Pro's And Cons Of A Bike Engine In Your Roadster

[trick-kit]

The way round a bike engine route is to purchase a right off. It doesn't take much for a bike to become uneconomical to repair. Parts can be salvaged from this and then resold to offset the outlay. Depending on the motor you want it may even be finacially viable to buy a whole bike and do the same.

I would say buy a running bike so you can ride it to see if it runs ok, as in the past I have bought bike engines which you get limited guarantee on, 3 months I think it was. well it took me longer to get round to fitting it. when it was first run there was a god awful noise and turned out to have had major crankcase repairs done but cleverly disguised on the outside anyway...inside there was lumps of weld fouling the gearbox, result was one knackered ZX9r motor and £1200 down the toilet.......live and learn buy a whole bike or one from a known supplier like Andy at AB performance or Yorkshire engines.

[ozzy1]

The other thing with bike engines is that most of a 1000cc or less can generally have just a baffle plate put in to stop the oil starvation problem,this costs less than 50quid generally.The only problem then is the reverse gear which you can buy or make or personally i would buy a complete bike and sell the parts off on ebay and use the money from that to buy the reverse gearbox.

[tex]

cost is the only issue
parts are not cheap - but neither are good car parts!
transmission can be a nuisance but not bad
motorway driving can be overcome using an mp3 player
would i buy a car or bike engine? gotta first think on what do you want it for? touring? track? what? buy to suit. try to get the most modern engine you can if possible.

if going bike keep it original - dont modify it - just the clutch springs need stiffening by 10%

[7ishNZ]

I built a Haynes with a 2006 R1 motor... performance is spectacular! It is one of the fastest 7's on our local track, and easily thrashes cars with motors costing 3 times as much.
What lets it down is the constant high revs on the road... 6500 at 60mph with a 3.54 diff. If you want a track day car, with very little cruising.. go for the bike engine. If you want a tourer.. stick to the car engine.
My build diary:
http://www.lotus7.co.nz/forum/viewto...t=72&start=140

I am about to re-power it with a 3sgte ( turbo) motor and 6 speed altezza box... should give me the track performance and the touring comfort.

[baz-r]

pros
light, compact, no tuning needed, sequential gearbox

cons
fragile, no reverse, rubber link needed in prop to stop gearbox eating itself, tricky emmisions (year dependent), expensive to repair, noisey, low torque, tall, requires modification for prop fitment, and
not designed for car use so can have oil supply issues under cornering and braking

[KAMBO]

bike engine it shall be ..........blade......r1.......blackbird....zx9.... ..who knows what will crop up for sale in the next few months.......my mind was made up last weekend after a trip up north to a friend of a friend who has a xz9r locost.....only one word to describe it......f*****gawsome.....

[wylliezx9r]

Originally Posted by KAMBO

bike engine it shall be ..........blade......r1.......blackbird....zx9.... ..who knows what will crop up for sale in the next few months.......my mind was made up last weekend after a trip up north to a friend of a friend who has a xz9r locost.....only one word to describe it......f*****gawsome.....

I'm building a zx9r engined car hence my screen name. Would love to have a go in one to see what they go like, mine should be finished in the next couple of months though, fingers crossed

Not as expensive to build as you may think, the big expense is not the engine itself (you can get them for about £400), it's the reverse box and the exhaust manifold (about £1000 in total). Baffle plate cost me £30 and a local engineering firm shortened the sump for £50.

Im building it to replace my ZX6R ninja bike, So revs and manic power delivery are what im after

[KAMBO]

ok i'm having 2nd thoughts on the bike engined route after a thrash in a saab turbo/locost today " even scary doing doughnuts in reverse"........so.............hmmmmmmmmm car engine/gearbox combo search is now on.........cosworth v6......saab turbo.......volvo t5.......vauxhall red top......rover v8......alfa twin cam........ theres just too much choice

[js1uk]

You can buy saab turbos quite cheap at the moment and you can tune the ecus to what ever stage you need.
You will need a Omega gearbox R28 gearbox with a spacer in the bellhousing.
I got a complete car with mot for £300 with a cracking engine.