07-23-01
Hayabusa: Week 1
And now the news you've all been waiting for... We started installing the BIG motor this past weekend. As a reminder, the BIG motor is a Suzuki GSXR 1300 Hayabusa motor. It is 1300CCs, 4 cylinder, and is the most powerful motorcycle engine made. The one we have should be about 200 HP.
We started by removing the small motor we've run up till now, which was a Yamaha 750. It took 80 minutes to remove, which is important if we take both motors to Bonneville, and need to swap them quickly. Once the small motor was out, we cleaned up the engine compartment, and uncrated the Hayabusa. We tied some slings to it and carefully lowered it into the car. It didn't fit. But we had expected that, so we tried twisting and turning it this way at that, finely we removed the alternator cover and managed to squeeze it in. The clearance problem is only on the top frame rails so we put the alternator cover back on. After staring at it and taking measurements of the motor we had to take it back out. It came out a little easier, even with the alternator cover on. One of the big problems was the exhaust pipes, so we trimmed them down a bit. None of us wanted to cut up an $800 exhaust pipe, but it needed to be done. We'll weld it back up later. Then we took even more measurements, designed some new motor mounts and then put the motor back in, which wasn't too hard, now that we knew how to do it. The old motor mounted from the bottom, front and rear, but the Hayabusa front mounts are on the top. This requires a whole new set of mounts in front, but we can reuse the old rear mounts. After putting the motor back in the second time, we bolted the new brackets to the motor, and re-aligned everything. Finally, when everything was in exactly the right place, Mark welded some scrap metal from the frame to the engine brackets to hold the motor in place while we work on it. By then, it was 10 o'clock at night, and so we called it quits. This week Mark will fabricate the rear motor mounts, and finish the front mounts. Alan and I will buy an engine monitoring computer, and study the Hayabusa electrical system.