Arrived at Cadwell Park late Friday afternoon and we got on with the job of setting the bike up, ie lock wiring bolts, adjusting clip ons, suspension etc. I took the bike to Scruteeneering on the Saturday morning and it passed with flying colours, however it needed to be noise tested so we started the bike only to find that the Scitsu tacho was reading 8000rpm on tick over, (idle). After trying several different routes for the pick up wire Andy Duncan kindly let me borrow his Scitsu. Off to the noise test area and to be honest I thought it would fail but at 104dcb it was within the limit of 105dcb.
Qualifying:
Ash did not complete a lap due to fuel starvation caused by the new fuel cap not having a breather.
Race 1:
As this was the first time Ash had ridden the bike I was not expecting too much, he finished the race in 14th but his lap times were improving every circuit considering the gearing was all wrong.
Sunday warm up:
Ash arrived at the assembly area only for the bike to cut out, after frantically trying to start it I realised I had neglected to connect the fuel line!!! Ash completed less than a lap as the weather had turned quite bad and he was on cut slicks, however he was happy with the changed gearing.
Race 2:
Ash got a better start and was already going faster in the damp conditions than in the dry the day before. On the second from last lap Ash failed to appear and whne he eventually got back to the paddock he informed me the engine just lost power. I will post the diagnosis when I find out more.
. This got me thinking about the oil feed and return lines, I had contacted Rotax who had sent me a line drawing of the oil lines, it clearly shows the feed as the furthermost forward, so thats how I connected them. Steve checked this out and to my dismay he proved that I had connected the oil lines to the wrong unions, expensive mistake to make I know!! Steve told me I would need a new con rod, barrel, piston, and vavles. I had the rod and valves but not the barrel and piston, I tried several places but all were out of my price range so I was beginning to think this was going to be the end before it actually got started. I contacted a former Mono racer who had a 97mm Nikasil barrel but only a flat top piston, this would get the engine back on the track but wil lose BHP! he also said he had a 100mm Omeag piston but as the scored barrel is 100mm the piston would be too small. Steve said I needed a 100.5mm so the barrel can be honed out to that. I got in touch with JE pistons but they would only sell them to me if I bought 4, much too expensive. I was in loggerheads of what to do when Ash called, he told me that he had been speaking to Nick Oliver, (another Mono rider from The Isle Of Man), and he mentioned that Nick had a 671 Rotax engine that he used last year, I contaceted Nick and he very kindly gave me an offer I cannot refuse. Dave Harnet is picking the engine up from Nick at Anglesey this weekend and I will be picking it up from Dave early next week, so all being well it should be on the dyno by next weekend.
