Come from the shadows - the Shadowfax restoration.

Great to catch up again today mate, and I will enjoy sorting out the motor for Shadowfax. Stayed nice and tight for the trip up to Liverpool and then home again .. . Seeing the frame and associated parts was great, that frame-bracing is something else again....

I met the guy from Xtreme Finishes, he had a look at the carbs and suggested that they would be better done if I removed the slides etc - so I will do that first before sending them up for him to do a number on them. Some of the parts he had on display looked really good ! I left him with a big box of wheel hubs and cush-drives, and some drum-brake housings as well, so it will be interesting to see how these turn out. A seperate story about this business will be done shortly elsewhere in the forum.

I cannot wait to see this bike up and on display next year.......it will be something else.....

Mate, thanks to you and your good advice and some others, I'm getting more and more excited about this project all the time. Don't forget to take lots of photos of the engine rebuild so I can add them to the record. Great to catch up today, how about all those custom alloy parts, eh?

Oh, we gotta do something about an exhaust system too, mate....

I've updated my web site with a lot more photographs and a detailed report on Gos's visit yesterday.

http://www.halfofmylife.com/on-two-whee ... storation/

I had an email from one of Howard Wallace's former work colleagues today. As well as pointing out that Howard built TWO special bikes based on Bimota-type frames and that both are now on display at the NMM at Nabiac, he also let me know that, sadly, Howard passed away a couple of years ago from complications allied to Motor Neurone Disease. I guess it makes all his hand-made parts on my bike even more valuable now! RIP to a great engineer.

Yes, I heard from a mate on Facebook that Howard passed away last year RIP. He was a great engineer......I have some good articles in the library about his bikes, should do a thread about them here......

Lots of interesting bits'n'pieces in all the motor parts mate - and I will take photos as I go.....

Thanks for the quick tour of the 4th Dimension, yesterday, mate. I see now that everything that people have said about you over the years is true, only they weren't even telling the full story! I had a good long chat with Rick yesterday too and he identified some people in some of the photos. I told him that you'd be contacting him about the engine details and he said that was good. I drove 530kms altogether yesterday, my longest trip since the accident. Now I have to convince the good wife to let me drive to Melbourne on Thursday for the Kenny Blake commemoration.

OK, time for an update on the engine......

The motor out of Shadowfax is a Z1000, from a 1978 Z1R. It was fitted with 1105cc Moriwaki pistons back in the day, and also has some lumpy cams fitted. The valves look to be stock, but I have not removed these from the head yet.......

A lot of the motor parts have some minor surface rust - including the camshafts. The bits that worry me the most though are the cylinder bores. Once I give the block a good tub in the parts cleaner, then it will be going into the engine shop for a hone and a diagnosis.......it would be great to be able to use this block if at all possible......but if not, there are other options in the 4th......

Here are some picture from today's clean-up of some of the engine bits......


Carbies in need of a good bath !




They look worse from this side...and unsurprisingly, #2 slide is seized solid.





Sprocket cover with race-cred drilling.....




Custom-made alternator blanking plate built by Howard Wallace.




Some nice spun alloy trumpets - real old-school - and K&N pod filters.




Inlet & exhaust cams with some serious surface rust.




Close-up of a cam lobe.




Cam cover in need of a good tub and a re-paint.




Cylinder head. Only 1 busted exhaust guide, no broken fins, stock size valves. Will come up fine with a good clean. The biggest concern at the moment are those 2 sparkplugs you can see - they are rusted in !! Some extra-lovin with wizards piss should sort these 2 out....




Close-up of the broken #4 exhaust guide.




Cylinder block. The rust looks worse in the photo than it actually is......












Close-up of the drilled cam-sprockets. These have been drilled to allow variable cam-timing.






Various engine bits - cam caps, exhaust clamps, more cam sprockets.




After some time in the parts cleaner, and some serious lovin' with the best rust-removal tools known to mankind (WD40 and some nice fine steel wool) - here are both camshafts.

Inlet cam



Exhaust cam





In this photo, you can see the additional lift that these OEM cams have been - this is typical of old-school cam builds where a cam is built up with weld and then re-ground. The lift on these cams is 9.6mm. Not sure of the duration, but at face value I would guess they are almost the same as stock, as the additional weld follows the OEM cam profile.....will be able to confirm this when the cams get degreed in.




So that is where I am up to at the moment with this re-build. Lots of work to go yet, the bottom-end needs a lot of work - cases split, new cam-chain and a good look at the clutch & gearbox to make sure all is as it should be.....a couple of the crank-wheels have some serious surface rust as well, so these will need a bit of work. The pistons look to be in good nick, but may need new rings. At least these are still available from Moriwaki.

Stay tuned for the next exciting update.......

Wow, I can't believe how those cams came up, amazing...I'm getting all excited again, thanks, Gos. The grinding down of the custom alternator blanking plate was courtesy of Kent Miklenda and the unforgiving bitumen at McPhillamy Park, Bathurst!

First step taken towards rebuilding the bike this morning. The frame and the paddock stand have gone to be sand blasted and powder coated. They should be back early next week.

Now, don't you reckon this looks pretty?

Man those cams have some serious lift!!!! I had Yoshimura cams in my Z900/1036 & they were nowere near the lift of those cams. I'd say it would have huge top end power, but little midrange. & with the small carbs would be making nowere near its full power ?? Could be wrong though. Great write up Gos

frame looks great, where did you end up gonig to get it powder coated?

South Coast P/C in Doyle Ave, Unanderra. He had some sprintcar stuff in there that he was doing too, so I think he might be a petrol-head of sorts. I'm pretty happy, anyway.

Man those cams have some serious lift!!!! I had Yoshimura cams in my Z900/1036 & they were nowere near the lift of those cams. I'd say it would have huge top end power, but little midrange. & with the small carbs would be making nowere near its full power ?? Could be wrong though. Great write up Gos

So, what you're saying is that I should get bigger carbs, right? Well, if I could and they would look exactly the same, I'd probably consider it. I wouldn't really consider that straying too far from originality.