain is growing because of this metal to metal wear... I can not call a chain serviceable that is grinding metal... it's like saying that a dry bearing that runs ruff is acceptable... the net result is another 2 to 3% drop in RWHP as more energy is lost grinding metal behind the X ring... This is what we don't see behind the X rings... metal to metal wear every time we adjust the chain that eats into our engine's available HP... a new pin measures 206.5 and wears down to 205.5 at the 8K mile mark... looks good to the naked eye but multiply that 1 thousand of an inch times 108 links and you have 108 thousands of an inch wear or about the range of the green marks provided by Honda's wear gauge... 202.8 show the very visible wear at the 12K mile mark... the pins are turning red from extreme heat of grinding dry metal... a chain in this condition may consume up to 6 to 8% of our RWHP... not to mention it may snap into and cause case damage... Some manufactures provided a handy guide to monitor chain wear... stay with in the green and you'll be looking for a new chain and sprockets at the 8 to 10K mile mark... What we are lubing are external roller and between the roller and the sprockets (red area in my drawing)... we are not lubing the X rings nor behind the X rings so any oil applied in that effort is a waste and will only fling off... We are lubing the external roller and between the roller and the sprockets (red area in my drawing)... we are not lubing the X rings nor behind the X rings so any oil applied in that effort is wasted fling off...
  7. General info... Trouble shooting Chris's RC45 continuous high idle the culprit proved to be air leaks... you see that on a fuel injection engine *any* air that bleeds past the throttle bodies the map just increases the correct amount of fuel... the result is high continuous idle... make sure all the rubber hoses are connected and in good shape... make sure all the intake boots are tight and in good flexible shape... if the rubbers are hard and cracked its time for replacement...
  8. You're welcome... but it is designed to dampen clutch knock not engine sound...
  9. Welcome Charles... Before Mr.RC45 I had a love affair with my 86 VF500F Interceptor bought new from Golden Gate Cycles... I modified it extensively... Dymags... Billet Clutch basket... Exhaust and even converted the chain to belt... This became famous Belt-0-Ceptor... I racked up 98,000 trouble free miles... I sold it to my Air Force buddy up in White City Oregon... Home made Billet Clutch Basket My custom dash with Oh Shit warning... Sometimes being the littlest bike among the Big-Bad-Motors of Death can be a recipe for bruised egos...
  10. The BLS method of removing grips without destroying them... 1)slip a rat tail comb under the grip... 2)trickle alcohol down the length of the gap created by the comb... 3)remove comb and twist the grip to work the alcohol in between grip and throttle barrel... Best grip I found is Spider Grips... Spider Grips feature durable variable density elastomers, patent pending shaped boundary layers with isolated secondary layers, energy dispersing flanges, and a multi-faceted geometric surface area. Spider Grips are manufactured in Taiwan and distributed by Pit Bull. Ride with Spider Grips and you'll feel less vibration, which in turn means less fatigue. You can give up the death grip hold, so you won't get arm pump and you'll be able to ride longer. Special grip material works great, even when wet.
  11. STEERING HEAD BEARINGS If your steering head bearings are too tight the bike will weave and not seek its own center... if your steering head bearings are loose you'll notice a pronounce clunk during braking... I don't use torque figures rather I raise the front wheel off the ground and tighten the steering head bearings until the bars lock then I back off the nut until the bars free wheel with a slight drag... with this method you find that sweat spot and avoid over tightening and under tightening even if you upgrade to taper roller bearings...
  12. Lower cost by skipping the replacement of worn sprockets are for owners who close their wallets with a Chinese Torque wrench... We don't have to guess about wear because Honda provided a handy guide to monitor chain wear... stay with in the green and you'll be looking for a new chain and sprockets at the 8 to 12K mile mark...
  13. No and no but here is how to check your Red oil light... 1) Key on and Red Light on... 2)Crank the engine and note how many revolutions it takes for the oil pump to extinguish the Red light... have you noticed that after an oil change it takes many revolutions before enough oil fills the empty filter??? 3)Establish a warm and steady idle... 4)Stop engine by activating the kill switch and note the time it takes for the red light (0 psi) to illuminate... 5)If the red light illuminates before engine reaches full stop suspect a faulty pressure relief valve... If the Red light extinguishes immediately at full stop or it takes noticeable more time for the oil to bleed from the rod and crank bearings... system is normal and you may ride as is... Mobil 1 30 grade auto oil at 203F and flowing at 10 psi on my digital oil gauge mod which is just about perfect...
  14. What you may have is normal clutch knock at idle... you see over time slop develops allowing the gear teeth to knock about and thus the noise... grab the clutch lever and the inner basket helps align the outer basket and the noise deadens... the only cure is to eliminate the slop with new clutch parts...
  15. Manufactures warn owners that our gears can't shift smoothly if our clutch is part way engaged... check for unwanted clutch drag... Here are the steps how to check and eliminate unwanted clutch drag... 1 Place your bike on the center stand... 2 Start engine and establish a steady idle at 212ºF (operating temp)... 3 Squeeze in the clutch lever and shift into first gear... 4 Continue holding in the clutch lever and note if the rear wheel coast to stop or not... if it continues spinning that's unwanted drag... adjust... To adjust a cable equipped bike turn the small knob clock wise (out) 1/4 turn and test for clutch drag... if your bike is equipped with hydraulics bleed system for bubbles... Ultimately you want the rear wheel to coast to a stop when the engine is idling and first gear selected with the clutch lever is squeezed in...
  16. The holy trinity of science is 1)Reason 2)Observation 3)Experience... employing those tools we observe that the primary cause clutch slip are high mileage... mileage is the constant among all of the clutches that begin to slip... oil type is not a constant... If you wish 100,000 mile clutch life then you have to invest is some good old sweat equity... first Mic them to determine if they are serviceable within the factory specifications... It's a fact that all motorcycle wet clutches will reach a point in their life and begin slipping... the first signs happen during WFO throttle (Wide Fooking Open)... Don't be surprised if you tear a part the clutch pack and note that the plate thickness is well within specifications listed in the shop manual... What you will notice is the glazed appearance on the surface on the friction plates... Inspect the friction plates for glazing... make sure you have plenty of material to work with... your shop manual states clutch thickness in thousands of an inch or mm... First removed the contaminants with Acetone... pick a hard surface to lay over a 600 grit black dry emery paper... rotate the clutch plate in a circle... you're just busting the glaze... don't get carried away remove too much material... You should end up with a friction plate looks dull like a new one as opposed to a shinny glazed one... recheck thickness... Next check the pressure plates for bluing caused by localized heat... make sure they are not warped... consult the manual for a thickness range... now removed the contaminants with Acetone and wire wheeled them to erased the blue and also to generally scuff up the surface... you should end up with a dull surface free of Blue marks...
  17. Thanks to you Miguel VFRD is unquestionable an outstanding site... The membership you have attracted is of the highest expertise... they know how to multiply V4 pleasure and divided V4 grief... It is indeed a joy to express an appreciation on behalf of that membership as well as my personal gratitude for your passion and participation... you will be missed my friend...
  18. I learned the hard way that bigger is not always better when it comes to our air boxes... My friend Stephen called long distance from England because he just installed a $900.00 HRC air box on his RC45 and saw 120HP on the dyno... mmmmm... together we wondered if the stock box be modified??? We found that stock RC45 throttle bodies are 46mm but the air box was restricted to 40mm... no problem... I'll bore the air box out to 47mm on the milling machine... I drew up plans for 47mm bell mouth based on the stock 40mm bell mouths and purchased a block of black Delrin... I'm not happy doing repetitious work but I labored long hours to machine 4 each bell mouths with my best accuracy... Don't you love when a plan comes together especially if it turns out perfect??? Now I had an unrestricted air box with my own 47mm bell mouths... it was the best I could do to replicate HRC $900.00 air box... not to mention I wanted to keep my home made K&N filter... Time to put the Mod to the test... this is Dave at Chandelle Motorsports... No joy... I lost 1.8HP on the dyno... so bigger is not better in this case... a whole week worth of work shot down in flames... it seems Honda got the intake velocity right for a stock pipe after all... air boxes are like tuned instruments... alter the holes and the tune suffers...
  19. Negative... Our understanding of oil is not growing if we still warn against EC oil... because Energy Conserving is not additive... its an API test that this "oil MAY result is an overall saving of fuel in the vehicle fleet as a whole"... there is nothing in the oil to defeat a wet clutch in good working order... My RC45 has over 57K miles and those are miles not in moderation either... its a homologated race bike with a first gear good for 90mph... since 98 I've been running Mobil 1 5w30 Energy Conserving oil 365 days a year... with no clutch slippage due to oil...
  20. True... Another way to prop up your prize for maintenance is a stool of correct height...
  21. When it comes to choosing a coolant just pick the color dye you prefer as they are all about the same amount of glycol and de-ionzed water... Pro Honda HP Coolant 50/50 Premix 49% Propylene Glycol 50% demineralized water Green dye Engine Ice Hi-Performance Coolant is pre-mixed Propylene Glycol with de-ionized water with blue dye Belray MotoChill pre-mixed Propylene Glycol with de-ionized water with blue dye Prestone Xtreme Sport Prediluted Motorcycle Coolant Propylene Glycol 50% demineralized water with red dye Dexcool 50% Propylene Glycol and demineralized water with orange dye... I don't recommend Water Wetter for the street because in 6 months the steel impeller on the Honda water pump begins to show rust... I only recommend it for track use and when you return to street drain the Wetter and go back to normal coolant with rust inhibitors... Troubleshooting High Temps If you see *continuous* temps higher than 220ºF or below 180ºF then trouble shooting is in order: Continuous engine temps above 220ºF or 104ºC is also a problem and the proper order of items to trouble shoot are: 1)Faulty radiator cap... system should hold 1.1 pressure ratio... 2)Insufficient coolant... 3)Passages blocked in the radiator, hose or water jacket... 4)Air in the system... 5)Thermostat stuck closed... 6)Faulty temp meter or thermo sensor... 7)Faulty fan... 8)Faulty fan switch...
  22. Ron Ayers diagram... https://www.ronayers.com/oemparts/a/hon/5053f59af870021c54be7ae2/clutch[/img]
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