Kawasaki 650 Twin

[BlueRidgePerformance]

A little teaser

[james-redsv]

$$$$ I'm awaiting approvial for Team Green Racer support. If so, I'll have 2 of them for under $10k. Plus $500 in OEM parts. In full bodywork, they should not look that bad. Mine will be black, so the burgundy should be ok.Plus, I'm sick of worring about rods or cranks snapping.

How do you know the rods and cranks will hold up on these Kawis at race pace????

[BlueRidgePerformance]

 How do you know the rods and cranks will hold up on these Kawis at race pace????

Time will tell on that.Can't be any worse than the SV.

[x2468]

i asked this question a month ago.


But would anyone like to fill me in on the SV breaking rods and cranks? I've been looking at a few used race read SVs, but now u scarred me.

[BlueRidgePerformance]

It's really a hit or miss situation. Last season, blew 2 engines:both the same coniguration, 2mm over, stock rods. Never had an issue with the crank, but several had either rotor side sheer, or snapped in half. Mine snapped the rods. Ran a stock engine for the rest of the season in both my endurance, and sprint bikes, no problems.Round 1 this year the sprint engine did the same, snapped rod thru the front of the cases.
Built a 3mm engine, with Falicon bilet crank, and rods, everything you could think of, fast as hell.
Had an issue with the clutch, so I tore it down for inspection.Found a cracked case at the crank bearing.On a second engine, I had the case crack between the front and rear cylinder.Both case cracks were at a casting mark.
Thus time to switch brands.

[x2468]

wow, yeah i see. thats scary, especially for the wallet. hopefully the parallel twin does u better.

[Thingy]

Roadracing World had an article about it a few months ago with some pretty detailed explanations.  You might want to see if they posted that article to their website.

[x2468]

which month. i have a sub to rrw. might have been the month just befor emy 1st issue came.

[H-man]

Two articles actually.  In the May 2005 issue of RRW.

E-mail me with a fax number if you can't locate a copy and I'll fax the articles to you.

[BlueRidgePerformance]

Roadracing World had an article about it a few months ago.

Eddie Kraft wrote one, and Nolan from AOD/Notorious Pigs wrote the other. Nolan's basically said that you need to keep rpms below 10k. And brought up the theory of the crank shimming.The Pigs had thier case crack and start to weep oil at Nelson Ledges.
Good read though.

[james-redsv]

It's really a hit or miss situation. Last season, blew 2 engines:both the same coniguration, 2mm over, stock rods. Never had an issue with the crank, but several had either rotor side sheer, or snapped in half. Mine snapped the rods. Ran a stock engine for the rest of the season in both my endurance, and sprint bikes, no problems.Round 1 this year the sprint engine did the same, snapped rod thru the front of the cases.
Built a 3mm engine, with Falicon bilet crank, and rods, everything you could think of, fast as hell.
Had an issue with the clutch, so I tore it down for inspection.Found a cracked case at the crank bearing.On a second engine, I had the case crack between the front and rear cylinder.Both case cracks were at a casting mark.
Thus time to switch brands.

You do all that to a Kawi twin and you are gonna have the same problems. The thing is the cases and everything else is designed for 65-75 hp, you bump it to 90+ and they are going to break, doesnt matter the brand. You would have been safe with 2mm over, balance/shim the crank with carillo rods. Keep it about 80 hp on your SV. That paralel kawi twin is not going to be the anwser.  

[BlueRidgePerformance]

The thing is the cases and everything else is designed for 65-75 hp, you bump it to 90+ and they are going to break, doesnt matter the brand. You would have been safe with 2mm over, balance/shim the crank with carillo rods. Keep it about 80 hp on your SV. That paralel kawi twin is not going to be the anwser.  

Nolan's engine was very close to stock, I would guess in the 80hp range, and his cases did the same thing.There are plenty of 85hp SVs out there, that have not had this happen. I'm calling it a quality control issue.
As far as the Kawi is concerned, mods will be keep to a minimum.