Omega's Garage

[Omega_5]

Big weekend of building.

Friday night;
Nose cone, bumper, support, IC pump mounted.

Saturday;
Oil Tank in. IC mounted. Most of the wiring in place. Exhaust and up pipe in. Started the coolant plumbing.

Sunday;
Turbo in. Aux. pump, and fuel lines hooked up. Tank on. Finished the coolant lines.

I had to get creative in building an IAC fitting that could handle pressure. Good old copper.

Monday night;
Cold piping and plenum back in. Battery and tray in.

Tuesday night;
Track, chaincase and skid in.
I fumbled with putting a reverse chaincase on. Surprisingly, with only a parts diagram, it's not too bad.

Test fit the hood;

Tonight I just have to clean up some minor things, then weight it, and fluids in.

 

[Omega_5]

No pictures today, but I built an extension to make up the area between the track and rear bumper.
At this point it's basically ready to ride.

Dry weight numbers as measured last night are;
Clutch side; 162.6lbs
Exhaust side; 169.2lbs
Skid (at rear idlers) 139.6lbs
For a total dry weight of; 471.4lbs

I'm decently impressed, considering that there are were no exotic materials used, it's been greatly reinforced, and the fact that the turbo system weighted in at 29.6lbs alone (yes, I weighted everything as I put it on). N/A, this would have probably been a ~440lb sled.

Summary;
- Apex motor
- Pro geometry & styling
- 162 x 2.5" track
- Bulkhead cooler still used (for IC cooling)
- Mechanical reverse
- E-start (obviously)

I'm going to add some fluids tomorrow, and see what the 'true' weight' is (all fluids, no fuel). Then it's on to a great Easter weekend of getting it started, and calibrating the fuel map.

 

[moab11]

Awesome build! Sounds like a great weight, and I didn't even notice that the bulkhead cooler is being used for the intercooler, very smart idea!

 

[Snowman871]

Looks awesome! I can only imagine what would go through someone's mind when they see a custom looking Pro and when it fires up it's a turbo 4 stroke!

 

[yamadoo]

WOW you are one TALENTED GUY. Great build fun read thanks

 

[Sportsterdanne]

Sweet ! i cant belive i have missed this build thread !

 

[Omega_5]

Awesome build! Sounds like a great weight, and I didn't even notice that the bulkhead cooler is being used for the intercooler, very smart idea!

Thanks!
I must have brushed over that part earlier. I didn't really catch any picture of the coolant plumbing part, as it's kind of boring.
I've always been a big fan of liquid ICs, and figured what better way to cool it, then to use the bulkhead cooler.

Looks awesome! I can only imagine what would go through someone's mind when they see a custom looking Pro and when it fires up it's a turbo 4 stroke!

Thank you! I'm hoping it throws a few people off. Ha ha.

WOW you are one TALENTED GUY. Great build fun read thanks

Thanks! It's been a fun go. I learned a lot from previous build, and learned a lot more on this one.

Sweet ! i cant belive i have missed this build thread !

Thanks! It's about wrapped up for the year. But I'll have a few more posts before the snow all melts from around here.

 

[Omega_5]

I filled it up with fluids, which was no easy task. It took some effort to prime the oil pump again, but eventually got most of the bubbles out.

With all the fluids in, I and took the true weight;
Clutch side; 170.2lbs
Exhaust side; 178.2lbs
Skid (at rear idlers) 143.0lbs
For a total true weight of; 491.4lbs

This includes; brake fluid, chaincase oil, engine oil, engine coolant, IC coolant.
Tank was bone dry.

Since I've been having trouble getting my Rapid Bike Racing converted over to an Apex, I temporarily hooked up the RB3 to get it ready to go.
It started on the first try, then died on low oil. Second try the pump must have pushed enough oil in to the system, but it died due to being pig rich. Something in the range of 9.1 AFR, and spraying gas out the pipe.
I pulled about 10% fuel out of the map, and it stabilized around 11.5 AFR. Enough to stay running, and get it out for the first ride.

I had some popping at cruise, which I took some figuring. I put it on to diagnostic mode, and found that the TPS was out of calibration. I adjusted it to spec (15-18 / 95-100) , and that went away.

By the end of yesterday I had it mostly dialed in. I'm still working on a rich sputter between 6700-7200 RPM. I'm taking it slow, as I'm already at 0 on the map.


And with that said, here are a few lessons learned from this project;
Positives
- ordering parts up front makes the project go way faster (vs past projects).
- having the right tooling and equipment makes the project was easier (vs past projects).
- putting in the engineering and CAD time it worth it.
- know what aluminum rod is for what purpose. Something I learned in the past. 4043 for hot service. 5356 for cold service.

Negatives
- trying to do a project in a household garage can be frustrating and messy. The next project I do, will wait until my shop is finished.
- use a chassis table. This comes back to the last point. I did most of this on a sled lift, when it would have been way easier to use a real chassis table for hot rodding. While I do have one, it's stuck in my shop, and would be too clumsy to use in the attached garage.
- drill the thermostat. Another hot rod trick I forgot to do. Not a big deal, but it takes so long to purge the air out of the system. Drilling a small hole makes the job easier and faster.
- don't rely on promises from other shops. Rapid Bike is marketed as being able to switch between makes and models easily. I got no help from Powderlites, and no help from DimSport. I ended up calling a friend at an Aprilia shop to find out that I needed the pro key to do the conversion. I'm still waiting on the key from Italy. In addition, I used to use Kinugawa turbo for my turbo flanges and fittings. They screwed up twice on my turbo exit flange and coolant fittings. I'm done with them now.

 

[Sevey]

I enjoyed the build. Great job. Would love to hear how the sled runs once the bugs are worked out.
MS

 

[kinger]

Looks incredible! Almost factory which I love! How loud is it? Can it be trailed or this just for mountain use?

 

[Omega_5]

I enjoyed the build. Great job. Would love to hear how the sled runs once the bugs are worked out.
MS

Thanks! It's getting a bit better everyday I tweak it. The warm weather has rolled in, so it's looking like I may be done after this week.

Looks incredible! Almost factory which I love! How loud is it? Can it be trailed or this just for mountain use?

Thank you!
While I designed it with a straight pipe for mountain use (weight saving, simple), I did trail ride it this weekend. I'd say it's no louder than an MCX Apex. Obviously louder than stock, but not anything terrible.

 

[kinger]

Still oogling through this thread and your pretty modest! That tunnel design is sick you placed those pyramid mounts exactly where they need to be allowing the rear skid to transfer loads throughout the entire structure. The tube on the bottom that runs the length of the tunnel and up into the front bulkhead is so strong. That chassis must be solid as a rock! Very nicely done and i hope you don't mind if I copy some of it LOL.

 

[tsiciliano]

Would love to see a video of this thing in action

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[Omega_5]

Still oogling through this thread and your pretty modest! That tunnel design is sick you placed those pyramid mounts exactly where they need to be allowing the rear skid to transfer loads throughout the entire structure. The tube on the bottom that runs the length of the tunnel and up into the front bulkhead is so strong. That chassis must be solid as a rock! Very nicely done and i hope you don't mind if I copy some of it LOL.

Ha ha. Thanks. I know it's a big achievement, however what I didn't talk about is the countless design and CAD hours I put in before diving in to this one.
I took design ideas from all over on this. I like that Polaris braces the from mount, but you see so many Pros with bent tunnels. I felt that Cat / Doo had it figured out. That's were I used the rear pyramid from idea from.
The bottom tube was a carry over from tube chassis that others have done. I liked the lower tube, but could justify an entire tube chassis, so I just incorporated it in to the boards.

On similar note, I came to realize that all of these things added weight. But at the end of the day, we all ride Yamahas for the reliability. I wasn't going to sacrifice strength in some areas just for a bit lighter weight.

Feel free to take away anything you find helpful. I'd like to see projects like this go more open source. Information sharing is how I learned, and it's only fair to pass it on. If anyone wants some information or dimension, I have it readily available.

Would love to see a video of this thing in action

Well, I could one at idle. But an action video may have to wait until next year. We had some very mild weather (+18*C and wind) this week, and it destroyed all the snow.

 

[kinger]

I would love your CAD files!

My plan was to build a custom plate that I could attach the new cat rear tunnel section too. I seem to ride with a group that rear ends me a lot so I needed something fairly easy and stock to replace so I didn't have to redo the entire tunnel each time. I also want to get all the heat out of the tunnel and run a radiator in the rear and boards the carry the coolant on the outside tube so I had some of those fabbed up by CR racing. Its coming together in my head anyway LOL