A friend of mine was considering building his next car with a blackbird engine.

This is the second time the
MK car has had reliability issues (the other at brands hatch) with a blown engine, are BEC's that unreliable?


donny1



donny2

[Edited on 2/11/05 by jos]

Nothing wrong with the Blackbird engine. Jon Ison has had years of use from his (corectly mounted in a GT1) and under very arduous conditions. There are other's who run them regularly in 7's with dry sumps. They are fine with dry sumps but have an oil starvation problem if driven hard on track or race without a modified sump and baffling.

Research on BEC's shows that basically there are favourites. The Fireblade still is out in front for reliabiity but R1's, ZX9R's and other's are increasing in popularity.



[Edited on 19-10-05 by Hellfire]

As Hellfire says above the blackbird engine is very reliable when dry sumped. You realy do need a dry sump though. I learnt this the hard way by knocking out a big end when I just had a baffled sump but I rebuilt it with a dry sump and havnt had a problem since even with the amount of abuse (nitrous) that I give it.

cheers
Carnut

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=showphoto&photo=donny2.jpg

[Edited on 19/10/05 by jos]

Now with images, thanks JoelP

I will have a "Accusump" with all pipework for a bird up for sale pretty soon, it could fit any other bec just i have plumbing for a bird, wicj i believe will fit a blade too with no mods.

quote:

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Originally posted by Hellfire
Nothing wrong with the Blackbird engine. Jon Ison has had years of use from his (corectly mounted in a GT1) and under very arduous conditions. There are other's who run them regularly in 7's with dry sumps. They are fine with dry sumps but have an oil starvation problem if driven hard on track or race without a modified sump and baffling.

Research on BEC's shows that basically there are favourites. The Fireblade still is out in front for reliabiity but R1's, ZX9R's and other's are increasing in popularity.



[Edited on 19-10-05 by Hellfire]

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I have since found out from baz after stripping the engine and putting in an new 1 that the oil cooler was blocked with sludge, looks like the reason for the first engine blowwing as well as did not clean this out properly after the first engine blow.

bear this in mind maybe a good idea to upgrade the oil cooler ??????.

had no probs with mine on the road but will do the mods before i take on track.

anyone have reccomendations for a zx12r as my brother gets his car soon ? should he use a baffled sump or are they ok without??????

I know a guy who did a full trackday in a ZX12R and lots of fast road driving without a baffled or chopped sump and he never had any problems whatsoever.

Personally, I think that a baffled sump should be fitted at least for trackdays and also piece of mind. A full dry sump would be better but still has no guarantees. I know a few people who have blown their ZX12R's with dry sumps fitted.

At the end of the day, its a gamble that you take. The decision, is yours. Or in this case your brothers BTW, when is he picking it up? Does he have a firm date yet?

quote:

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Originally posted by G.Man

But the zx12 is the new busa

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you know what baz is like u have to keep chasing??.

They are applying for SVA this week and the car will be on the stand at exceter show.

so within a couple of weeks we hope.

? for helfire do you have a power commander on your car if so is it worth investing in one for the zx12. i have seen some on ebay for sale old stlye apparently, but not sure if they are as good?
also where did you get your sump from

cheers sean

you know what baz is like u have to keep chasing??.

They are applying for SVA this week and the car will be on the stand at exceter show.

so within a couple of weeks we hope.

? for helfire do you have a power commander on your car if so is it worth investing in one for the zx12. i have seen some on ebay for sale old stlye apparently, but not sure if they are as good?
also where did you get your sump from

cheers sean

Hi Sean,

yeah, we have a power commander on the ZX12R with a custom map installed by Holeshot Racing. It's definitely worth it Keep an eye out on e-bay for one, they can usually be picked up cheaply.

The sump we have on ours was modified and baffled by Z-cars.

Cheers for that helfire ill get him to look into this.

to get back to the original quote on blackbirds i got of the phone to a friend of mie who has just soldhis dax rush bussa turbo b holeshot and he ran a standard sump with no mods only a upratedoil cooler and had no probs with 380BHP on tap and he was a serious racer.

to also note he would run with 10 % more oil in to cope with the g force.
this was in the top 5 cars in the track and race car mag around the circuit. so could answers some issues on this long debated topic??????????