hi all.
i am new to this forum but have owned a vf1000fe for 18 years. i have just bought a vf1000ff on ebay and am considering fitting the high pressure oil mod i have been reading about on the american forums. has anybody ever fitted one of these? i was considering the version that you drill the bottom of the crank cases and fit an elbow then using goodridge hose to a t piece and branching out to the cylinder heads. if anybody has done this can they tell me where i can get the parts in the uk or the metric equivalent of the sizes on the us forums ( can you even get npt thread taps here )
Wow owned an FE for 18yrs, that’s impressive - presumeably you like it ? How many miles have you done and how original is it ?
You must have a wealth of experience and have some stories/advice to pass on ?
Funnily enough I’ve also got an '86/87 FF as a spares donor bike for my FE --the FF engine is extremely smooth and quiet and is sitting on blocks in the back of my garage for the day when my 40K FE engine gives up the ghost, which admittedly it shows no sign of doing at the moment.
My FF engine has two oilways in the front of the sump – these were blanked off when I acquired it – I don’t know whether these are “the oil mod” or whether Honda eventually got around to fitting an oil cooler ? Anybody shed any light ?
I’ll fit an after market oil cooler when and if I ever press this engine into service.
I reckon with great care with regular oil changes ( with better quality modern oils than were available back in the early 80’s ) and with meticulous warming up and with the FF engines Align Bored cam bearings the oil mod wouldn’t be necessary – what do you think ?
Hadleigh,Suffolk.
VF1000FE & ZX7R
Hi Gary
There are a number of different mods to increase oil flow to the VF1000 Cams, but they all seek to do the same basic thing - increase the oil flow!
All of the mods are discussed at length on the USA Sab/Mag/Interceptor Forums.
There is an ex HRC Team mechanic named Dave Dodge (Look for Dodge Racing Products on www) who has perfected one of these mods and sells high quality kits for DIY installation. His kit involves fitting a “sandwich” plate between the oil filter and the crankcase. This plate has two stainless steel oil lines which replace the original rigid oil lines to the cyl heads. he even includes new crush washers and a bolt to blank off the old supply.
This mod means that the cams get high pressure, filtered oil to the cams rather than unfiltered oil via the gearbox mainshaft (what were Honda thinking?!!)
I bought one of Dave’s kits last year for my VF1000FE - The parts are 100% high quality (sandwich plate is even anodised black!) I tried the “cam oil flow” test before and after… Plugs out, rocker covers off, crank the engine until oil flows… Nothing spectacular with OEM oil feed. Fitted DRP mod kit, cranked engine… Stopped to clean up the mess!! there was oil everywhere! WHAT a difference!!!
The other mods I’ve seen discussed usually involve drilling a hole into a major oil gallery and fitting an adaptor/lines up to the heads. I’ve heard some horror stories of guys basically knackering their engines when trying to drill/tap the holes or fit the adaptors and even more about engines with VERY low oil pressure after these mods were carried out. That’s why I went with the DRP mod - cost plenty; $250 plus VAT and Customs Fees on receipt… worth it for that peace of mind though…!
Miti
p.s. The two blanked-off oilways on the engine are usually connected to the oil cooler… Fitted to F2 models onwards I thought (and according to the VF1000 parts fiches)… You certain tha your spare engine is from and FF model?
MITI-BABE
Sunny Scotland - North(ish)
VF1000FE - (MB6 - '84)
XS1100S - (5K7 - '85)
thanks everybody.
unfotrunately my original vf1000fe burnt out a big end bearing last year after 40k miles and i have been looking for another bike or engine since. i love the big vf but since mine was used for work most days it was looking a bit scruffy, i was going to get the frame powder coated and a full respray and either fit a different engine or repair mine when i saw a vf1000 project for sale on ebay. the frame forks and wheels had been powder coated and it had a full respray that had never seen the light of day, it also had a recon crank with new big ends and main shells, so i purchased it. the quality of the paint is very good but some of the mechanical work leaves a lot to be desired. so i am building up the new one the ff and using any missing parts of the old fe and since i am giving the engine a thorough checking over i thought i may do the drilling method mentioned above but since miti-babe reckons it does not always work i may give it a miss. $250 is a bit expensive for the sandwich method. thanks for the replys.
garyb
Liverpool
vf1000fe(not well) vf1000ff(getting there) Laverda jota(about to sell)
re my spare FF engine and it’s oil cooler lugs :-
Well, I bought it as a “blown” '86 FF with V5 but with little history other than it’d been abused !!!
The V5 lists engine no. as “Not Available” but chassis number etc checks out – so I can only assume either somebody fitted an F2 sump to it or more likely it’s an F2 engine !!
BTW I followed a bit of a hunch when I bought it because oil was leaking from an apparently a damaged crankcase behind the drive sprocket-- somebody had worn a chain out so much that it’d jumped off the sprocket and jammed itself down between sprocket and casing with some force !!! – I reckoned that the damage was limited to the small crankcase cover behind final drive sprocket not the main cases so bought it and repaired it for cost of seals etc ( I already had a spare crank case cover ) !!! very pleased !!The nearly complete F2 was only £150 !!
Anyway, thanks for shedding some light on my oil cooler lugs !
BTW -Rebuild FE with FF engine Gary , it’s far better looking bike I reckon and the 16" front is infinitely preferrable to the weird 18" job on the FF.
Hadleigh,Suffolk.
VF1000FE & ZX7R
Hi Gary
I printed of the pictures of the pancake spacer from the net and gave it to local machine shop with an old oil filter they nocked one up for me ,I needed to put on large oil cooler to keep temp down on my Turbo VF1000F2 putting the cooled oil to the cams worked a treat.
thanks howard
did you have to limit the oil pressure? i was told that a pressure limiter was needed. more importantly how have you turbo charged it? is it a kit or have you adapted a car system because it sounds very interesting, i would like to give it a go!
garyb
Hi Gary
I use to build turbo race cars and ended up with a Hitachi H10(recond) off a Kawasaki 750 ,To much time in the shed lead to it hanging off the left side of the VF ,its not a kit its shed built the origonal cooling system couldnt keep up ,every time I went on a spirted ride ,my mates would refer to it as the capuchino machine ,you could boil the milk of the radiator steam relief .VF cooling systems were not intended to handle 200 rwhp ,
I have had the old girl for 11 years ,AU$1000 save it from being wrecked , first four years road it standard ,lots of ride days at Eastern Creek race way Sydney, in an effort to keep up with the young guns on there sports bikes,I Put ZZR 6inch wide x17 rear wheel in and fitted the 4.5 x17 rear rim to front hub so that real grippy track tires could be fitted (then came the frame flex) very interesting stuff .Im presently doing a full rebuild and frame mods and stregthing the rear swing arm ( it twist badly with the wide wheel ) causes strange rear wheel steering in a weaving pattern ,takes some getting use to but once you know and expect it its aceptable ,not quite thats why Im bracing it,
These not to many bikes that can go from 30 klm to 300klm in one grear , Its had the turbo on for 5 years , I love the motor almost bullet proof but not quiet ,but “O” so sweet a sound nothing can compare. I have covered about 40,000 klm with the turbo on and lots of ride days (Lots) The young guns on the hyper sports bikes carnt believe how quick it is (in a straight line) it eats SP 1,s and SP2,s runs over the top of all the 600,s but just a tad slower than a GSXR 1000 or CBR 1000,but is a mobile chicane for the corners ,corner speed is way down on the modern sports bikes ,but thats to be expected for somthing thats had 21 birthdays ,
Now for the technical spec
11.5/1 compresion ration , 8 psi boost for street 14 psi for track on 160 octane avgas (from my mate with a stunt plane),double digphram clutch (pretty heavy)all dogs in gear box under cut ,
Radiator fans on permanatly , full flow large oil cooler from behind oil filter , (no change to oil pressure as I used the origonal oil feed pipes to feed the heads ) Turbo feed from origonal cam feed supply,with 0.5 mm orifice to restrict flow to turbo ,turbo mounted above alternator and turbo oil drains to centre of alternator cover.
Its an interesting fuel feed system (my own) its a suck through CD stromberg carby with no throttle body .the throttle is on the pressure side of the turbo in front of the inlet ports ,this has two big advantages , you meter in the amount of fuel and air that the rear wheel can handel this is close to ports so there is no throttle lag, and there is no big kick on gear changing as throttle breaks turbine speed for gear change then winds back up to speed (its built to be ridden not to be throne off its even safe to ride in the wet on track days ) boost starts at 3,000 rpm and is on full waste gated boost by 4,000 ( the beauty of a 750 turbo on a 1000) and it has max tourqe at 8,000 (standard cams) exhaust cam is standard and standard timing ,inlet cam is standard but indext back to prevent inlet valves opening before the phantom fireing of the spark at overlap ( dont need a pipe bomb full of 160 octane avgas at perfect fuel air ratio going off under the tank full of said fuel clamped between your legs , exiting a flaming bike at speed is not in the game plan ( retarded cam dosnt matter as you keep stuffing the cylinder after BDC ),Ignition system total standard,
Exhaust is 2inch pipe from turbo to gutted ZX7 muffler ( it was to quiet so I gutted the muffler )still has the sweet V4 sound.
I have been collecting spare engines, now have four ,Why because puting out 200 horse power tends to break things (you are the weakest link)
First to go was one rear piston melt down (before to oil cooler went on)next was the clutch fried its self, just coudnt get a grip on its self , (double diaphram fixed it and stregthend my left hand)next I riped the dogs of second gear , then sixth gear , the then the rear wheel bearings decided they had enough , Two main bearings and two big end bearings (never at same time)seized front cam ,broke cam follower, burnt out four valves.(the bearing and cam and valve problems ocured after the turbo came off go figure ?)
Front forks have been seviced and run Castrol GTX , best oil for forks , rear shock has been modified and runs grear oil to improve damping.(street air pressure front 7to10 rear 15)
I run 30 psi in front forks and 50 psi in rear shock for track work If you dont it runs out of ground clearance to early and with out the presure in the back it sqwats badly on aceleration as it will carry all of its weight on the back wheel (plus me at 100kgs) .For a 21 year old bike it handles extremly well ,the big wide sticky modern tyers also help.
Brakes ,front run Honda HRC race pads given to me by friend at Honda dont know what they are ,but feel is fantastic and for a heavy bike (compared to modern sports bike ) I enjoy late breaking from very high speeds ,and out breaking others (I have braded lines fitted)
rear is standard claiper fitted to TS250 Suzuki disk machined to fitthe ZZR wheel.
(I been riding a new GSXR 1000 for the last few years of track work my wife bought for me for Xmas present )
The turbo has been off for the past three years as my 20 year old son road it to work and back ,He now has his own bike so the turbo is being refitted (just for fun) ,I have lowered the compretion ratio and will be running 25 psi boost (looking for 300 rwh )
The motor is all over the shed at present getting full inspection and rebuild , Changes I have made are over driving oil pump 26% lowering the oil presure (yes I said lowering ) I was after increased flow. Droped presure from 86 psi to 50 psi )Drilled out main oil feed to out side main bearings (double the size) Drilled aditional large holes in main bearings feeding the big ends (six large hloes )Replaced cylinder liners with near new ones ( one of the motors I got was from a bike used in a Japaness comercial they rode it off a 10 story building cracked the crank case and other bits, cost me $30 for the motor ,if its done 1000klm I would be very suprised ,good supply of near new bits.its been sitting at the wrekers all this time a very sad looking bit of gear no one wanted it due to all the damage but it was a great find ,I bought it when I needed the cam .
Just in case you are wondering ,I am a mechanical engineer ,51 years young ,I club raced motorcycles for 7 years before family resposibilaty took over, I returned to race track 12 years ago when the ride days started up .I recently sold the GSXR as riding on the back wheel at 200k/h was just too much fun and eventualy that would have a bad ending.My darling wife replaced the GSXR with a Honda Valkery interstate.( To slow me down ,the Valk La Monsta super charger looks good)
I wasnt that much faster on the track with the GSXR than the Turbo VF ,I always concidered that I was with my racing (and wining ) experiace an above average rider till I got the GSXR ,I realsed that my style of riding did not suite a modern sports bike so I enrolled in Australian Super bike school and learnt to ride all over again best money I ever spent now its time to revamp the VF turbo, its so much more fun to clean up the wanabes with the old girl than the GSXR .they see you take the helmut off and its all grey hair, they just shake there head and say “that thing is not supose to go that fast”
I have been taking pictures of the mods I have been doing ,and when she is back together I will post some for you to have a look at including the engine internal mods.
You can probably tell that I have had the engine apart a few times.
There are 16 motorcycles in my shed ( I need help )
wow that is some vf!! i would love to see the pictures, the wheels sound good as well, it would be nice to be able to fit good tyres. started the new vf today and sounds pretty good, i will check over all the rolling chasis over the next few weeks and should be ready in january though with the weather in the uk not quite as good as australia in january i may wait till march or april to put it back on the road.
garyb