Page 5 of 6

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 9:40 pm
by Coose
Modding the standard head is also in the back of my mind, though losing the gasket will tighten the squish even further so I'll need to measure my squish and compare my head to another that I know is stock (a mate has a couple).
Though, with the billet head any mods could be accounted for...

I'll see how Sunday goes and take a view from there. Hopefully the KR will behave itself impeccably! 8)

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:23 am
by JanBros
stock squish is always way too big. set it at 0.8mm (paralel to piston) and it will be very safe and have proper effect. you can go down to minimum 1% of stroke for race engines, but those come apart regularly to check everything.

certainly no need at all to go above 1mm with only 50.6mm stroke.

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:12 am
by Coose
It'll be interesting to see what clearance mine is running now as I noticed the other week that there are three base gaskets under each barrel, and when I had the head off the squish band on the pistons was nice and clean.

Again, I'll take a view and some measurements once Cadwell is out of the way.
Watch this space!

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:58 pm
by Coose
Cadwell went very well. The motor didn't miss a beat and took a proper pasting, though it did start weeping oil from the inner left-hand gearbox cover again but I have the bits on the way to cure that.

The forks need a good dose of looking at and I have a wonky front disc but have replacements en route.

Unfortunately there were no photos of Mark and my KRs in the same photo, but if you can excuse my rubbish phone photoshop this was about the best I could do before I lost interest...

Image

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 7:21 am
by Luders
Glad it all went well for you

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:38 am
by Coose
Why thank you. 8)
Once I've cleared my tax bill this month I shall get the two-dayer in September at Cadwell booked. I have a few things to do before then, but all good.

The new radiator worked well - the temperature stayed rock-solid at a reasonable level. I'm tempted to change to a thermocouple with a graduated gauge as it's nice to know what is actually happening.

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:49 pm
by Coose
So, this week a new set of standard ZXR400 forks arrived (thanks Mark), and this morning a good set of standard discs. Today was spent fitting them....

Image

It's pretty evident as to what was the problem causing the brake judder. It's a shame as these are cast iron discs...

Image

Tonight I managed a test ride, and it now does what I'd expect it to. I have to say that the forks are better than I expected, but I think I'll still send the old ones back to Maxton to see what's wrong.
It's a shame that the next track day probably won't be until Cadwell in September...

Image

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 9:47 pm
by maccas
Really does look fantastic this bike. Nice work!

Dan

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2019 7:23 pm
by Coose
Thanks Dan, there are a few of your gaskets on there! Now, it's a shame you haven't started making KR head gaskets...

So, the CBT classic track weekend went well, where with a few suspension tweaks it now goes exactly where you want it to, and it stops now too!

Yesterday was the MSV classic trackday, a day that was spent dodging heavy showers.
I say a day, where at the end of the third session I noticed a minor problem (easily fixable), but worse I noticed a few bubbles appearing in the coolant header tank...

The rain hit again so I decided to call it a day as I have an entry in for Oliver's Mount hill climb in a couple of weeks and I didn't want to make it any worse than it is.

So today I had a look to see what was amiss. Before I pulled the head I measured the squish, which is a tight 0.75mm each side (more on this later).
So, head off and this is what I found: -

Image

The (pattern) head gasket has failed again at the narrowest point between the combustion chamber and the water jacket. This time I'm pleased to say it's the right-hand side, where the previous failure was on the left. The underside is fine and there's no marks on the head.

Talking of squish, although it's tight I'm very pleased with the condition of the plugs, head and piston crowns. The squish is working well with super-unleaded, with no detonation and a nice burn pattern. It's a little rich but I'm happy with that. (Please note that the marks in the combustion chambers were existing, and all photos were taken before I cleaned anything up.).

Image

Image

Image

Image

So, in light of the above, the fact it's flying and after discussions with a couple of inmates from here I decided to use the new genuine head gasket that I stumbled across a couple of weeks ago.
New gasket in, coolant refilled and on first start-up a few bubbles appeared but then they cleared, which I hoped were just trapped air even though I spent a lot of time purging the cooling system.

A spin down my local test track proved positive, other than the fact that Cadwell suspension settings don't really suit bumpy B-roads!

This week I'll check the coolant level, retorque the head and hopefully we're good to go!

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2019 9:13 pm
by JanBros
left cylinder (second picture) shows an uneven transferflow. my guess : A en B ports on the right side open before those on the left side. and the ports that open first flow last. so less flow from the right means less cooling/cleaning of the piston and more carbon deposit.

(left and right is off course when sitting on the bike).

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2019 11:00 pm
by Coose
If you were being utterly pedantic and were out to chase every 0.1bhp then yes, you have a point. But, the bike is used for track days, the occasional trip to the shops and a hill climb or two so I'm not that concerned. I'm still finding what lurks beneath with this bike. 8)

Anyway, what you can't see in the photos and would make a huge difference is if I lost three stone... :mrgreen:

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 1:24 pm
by Coose
I have just worked out some interesting numbers.

I just weighed my KR-1. With about 3/4 tank of juice (16 litres when full), just over 2 litres of coolant and just under a litre of gearbox oil it weighs 136.3kg, with a 53.9%F/46.1%R weight bias.

A standard KR-1weighs 131kg dry, so add 15kg for the fluids and mine is 10kg lighter, probably due to the lack of road gear, the pipes and minimal subframe. I could probably lose a couple more kg off the bike if I made an ali fairing/clock bracket, took off the sidestand and bracket, and got rid of the kickstart gubbins (but that's useful).

Or, I could lose 3 stone... :lol:

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 8:37 pm
by 500bernie
Ian,
The age old question;
"Do I want to go faster, or do I have a pork pie and a cream cake"
Unfortunately for me, the pie and cream cake always win :lol:
When I am going out on the bike with my black/red/white RST gear on, the wife cannot help making some comment about "There goes the fat Power Ranger off to see his mates for a cuppa and a sausage sandwich"

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 10:56 pm
by Coose
:lol:
Don't worry, Bernie, it's not just you....
I seriously would benefit from losing three stone, but pizza and beer on a Friday doesn't help!

As my mate Mark (pink KR-1) said tonight, manufacturers always fudge their dry weights. So, he's in the middle of restoring another KR-1 back to original green and plans on weighing it too before he puts any fluids in to see how optimistic Kawasaki were being. It'll be interesting to see.

Re: Another newbie, never owned a KR before now but not a stranger to them....

Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:07 pm
by Craigy88
loving this project so far, i live about 3 miles from norton/malton coose, cant say i've ever seen this orange beast around. Just bought a kr1 project myself, still gathering parts at the moment though, just front suspension parts to source then i can crack on with it. hopefully i'll see this around at some point