The Engine Arrives

The Engine: 2006 Yamaha YZF R1 Engine. 998 cc. 175bhp @ 12,500 RPM. 105 Nm (78 ft lbs) @ 10900 RPM. 6 speed sequential gearbox. Fuel Injected. Dual overhead cam. 4 cyclinder.

After searching around the web for a good deal for a few days, I finally decided to just make a bid on ebay. Luckily, my bid was a winning bid. $1500 + $300 shipping later, I had a used R1 on its way to Longmont, CO. With around 2300 miles on it, it should still have plenty of life left on it. Sure it's a bit more expensive than I was hoping, but it's a superbike engine, what do you expect! Besides, it's gonna drive the car, if you have to put money somewhere, might as well go into the engine.

I spent some time today unpacking the engine. Marty and I moved it to an appropriate location (where we'll be building the car) with decent lighting and an open work area. After getting it unpacked out of the feeble "crate" (aka: Cardboard box with newpaper around it...as if newspaper is going to stop a 130 lb engine from rolling around. ha. At least it was wrapped well to a wood pallet), I checked it over. For the most part, it seems to be in good condition.

There was one problem which, if I were putting the engine in a bike, could pose as a significant obstacle. There is a big piece cracked off one of the threaded lugs. This cracked thread is where a bolt is meant to screw into to hold on the drive sprocket chain guide. LUCKILY for me, out of all the pieces that could've been broken, it was this, for in the car we will use a Drive shaft and there will be no drive sprocket or chain. Hence, no need for the chain guide. That said, the seller guaranteed it was not damaged and in perfect condition. Short of sending it back for another $300 shipping, all I can do now is leave crappy ebay feedback.

After checking out the engine, I proceeded to remove as much of the wiring harness as I could, as well as all of the tubes and hoses that I know will need to be replaced anyway. It is a gamble that I just went straight ahead and removed all of the wiring harness (to be covered in another post), as its extremely complex and having it on the engine as a sample could be a big help in putting it back on. However, I want to be sure I'm fully aware of all the sensors / connections on the wiring harness, and the best way to do that is to be forced to learn it in order to put it back on. Also, it gives me a chance to see the loom all layed out for me to manipulate. Hopefully several sensors can be removed for the car, to make it a bit simpler / lighter, but we'll see. Lets also not forget that for the MK, I purchased a modified Loom, it should connect up with only the required pieces, and is built a bit longer to satisfy the larger engine bay in the car versus the bike. So eventually the loom woul dhave had to come off anyway!

At any rate, having the loom off and most of the pipes gave me an opportunity to double check all of the engine and I was able to give it a brief cleaning. It was already pretty clean, so it wasn't tough. I have yet to get into it with some brushes, so it will still get cleaner.

With the engine pretty bare, it will also give us the opportunity to check over some of the internals. I purchased a Haynes Manual for this specific engine (bike), and with it I feel like a pro mechanic, able to tackle just about any job. Well, maybe not, but hopefully we can do a proper inspection ourselves. Also, we'll have to modify the oil sump with a sump baffle plate. This will be covered in a later post when I get the part and make the modifications.

Before being done for the day, the final job was to cover all the holes to prevent rodents and insects from setting up camp inside the engine. I couldn't believe that rodents would that when I first heard about it, but I guess its a possibility that's easily avoided. Some shop rags do the trick well.

I don't expect to be doing much work on the car for at least a couple weeks, when the kit arrives. Maybe the baffle plate will get here from the UK soon, and I can tackle that project. Also, I'll probably go through and label up the wiring loom and attempt to sort it out, so when I get the MK specific one, it won't be much of a surprise. Might as well not waste time in the next two weeks, anyway. I'll keep you all updated.