Vf1000fe Engine swap

In the Shed
1

Hi guys, does anyone know if you can swap a vf1000f2 motor into a vf1000f bike?, cheers Tony

2

Hi twotonofchrome, yes and no, the ff and f2f engines had wider cams and heads than the fe, I bought an fe with a f2f engine fitted, the rear rocker cover was resting against the upper frame rail, this made the rocker cover impossible to remove, I’m pretty sure the engine was slightly out of line as some of the engine spacers had been altered.
I have heard of people cutting and welding a the top rail of the frame to widen it out like the ff frame.

3

Hi Pete, yeah right, any ideas on a R motor fitting?, I bought a bit of a barn find and after closer inspection I found its spun a conrod bearing and stuffed the crank. I can get it repaired but it is pretty expensive, so just checking out some options , the heads, cams, bores and pistons etc look great so would be a shame to waste it, cheers Tony

4

Hi Tony,
Yeah, you can fit the 1984 RE engine straight in but you will have all the problems listed above if you try to fit the later Rf engine

5

Thanks Pete, I can get my hands on a r motor not sure on year though, engine #sc16-220#######,any idea?, thanks Tony

6

Hi Tony, sc16 220 is the vf1000rg which is the later engine with the wider heads and cams so unfortunatley won’t fit.

7

Hi Pete, I might have to fix mine, hard to find new bearing shells though, can only find A’s, do you know of anywhere ? I’ve tried megazip and cnsl, thanks Tony

8

Hi Tony,a big end repair shouldn’t cost the earth,as for shells I have an R engine running Federal Mogul F43025RA shells,they only required honeing the conrod to fit.The tang and oil holes all line up so the shells need no fettling.Actual dimensions 39.8x43.6x16.5 that’s 0.20 undersize.If the damage is worse they are available up to 0.50 under
Regards Bif

9

Thanks bif I’ll check that out, I’ve been quoted $600 Aussie dollars to build up and regrind the journal on the big end, also the metal fines have scored the main journals so they need replacing, they were B shells, any idea on main bearings? Or I can get A shells and regrind the mains, I am open for suggestions, thanks Tony

10

Just thinking outside the box a bit here,Angus Green runs an RF engine in an RE frame.To get round the rear head problem he fabricated a bolt out section on the frame.He races this bike so if there was to be a problem with this fix it would have shown up by now.

11

Thanks for the ideas bif, I’m taking my crank to the rebuilders tomorrow to see what they think, I checked out those fiat bearings and they look great, just not sure what undersize I would need, hence going to rebuilders to check sizing. My estimation is l would need the 0.40in shells, do you think that would be too much out of the journal? Thanks Tony

12

Your machine shop will be best placed to advise,personally I don’t think it would be a problem.As for main bearings try pjkoppe@gmail.com
Bernie and Paula ran Sunrise Honda in OZ for many years and are holding a fair stock of nos parts for the VF.
There is a PDF here on the forum of the mb6 stock,do a search for the topic undiscovered nos parts

13

Thanks bif, I’ll send them an email, hopefully they can help me out, cheers Tony