SP1 white smoke - loads of it

[tattie]

A bit of a bummer Deano,

I know this will be of no comfort to you, but years ago (1980) when I got my first bike, I thought I would try a drop of the aformentioned stuff. In the vain hope it might make the beast go faster. I mentioned this to my grandfather and he told me not to bother, as a local mechanic sirc late 1940s had put some in the old bike he used as a bobby in North Sutherland (AJS or Matchless I think) after adding it and giving it a run they were delighted, in that all the Carbon !!!! would be gone. Gone indeed, the bike wouldn't run right after that. He said a "good run will do it more good than any additives" words that I will always heed.

Cheers

A.M.

[tony.mon]

Or it's just voted a new Pope in.....

poping back through the carbs, they're famous for that

[Beamish]

Bad luck Deano, hope the repair bill is manageable.

[tony.mon]

Rough justice, after all you were only trying to buy it a drink.

Hope you can get it sorted.

Keep us up to date on the plans, willya?

[Dean O]

ta fellas
plans are: its going in the shop on thursday.
if its gonna cost more to repair than the cost of fitting another engine then I'll go the replacement engine route - and the bike will be sold cos it'd be only half the bike I know & love & have bonded with.

also if its repaired but they can't tell me the cause of the problem she'll be sold cos I've lost me confidence in its perceived indestructibility - I really hope now that the cause was indeed the redex.

if its repaired AND they diagnose the cause & guarantee to prevent a repeat then she'll stay and I'll be skint, but happy

if she's sold then the blackbird will be sold too & I'll buy meself an almost new ZZR1400 as me sole bike from the proceeds.

[sirch345]

Best of luck with it all Deano

Chris.

[Dean O]

update: head off, coolant in the cylinder but no sign of cracks or gasket blow!
conclusion is the head / block is warped & is more than likely due to too high a concentration of redex in the fuel - so be warned, its fine in small doses but don't overdo it
he's gonna investigate further before skimming the head & reassembling but hopefully back on the road before the end of the month

[firestarter1977]

i cant believe this has happend through using redex !!!!!


terrible luck matey , i for one will never use it in any of my bikes or cars again !


all the best


regards mark

[Jim67]

Bloody hell, the fastest steam engine was the Mallard at 126mph your steam engine pisses all over that record!!!! lol

Seriously mate, good luck witht he repairs.

Jim.

[sirch345]

Interesting Dean, lets hope it's not going to be too expensive to repair

Chris.

[Dean O]

he was trying to tell me how much it was gonna cost but I couldn't quite hear him

[Pete.L]

Deano said

he's gonna investigate further before skimming the head & reassembling but hopefully back on the road before the end of the month

Whahoo! Sounds like a result. Could have been a lot worse.

Pete.l
Damn that pesky redex!

[tony.mon]

Aha! Machining top of barrels and head = high compression, equals more power.......

May have to try that Redex myself

[Zakalwe]

Can you skim the heads on an engine with gear driven cams?

[tony.mon]

You should be able to get a shim made form a pattern of the head gasket to make up the difference.

Take careful measurements so you know how much was skimmed, and make a spacer the equivalent to the skimmed off thickness.

Or, better still, skim .5mm from the head, and .5mm from the barrel and then use a 1mm spacer.

(Or, use smaller gears- I believe a certain member on here has a gear with one less tooth than normal.......)