85 Drag Bike Project

[Birdoprey]

I'd like to offer a little advice... Build the bike so you can ride it on the street and go to the track when you want to



I am going to have to disagree with a street strip bike. I have been down that road and its a pain in the ass.
Either your riding to the strip on a dragslick and your wheelie bars up 8 inches off the ground looking like a goober.
Or you are on a sticky Shinko 003 compound trying to get your low et and you find yourself in a 11 oclock postion wheelie to find yourself slamming the front end back down to cause your nuts to wind up in your throat!

Either build a nice street bike that is comfortable to ride or a fun weekend warrior dragbike trailered to the track on a little 6x12 trailer with your tool box for tuning and have fun.

If you own a busa stretch the crap out of the swingarm, buy a high dollar rear shock and street and dragrace it.
VMAX, Either Dragbike, or Street bike, Or a ton of money your choice.

Well today I decided to do some fit-up with the turbo to try and start getting things organized as far as what modifications I will need to make to get this thing to work. Here are a few pictures of it sitting on the 85 motor that is 1/2 way disassembled.

I think i'm gonna be sick...(look'n at the pic's of the turbo)
Looks nice sitt'n on that v-4 there Jeff!

 

[Birdoprey]

I doubt that you've seen many Busas running what they are capable of. 80% are grossly rider impaired. Prolly LESS than 5% are ridden close to what their paticular setup is capable of.
Most everyone is aware of what they DON'T have to do, no need to write a book and get pissy. You brought up Busa's.

Oops, forgot your word(opinnion) is law. Soo sorry to have momentarily thought i had any input...:worthy:

 

[Birdoprey]

Ohh, and sorry Jeff. Did'nt mean to muck up your thread! I'll keep my mouth shut.

 

[TURBOVMAX]

Jeff here ya go. The JE pistons are for a 1327 setup but since they are custom and you can choose any diameter you might decide on. Anyhow you've got all the digits you need.

If you rake the frame to 35 degrees...all that head shake stuff goes away and it really won't effect the handling all that much.

Sounds like your getting some good advice (Sean) and your wife is keeping you grounded (good thing!) Have fun with the project. Anything I can do to help? Feel free to ask.

One more thing: You don't need no stinkin wheelie bars! Know your bike before you go to the track. Spend the money on something that makes it handle better and go faster!

 

[hubeerjw]

Thanks for all the input... I don't care about "mucking up" this thread. I'll be trying to make a technical one later on that I hope to keep clean, but this is more of a general chit-chat about options and choices. I appreciate everyones comments. I am very seriously thinking about raking the frame. I just talked with a guy last night at the grocery store (gotta love small towns) and he builds race cars. Things are a little slow right now and I think he may try to rake one. I have a spare (bent) frame to practice on.
(just found this link: http://www.harley-davidson-choppers.com/yamaha-V-MAX.htm ) Anyway the stock rake is 29 degrees and Gary, you are saying to go to 35 degrees? Would there be advantages/disadvantages to going more? If I am going to have just a track bike, I could really slam this thing (plus I don't have the exhaust under the bike to worry about either).

And no wheelie bars eh? Won't they help me go faster (or is it like having training wheels for all the true MC dragracers?)

I just love tinkering with this stuff and hope I'm not becoming too bothersome to many of you.

And Mark.... I'll let you get on this thing and see how good you are on it when I get it up and running. You might want to go through the bike and make sure all the nuts and bolts are tight though.. I've had some bad luck in those areas before!

Jeff

 

[dannymax]

Jeff-I was looking at those chopper kits but they are pretty pricey IMO. Wouldn't you be way farther ahead to rake the frame?
I think Sean said he had extended tubes if needed.

danny

 

[hubeerjw]

Jeff-I was looking at those chopper kits but they are pretty pricey IMO. Wouldn't you be way farther ahead to rake the frame?
I think Sean said he had extended tubes if needed.

danny

I agree 100%! I just thought I would post it. I would keep it stock for that price! I'm going to see how much that guy is going to charge me to rake the frame and go from there. If it costs too much it will stay stock.

 

[TURBOVMAX]

Jeff
Raked fork tripple trees ...not a good thing. They are expensive and throw off the steering geometry. The 35 Degree is a good number for me, in addition to the rake add a lowering spacer to the tubes ( I use 1'') that also preloads the fork springs. Then a shorter set of shocks or if you're looking to save a few bucks simply cut about 1 1/2 coils out the stockers and you'll slam the bike all you need to.

Wheelie bars slow you down.... more weight and they drag on the ground. They will make you more consistant at the track in that they make it a lot easier to launch the bike. Letting loose of that clutch lever is against your natural self preserving instinct. When you let go all hell brakes loose! Especially on a turbo bike.

Sounds like our having fun already!​

 

[lankeeyankee]

Ive ridden my dragbike with and without wheelie bars and they will lower your ET by .2
I will agree if you go with some old school chrome moly tubing (pingel) dragbars they are heavy, I havent seen any of them around here since the mid 90's
Aluminum wheelie bars are the way to go if its a dragbike. I wouldnt use the term "drag on the ground" unless you forgot to bearing roller skate wheels on. LOL! How much drag do roller skate wheels slow you down? Correct not enough in what you will pick up by hard launches.
Get some numbers on aluminum wheelie bars as far as weight goes and a price, where else can you go for under 500.00 and pick up .2

 

[lankeeyankee]

Here ya go Jeff thought this may add some thought for you in the stage of chassis work.
Great article.

http://www.thefabricator.com/TubePipeFabrication/TubePipeFabrication_Article.cfm?ID=778

 

[TURBOVMAX]

​

Here's one for you Yankee from Nashville: http://www.velocityracing.com/2007/news_archive/wally.htm

Why ya gotta be that way?

 

[PATMAX]

I just picked up a "project" Max that was slated for a mild engine freshening, Pingles and a bunch of chrome parts. Truthfully, it was nothing in the terms of go-fast V Maxes but it was done more for the "look" of a pro-stocker like Max. The project in this thread is way more than my project with the turbo but its hard for me to tell anyone what they should be doing to their bike. Sometimes its the trip not the route right? Mistakes might be made or money spent foolishly but it is one mans vision he is building. Actually this thread is giving me the motivation to get my version completed. Personally, seeing a street Max go by with wheelie bars gets my blood going. Who cares if it is running eights! It looks like it could be fast. I can't see riding solid struts on the steet for long though. Just make sure it can stop safely. Aren't V Maxes great?! We can make em' into anything we can dream up.

 

[lankeeyankee]

Here's one for you Yankee from Nashville: http://www.velocityracing.com/2007/news_archive/wally.htm

Why ya gotta be that way?

Old Old Bridge Raceway park, I started dragracing there when I was 17 yrs old. Its a fast track almost as fast as Atco Raceway. Great track just a bunch of dickheads own it. I hope they got sued by the Kalita family when they had a concrete divider at the entrance of the runaway sand pit that caused Kalitas topfuel burst into flames very sad situation. RIP Scott.

Not sure what you mean "that way" I dont know, thats how I am, did I offend you in anyway by my opionated attitude?

 

[one2dmax]

I would agree that bars will help you go faster and more consistent. Of course in most classes it's the consistency that will give you the win light. As far as wieght difference between aluminum and chrome moly there isn't enough to worry about.

Yes, there are fast non-bar bikes out there but if you compare thier 60' times to other bikes that are even slower bracket bikes you'll see the bracket bikes are faster out of the gate - many up to 330' or more. It's the big HP that brings those non-bar bikes to record times. Most of us don't have that kind of budget to build bikes with power like that.

Sean

 

[hubeerjw]

I think I found where the turbo gets its oil supply from. My only concern is if the tube is large enugh to supply the turbo with the proper amount of oil? Gary (or anyone else with turbo experience), what are your thoughts?
Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Birdoprey]

Jeff,

The turbo does not require much volume at all. What you need to be careful of is getting too much pressure. Ya wanna make sure it does not see more than 70psi. I would wanna keep the max it sees to 60psi. Good time to plumb your oil pressure guage...

 

[TURBOVMAX]

That's Ok and should provide you with enough oil. Make sure you have at least a 1/2" hose ( bigger the better ) for the drain and that it's always going down hill. The oil just gravity feeds back to the pan or as you mentioned in your case the clutch housing​

If you don't have an easy path for it to get back. It backs up in the turbo and your bike will smoke like crazy. There are other issues that come with that backup, like the turbo getting coked up. That happens when the oil stays in the turbo bearing housing and boils when you turn your bike off.​

I'm not a big fan of nylon tubing.... had one melt and put oil on my rear tire one time. that was a surprise! I've attached a photo and as you can see I take the oil from the same place. I just cut the head off of an AN Fitting and tig weld it to the top of the exsisting bango bolt. After it's welded in place you run a drill through the AN fitting. Doing it this way you can use a stainless/teflon brake line for the oil in connection.]​

In my case the oil drain runs straight down to the pan ( The fitting on the lower left )​

If you would like you can send your banjo bolt to me and I'll do that for you...just pay the shipping back and forth.( shouldn't be much )​

 

[lankeeyankee]

Nylon tubing sucks! You can but copper tubing at most any auto parts store over near the gauges 1/8 OD autometer makes it 10.00 for a 6ft piece, If you need larger goto a hardware store.

Personally if I was building a turbo I would go braided stainless on the oil lines, Who wants an oil line failure on a dragstrip plus you wont make many friends leaking oil at the track

 

[hubeerjw]

Well, I owe Morley a ton of thanks... he has been a huge help and has probably forgotten more about VMaxes than I will ever know.

I got my heads put back together the other night so they are pretty much ready to mount. I put Morley's overrdrive oil pump kit on, and that wasn't too fun, but I think I got it. The motor is pretty clean and the gasket surfaces are clean (on the block anyway, I still have some covers to do). Tomorrow, I'm going to work on the clutch and see if I can't get the double d mod done as well as more cleaning and gasket scraping. I should be able to put some covers on tomorrow and get this looking like an engine again. I'm waiting on head gaskets and studs, then it will be time to get the heads on and start working on the valve clearance... oh, and timing.. I think that may be a little tricky. I better start reading in my manual now!

 

[lankeeyankee]

Well, I owe Morley a ton of thanks... he has been a huge help and has probably forgotten more about VMaxes than I will ever know.

I got my heads put back together the other night so they are pretty much ready to mount. I put Morley's overrdrive oil pump kit on, and that wasn't too fun, but I think I got it. The motor is pretty clean and the gasket surfaces are clean (on the block anyway, I still have some covers to do). Tomorrow, I'm going to work on the clutch and see if I can't get the double d mod done as well as more cleaning and gasket scraping. I should be able to put some covers on tomorrow and get this looking like an engine again. I'm waiting on head gaskets and studs, then it will be time to get the heads on and start working on the valve clearance... oh, and timing.. I think that may be a little tricky. I better start reading in my manual now!

Setting the timing can be tricky the first time doing it. You have t1 and t2 on the flywheel.. Hint here is to paint it black and than etch the marks t1 and t2 to where its silver so you can see it with a flash light through the hole.

TDC T1 rotate I believe 170 around to T2.. Make sure your TDC on Cyl 1 for lining your T1 mark..
Its a little tricky, BECAREFUL not to break the cam when bolting them down,.. There is a trick to do it and hopefully you will figure it out with Morley.. I am sure he can offer you great advice on cam timing.