Crofter985'S KLX650C supermoto build

[Crofter985]

Got on with the air pressure references and the air temp sensor fittings. First I needed to drill holes, there are three ports to go in so I drilled the holes in a fan so it gave more room for the fittings.

The first one is the middle one, the pitot tube. It is threaded with a m6x0.75 thread so it gives a shallow thread depth since the fitting is drilled and also so the depth of the pitot tube into the intake stream is finely adjustable.

The one on the left of the centre is the reference for the dump valve, it is only sensitive to vac so the reference does not stick out into the intake stream. The one on the right hand side is the thermocouple for the intake post carb, also it will be the indicator for how much cooling of the intake charge the water injection can give. The other thermocouple goes in the hole in the compressor housing to measure the temperature of the air exiting the turbo compressor. The pitot tube feeds everything else.

Another job I have been thinking about for a bit was the oil pump, when I modified it I wasn't just so impressed with the fit of the gear wheel on the shaft, it pressed on a little too easy so I decided to weld it on. So off with the cover and off with the pump, a quick blob of weld and get it all back on again.

Also I'm putting the clutch cover with the oil return for the turbo on it. The turbo is going on too, changed my mind again, I just have to get this thing turbo-ed. Life is too short to mess around too much.

I've also pretty much finished the plenum/subframe I did a pressure test on the water/meth tank and it was not good, leaking all over the place. I had a go at welding over the two main leaks, I wanted to get them then do another test so I could see minor ones. In my search for solutions I started to think that a epoxy sealer might be a solution so I started to look on the Internet, one of the first things I found was "alcohol resistant sealer" now here is a problem I had forgotten about which this will fix, methanol attacks aluminium, so really this water/meth tank needs a sealer whether it's tight or not(which it's not), so I got some, put it in and it needs a week to cure. More of that later.

[Sandblaster]

Wow... You have been busy...
I've seen many people have problems with leaking aluminum tanks.
There are all sorts of products which claim to fix them.
I have never tried any.
IF the product you are using works, let us know which it is..
As usual, nice work... It's impressive..

[Crofter985]

The stuff I used was called "petseal" I will take a picture of the bottle it came in when I get home, I'll be away for a few days now. The best bit about that is I will be able to use the plenum/subframe as it will have cured by then. Btw, the petseal contains a little carbon fibre.

[Crofter985]

I got the turbo mounted again. Stripped it down to drill and tap the compressor housing for the thermocouple probe, gave it a clean out to as a few tiny bits of aluminium and some dust had collected in the compressor. I also decided to put the 2nd turbo manifold flange on to the end of the manifold itself just sandwedged there with a gasket, I had 2 flanges made, the second one as a backup I case I ruined the 1st, now I used it just to space off the turbo a little more. The outlet for the intake air presses up against the side of the engine, it's not pressed quite as much now. You can see in this picture the EGT thermocouple installed, there is a bung welded on the bottom of the manifold too, that is for a manifold pressure.

The reason I want to know the exhaust manifold pressure is because it gives me an indication of what direction I should go with my valve timing and specifically valve overlap. Basically the more exhaust pressure vs inlet pressure the less valve overlap I can use.
In this next picture you can see the compressor exit thermocouple just below the intake pipe. And the inlet stub that goes on the carb is in place too but just sitting there to show where it goes for the moment. The carb still needs a fitting to get a pressure reference to the float bowl and the regulator to carb fuel piping sorted out as well. The intake pipe is sitting there ok for now. It might be in the way there but for now with the filter on it will help to keep dust and stuff (spanners and children) out of the intake. The bell mouth is there to help encourage as much air as possible in that hole, it's a case of every little helps. The black adaptor for the air filter is made out of a bit of acetal nylon which used to be a water lubed bush on a fish conveyor, i saved it from a pile of scrap, I also worked alongside that bit of plastic for 7 years and have known that bit of plastic for 29 years now, hope it likes its new life, it certainly looks happy.

Then with the filter fitted and the tank in place, even tried a radiator scoop to see where I was with that, you start to get an idea again that it might be a bike again one day. There is not a lot of room under the tank but it looks like there is enough, that's all that counts, the epoxy in the water/meth tank will be cured by mid week so I'll get on a little better then.

I've also made a start to the wiring up of the w/m and the fuel pump, I think I am going to put it on a relay instead of how I thought it would be done, just to piggyback it onto the original circuits, the original loom is all lighter wiring than the w/m pump so it makes sense, might avoid a problem down the line.

[Sandblaster]

That is gonna look wild when all done and assembled
I'm sure that little piece of plastic will be very happy with it's new life... Better then being in the scrap yard
Can't wait to see your next report in.
I'm in awe every time I read through this build..

[Crofter985]

Ha ha, yeh we even started working at the same time me an that bit of plastic, it also used to be square. Now it's cool
Thanks for the compliment Mike, I'm quite pleased too, as long as nobody looks too close at the welding, in particular the whole plenum, it's ok. I am thinking to make another plenum for it after, a tig welded one, I have to learn to do that though.
One thing I just remembered I have not done is put a mounting hole for the brake reservoir so I must get that done when I'm home.
Thanks again.

[Crofter985]

The water meth tank, plenum, battery holder, electrics zone.....etc thing, well it's had as much attention as its getting. Here is the water/meth plumbing...... Feed out of the bottom of the tank into what I'm calling the bubble trap, then on to the filter. The pipe coming out of the bubble trap is the route for any air back to the top of the tank itself. If you look even half closely at the welds they are garbage, it was bad enough then I went over some of them to try and address leaks but I had only limited success, so I got a tin of "petseal ultra" it is a resin sealer with carbon fibre mixed in. It looks ok but I tried bending a bit that was dried on to my boiler suit as I managed to spill some down my leg, it seems to break easy. So if the tank was to dent it would break I think.

So if you are not blinded from looking at my welding, let's get on. The water/meth mix goes on through the filter and out to the pump, through the pump and from the pump through the pipe right to the jet in the intake. The fitting it goes through is drilled so the pipe just threads through into the plenum.

It is a little more obvious what I mean from this next picture, the pipe just comes through into the plenum and the olive in the fitting seals the plenum. Now I have not fitted the pipe to the nozzle, I need to bleed water through first.

The first fill of the tank is going to be water only. Apparently when using water and methanol it changes the lambda value by about 2 in ratio richer. So not to confuse things it's just water for now.
Another job was the wiring, my first plan was to include the water meth wiring and the fuel pump feed in the original loom. As I got on with the job it looked more and more like it was making it difficult. So change of tack, the additions are separate on their own.
You can see in this picture from the left side is the power in, to the right hand side goes to the w/m controller, the wires leading off to the right is to a dash led, yet to be sorted.

[Sandblaster]

I need to read this again in the morning... My head is swimming with too many details....

[Crofter985]

This is the carb now. The pitot tube feeding the float bowl and the tubing going on to the manifold from there. I will need to put clips on these pipes but they are in the mail.

This next picture shows a lot of the plumbing, the pipe coming from the pitot tube and teed to the carb float bowl goes to a brass fitting which connects to the aluminium pressure manifold, you can see the brass stub it screws into on the bottom of the manifold. I have changed the piping off the manifold a little since the last picture, I put a bigger bore pipe to the FPR, this should help the reaction time of the FPR(I suspect I need to make a larger pitot tube but I will see how this goes) you can see the MAP sensor for the ignition, the feed for the w/m injection pressure reference is off the manifold and lastly the boost/vac gauge pipe. Something I haven't got any good pictures of is the little fitting I have put down next to the carb, the fuel pipe coming from the FPR connects on to it and at the lower side of it the fuel pipe from the carb connects to it. Also there is a fitting teed off it that I can connect a pressure tap to check fuel pressure, most of the time it will be plugged but for any tuning it will be good to tap it easily.

So with all this plumbing done and wiring done I started to put it together. You can see the blow off valve or dump valve, above the battery.

So you can see here it's starting to look like a bike again, first time for a while. I hooked everything up and gave it a spin on the starter. No life, sparks but no brum..... What's wrong? At this point I went to bed.....
Next evening I had a go again, I suspected the float valve was leaking, so I tried just starting it without the fuse for the fuel pump fuse in, it offered to go a couple of times then when I got it running I put the fuse in and it stopped. Sh!t, it's a new float valve that's in but I now know there is a "pump valve" for fuel pump applications. Well I have one on order now. So everything is on hold till I get that and I'm away to work tonight for a bit so I will have another go at it when I get home.
I took this pic, last night, I sent it to a pal of mine, he replied "lookin mean" I think he is right.

[Sandblaster]

200 mph salt flat monster