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My supercharged K8 project...

131665 Views 192 Replies 85 Participants Last post by  D.Man
5



The bike pictured above is my bone stock K8. A friend gave me a fantastic deal on this bike last year, and it has just under 2000 miles on the clock. I love this bike for the same reasons everyone does -- incredibly smooth, extremely capable and controllable, great power, and fantastic ergonomics for a supersport machine. The local Dynojet 250i says it puts down 152whp (SAE corrected), which is actually more power than a full-exhaust, PCIII-tuned '04 ZX-10R produced on the same dyno.


Now, normally the next step would be to add an exhaust, change the gearing around, or add some braided lines, and while I'll eventually get to those mods, I have something different in mind right now...





It's a Rotrex C15-60 supercharger, right off the plane from Denmark. This little unit can support over 230whp, and that's the number I'll be shooting for with my little project here. Also, the impeller wheel used to be cast, but these new wheels are apparently machined out of billet.


Before you ask, yes, I am a power junkie. There's just no going back once you've ridden a boosted literbike...





You can see how small it actually is compared to the bike. Somehow, some way, it will fit in there...





After staring at this sight for a couple of days, I realized the only place to put this thing is in-between the engine and the radiator, just below the frame. I'd love to stick it up higher, but the frame would get in the way of the belt (which is a dealbreaker) and the radiator fan would also have to be relocated. Placing it lower eliminates these problems, but makes it much harder to hide the drive behind the fairings and also places the inlet of the Rotrex very close to the header. I also do not want cornering clearance to be compromised at all, so it will be in as far (and up as high) as possible.





If anyone is wondering how I plan on driving this thing, take a look at the picture above. The M10 bolt currently fastened into the end of the crank will be removed and a machined adapter will take its place (this adapter has to locate perfectly off the crankshaft for this to work). A pulley will sit on top of this adapter and then drive the supercharger via an 8mm synchronous belt. The supercharger bracket will either take the place of the stock cast cover or locate off of it -- I'm not exactly sure yet which way to go.



There's a lot of work left to be done, but I'm looking forward to it. I plan on tuning the ECU directly and, of course, it will run on pump gas. In the meantime, wish me luck, and stay tuned...
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i was thinking that a restrictor will cause the inlet air temp to go up .
It sounded pretty sick in that Dyno Vid!! Seemed like more than 200 whp was in there!
You when all you can do is laugh even if something is terrible. i laughed when i read that. this fucking blows man. You build such and amazing machine then BOOM have to rebuild now. Atleast its not a full build over again. But it definitely sucks...
and where is the updates??
Well I called AA performance yesterday ,they have the bike running and all is good . Now the bad new they told me they were changing the company around and probably won't be doing any manufacturing only custom work ,so no supercharger kit !!

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Motorcycle.com App
A few control questions since I didn't study the thread in detail.

- How is boost control done?
- Are there any means to reduce IAT, meth injection or IC?
- How is fuel demand vs. boost controlled?
I took a quick glance through the thread and got the impression the engine went south due to over boost and no boost gauge was available. I have to say this sounds utterly silly but thanks for being open and honest to help others avoid this.
Well I called AA performance yesterday ,they have the bike running and all is good . Now the bad new they told me they were changing the company around and probably won't be doing any manufacturing only custom work ,so no supercharger kit !!

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Motorcycle.com App
Great that the bike is going again, but realy saddened that it will not go into production
Ahhhh. Was really excited to see the end product! Guess we will have to start playing ourselfs....
A few control questions since I didn't study the thread in detail.

- How is boost control done?
- Are there any means to reduce IAT, meth injection or IC?
- How is fuel demand vs. boost controlled?

I took a quick glance through the thread and got the impression the engine went south due to over boost and no boost gauge was available. I have to say this sounds utterly silly but thanks for being open and honest to help others avoid this.
Boost is set by the pulley ratio, but I am now using a restrictor plate to limit the amount of air that enters the engine. Also, to the earlier poster, using a restictor plate lessens the load on the Rotrex -- think of a shop-vac: when you place your hand over the top and cover the fan, what happens? It spins faster due to the fact that there is less air present that it has to move and/or compress. This is the same situation. Any additional heat introduced into the system is far less than the heat generated in the combustion chamber by compressing 17psi worth of air.

If need be, I'll run a water/meth setup, but I do not do sustained top speed runs and only planned on running 9psi, which should not be an issue with the Rotrex and pump gas. The new pistons have been ceramic coated, though. The tuning is handled solely by modding the fuel and ignition tables in the ECU. The boost response is not transient like a turbo, so once you have a tune ironed out, nothing changes.

Finally, I logged the boost a little past the halfway mark before I took the bike out for tuning, and the boost curve was exactly in line with what I was expecting and what I have witnessed on other bikes. I ASSumed that the curve would continue on in a fairly linear fashion (like the other systems I've developed) and did not monitor it during tuning, but for some reason this engine is different and the boost skyrocketed. Oh well, it was a costly mistake, but at least it happened to my bike and not someone else's. I can say with certainty, though, that the stock GSXR engine can handle upwards of 17psi on stock internals and pump gas (for a very brief period of time!).
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I hope you guys are ready for pictures, because I have a lot of them coming up right now...



I sent the brand new OEM pistons out to SwainTech for coating. They ceramic coated the tops and put an anti-friction coating on the skirts. Since the old pistons scuffed in the bore, I figure reducing the heat they see and making sure the skirts don't stick in the case of a lubrication breakdown is a good thing. I also kept the compression ratio stock.




I was able to swap the pistons without removing the crank, but every other part of the engine had to be disassembled. I bought a torque angle gauge to tighten the fasteners to factory spec.




The engine finally all bolted up. I figured that as long as I had it out of the bike, I might as well wrap the tops of the header tubes to reduce the heat even more. Also, that engine you see in the background is going to be a killer -- 375ci small block Chevy, SB2.2 heads (NASCAR stuff), dry sump, all roller drivetrain, all forged internals, 9000+ rpm redline, supercharged and fuel injected. Should be a fun little street car if I ever get it done.




Engine getting bolted back into the bike. This was a 2 person job.




Another shot of the airbox...




Ready for her maiden trip around the parking lot. This thing was a smoke machine on startup. Smoke was everywhere; out the pipe, under the tank, it looked the bike was on fire.

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I let it warm up, then took it out for the first spin. I altered the engine rpms the whole time and made sure to keep the new rings loaded. Within a mile or two the smoke was gone. 20 miles later I brought it back to the shop and changed the oil.






I did a bunch of custom, cost-effective mods while I had it apart. I found another swingarm on ebay, stripped it, polished it, brushed it just right, then cleared with some epoxy paint. I threw on a 520 sprocket set (stock ratio), RK chain, Galfer wave rotor, HEL brake lines, and swapped the wheels to freshly powdercoated RC51 5 spokers.




It was not easy making the wheels work, and the swap required new bearings, seals, spacers, and some machining to the wheels themselves. The front calipers are R1 units with custom spacers, grabbing 1000RR rotors. I love those calipers, and just might have to swap the master cylinder for the stock Brembo unit (I have that setup on my VFR and the feel is better than this current setup).




The exhaust sounds awesome on the open road. Really deep while cruising, aggressive while revving up, and the smoothest, sweetest, most insane sound near redline. Can't even describe it.

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More...













I still have to get the fairings done (I'm modifying them, too), but promise to post pics once they're back on the bike.
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If we dont get videos of this thing on the dyno or I will be very upset with you.

Looks good. :thumbup
Almost forgot the best part...how it rides...


A W E S O M E - O


That about sums it up. Way, way, way more controllable than the 10R. If you want to feel like you're riding a bucking bronco, find a 10R, add boost, and try to hold on. Impossible to go WOT in the first 3 gears or you point skyward. Absolute blast around town (probably the most fun bike I've ever ridden), but hard to go fast. This thing is not like that at all, even with the stock wheelbase and ride height. First gear will point the nose as high as you want, at any time, simply by how far you twist your wrist. It's like direct wheelie control. However, once you're out of first, you can keep the front end hovering just inches off the ground while still accelerating at an alarming rate. That shift into second under boost, too, is amazing. It's like someone kicks the bike in the rear with a giant steel-toed boot. The only other bike I've ridden that has that kind of instant kick is a worked M109R, and that thing is shaft drive.

Smooth, smooth, smooth. Liquid, electric smooth under boost. You can pretty much shift into 6th-gear and leave it there -- it'll pull from 2500 without issue, and accelerates really hard from 4500 on up. I'm almost tempted to add a tooth up front the pull is so good. To top it all off, I haven't even touched the tuning from the day of destruction at Guhl. We dialed it in pretty well that day, and there are no hiccups anywhere in the powerband. There's just a slight whistle to let you know the Rotrex is there, and you don't even hear the BOV like you do on some other bikes. Overall the thing rides, behaves, idles, and performs like a stocker (better than a stocker, actually) when you want it to, but is just begging to be opened up at every opportunity you get. Also, the gas mileage is identical if you stay out of the boost.

I will try to get some ride footage some day, but until then, I'm going to be out riding, finally getting to enjoy this thing.
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Congrats! Glad to see everything worked out well for you after the rebuild! As said before, top notch work!!!
You are killing us ,please but this kit for sale !!!
DAN....YOU ARE A GENIOUS(did I spell that right??? lol) in other words...YOU ARE THE FUGGING MAN!!!! Awesome detail,frome the wheels to the calipers to the swingarm and everthing in between...i'm speechless...this how I'm looking right about now:biggrin:biggrin:biggrin
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