Thanks for the interest, encouragement and positive comments guys.
Flea we are going flat out to get this ready for the new season no one wants to hear this run more than us and I hope you are right and it is a weapon.
We have heard that the MPSC race meeting in Timaru early December has 20 sidecars entered we want to take the XS and the RD to that.
TwoMany heat soak was a problem with the 700 built back in the 70’s and I think it will be a problem for us as well. We intend to wrap the headers and use some form of heat shield to stop the pipes heating the cases.
On a Bucket tuning forum that I lurk on they had some success using a deflector plate below the barrels to stop the heat radiating onto the cases.
In our favour we race in the classic class and the races are all short. We hope if they don’t muck about on the start grid we should still be making reasonable power at the end of the race.
Meanwhile work progresses
The platform plywood has been cut, just need to check the cut-out for the rider’s foot is big enough before covering it.
The mufflers have been finished and buffed and the brackets for mounting the chambers are finished.
Mounts for the EGT thermocouples have been added. I believe ideally they should be 150mm from the piston however we have had to compromise on this. Our temperatures will be even more specific to our motor.
The fuel manifold is just about finished just need to positon the return outlet. I have left one end open for now to get the swarf out when the return spigot is drilled.
I Lumiwelded this together it is the first time I have used this product. It’s just like soldering and although I made a bit of a hash of it at first, after a while it became easy to get a reasonable job. It is very easy to melt your work though! The only drawback with Lumiweld is the price.
Once the pipes are made I can carry on porting the cylinders while my mate makes the fuel tank.
The pistons have been sanded and polished to remove stress risers and can be set away for ceramic coating.
After they are done we will be ready to check clearances etc. and put the motor together.
The throttle cables are mostly made and the pull is pretty hard. It may be cable routing but if not we may need to move away from the quick pull throttle.
A mould for the side guard has been made; it’s pretty rough but will be good enough. The corners and other rounded parts are made with potter’s clay then the glass is laid on to it before it dries out. It’s a quick way to get a shape but the downside is more prep work is required before painting
We have had a lot of visitors to the workshop lately with interested growing and people dropping in but today was a bit of a record we had 8 visitors throughout the day.
While all this has been going on a mate of ours has been building an XS powered unit, it is his first attempt and he has made a very good job of it so far. It will be neck and neck to see who the first running is.
He has a very small budget and is very ingenious in reusing random stuff, his latest exploit is a muffler canister made from a fire extinguisher body.
Below is a picture of his rolling chassis.