[LivesInGarage247]

This is my first post on the forum but ive been using it for awhile for info on builds and i always get the best answers on here. So i wanted to share my current project. Its one of my top 5 favorite bikes, The k8 1000. Im not the best mechanic out there, but ive had fun with this project over the last 12 months.

So when I bought this bike it had been dropped lightly and after buying it the clutch basket broke so i decided to do my typical tear down, inspect and rebuild. I tore the bike down and rebuilt it back to stock specs.

luckily I have a friend who builds lots of k1-k8 bikes, and he gave me the parts I needed for a very good price to get the build going again. Motor wise at this point it was 11k miles odo so I knew the motor wouldnt need much refreshing: sea foam top end, sea foam gas, spark plugs, motul 7100 oil, new air filter, did the valve clearance, checked compression, usual stuff when you buy a bike. Then the body/chasis work: new steering stem beering, new front fork rebuild with bel ray fork oil 5w, new wheel bearings, reset all suspesion to oem, SKF fork seals, cleaned and lubed all pivot points, regreased the swing arm bearing. Got everything back to within spec. (Still same fairings though)

Now that it was smooth and felt right I began preparing to build the bike where wanted it to be. But first a baseline. Local suzuki dealer has a mustang dyno so I put her on there at the time I plan to do all my dyno test/tune. Early morning 70°. That way i can perform best when i ride most (evening/night) and I live in Florida Btw, so I avoid riding or racing mid day anyway. I knew my target number was 160 hp as is all stock k8 1000’s.

So now that the comp test, valve clearance, and dyno all added up to a healthy machine i was ready to play. So my first goal was seeing what could be done to get as much Hp as possible without doing any internal engine work, no cams, no opening anything. Just “bolt ons” so the name of the game is efficiency. I went with all the classic mods: deleting secondary butterflys, deleting exhaust valve, Pipercross air filter, 520 ek zvx3 w superlite sprocket conversion -1/-1, delete O2 sensor, sucker mod/clean air mod, m4 slip on. But i wanted to really get that air going so i took a dremel and cut the stva shaft out. Leaving only a nub in the stva so the stvs still thinks its there cause i havent seen any good bypass for this stepper motor, (I do not recommend doing this with tbs still on bike)

so after that I filled the holes with lexel but you can use many things to block holes, you can tap one as seen in the picture, but that leaves you with 4 more holes to fill. I chose to go with something that stays soft and grabs well so it doesnt ever come out but if it did its soft and my engine could chew it up and spit it out unlike filling the holes with something like JB weld. Which i thought about. Also my sucker mod i included a bypass and check valve so counter the reeds closing during high rpm so i can maintain 5-8psi (10-18 hg) of vacuum (measured on a gauge while riding) and from my research the airbox passage only gives about 3psi (6 hg) tops from what the internet tells me. (Not very conclusive I know) but i have many many proven dyno sheets that this sucker mod is good for about 2-3hp. And the last mod I decided to work on was controlling the engine temp, on my original baseline dyno every pull i lost 1 HP per pull. So on top of gains I wanted to focus on lowering engine temps any way possible. So I cleaned up the radiator (physically cleaned and straightened out the fins), brake cleaned the inside and made sure it was looking good inside it. Then filled it with my water wetter mix i use for Florida (80% distilled water, 15% coolant, 5% water wetter) .

Now its dyno time to see where were at, And this time it was time to get a ecu flash, and dyno tune. My tuner is Proven Power, a very reputable tuner for sportbikes and his brother does cars, both bikes and cars many forced induction builds, these guys are amazing tuners and builders. So i brought my last baseline and hopped on the dynojet, Baselined at 164.95 Hp / 75.4 Tq then after tune i was a solid 169.29 Hp / 78.69 Tq. This was done on typical E11 93 oct pump gas.

A solid start but i knew there was more. I wasnt having any heat soak issues this time though so every pass for many passes it was pulling very close numbers back to back, and the graph was very linear and smooth i was very happy with this. And the engine temps stayed 180-187 the entire time.

So i brought the bike back to the garage and installed ceramic bearings in front and rear rims, cut my velocity stacks down to 5mm in the center to match the stock 5mm outer v stacks (top end v stack style), installed a light weight rotor (I didnt weigh it but i will show a picture later), full akrapovic ti headers with a yoshimura tip, removed the screen in the air tubes, gold heat reflective wrapped the tubes and air box, switched from a pipercross sport filter to a pipercross race filter, switched to motul 300v, new gas filter, rebuilt gas pump assembly then switched to non ethenol 93 (E0-93) fuel, new exhaust gaskets, installed a annitori QS, and back to the dyno she went.

Results:
172.2 Hp / 79.19 Tq @ 13.31 rpm - Baseline.
177.20 Hp / 83.23 Tq @ 13.20 rpm - Final
My apologies for the dyno sheet cutting off this was a screen shot from a live video but you can see that the Hp gains was not only good but peaked at 13k rpm + compared to where we started. So feeling good and solid.

So as far as I can tell this is about as much as can be pushed on the stock engine. I have looked at every dyno graph i can find and even my local tuner has looked and this is the highest numbers i have seen. Now I would like to mention proven powers dyno has been recently calibrated and also is well known to be one of the lowest reading dyno around this area (Florida), so I believe 177 hp is about the max hp you can expect from “bolt ons” on this bike. Now i had 1 run that hit 180hp briefly, and i probably could have pulled all my o rings in my chain and pulled my bearing covers off, or maybe if did more weight reduction like mag or carbon rims, then maybe I could have hit 180 back to back. But that wasnt worth it right now. So now that ive settled that debate with myself, im ready to really get into this bikes power.

 

[LivesInGarage247]

This is the heat wrapped intake tubes and airbox. And also a picture of my light weight rear rotor.

and a quick side note about that rotor, its not easy to ride 2s on your bike once you have this rotor. Its a little hard to slow down quickly with a passenger. Just my 2¢

 

[LivesInGarage247]

So moving forward I am fully building the engine. I have started slowly designing my build, and buying some parts. So far my plan is: yoshimura str typr R cam shafts, JE 13.8:1 High Comp pistons, Carrillo H Beam conrods, APE is going to lighten+balance+knife edge+open my oil ports on my crankshaft+grind off my counter balancer sprocket, all APE Head studs and nuts, Yoshi cam springs and adjustable cam sprockets, delete counter balancer, APE counter balancer dummy shaft, sending head off to get port and polish (not milling), ti retainers, and v&h steel valves.

Now the only thing i have left to decide on is the head gasket. I want to go with a thinner head gasket but i cant decide whether to use cometic, yoshi, or the OEM k4 head gasket. I have heard they are perfect thin head gaskets for this bike, but i cant find much info about it, and i have heard some cometic gaskets failing, havent heard anything good or bad about the yoshi one.

and my other current debate is obviously cam timing. Yoshi recommends 105°/110° but i see alot of people running alot of different setups. I know i want to have more overlap than stock but seeing as I dont have the stock valve events written down, i dont know the stock overlap. But I do know I dont want my idle so destroyed that I wont be able to launch super hard; I just want the proper top end build. Which is probably either what yoshi recommends or close to it. But im gunna use degreeing to bleed off some cranking comp so im all for overlap. Heres a pic of my cam card so you can see valve events.

 

[LivesInGarage247]

Today I received my light weight rotors. I went with Discacciati rotors. After a weighing them the results were solid. OEM rotors were 6.5 lbs together or 3.25 lbs a piece. The Discacciati rotors were 6 lbs together or 3lbs apart. I couldnt measure down to the gram because my scale stops at 400 grams. But with a combined half pound of weight savings I would call it worth enough. However I do see something i dont particularly like, the floating buttons on the rotors are Held on by E clips. I feel like a fast enough rotation these may pop off. But i dont see any complaints on the internet of such things happening.

OEM ROTORS

Discacciati rotors:

E Clips on rotors

 

[GasJunkie86]

@LivesInGarage247 Sir, this is one really cool build to see go down. This forum used to be the place to go to find info on drag bikes all day every day. It's nice to see you in here reviving the threads! What an awesome build and I'm seriously following along for the end result. By far a cool build to see go down; she's going to be a beast and fun to ride when you're done with her.

 

[LivesInGarage247]

@LivesInGarage247 Sir, this is one really cool build to see go down. This forum used to be the place to go to find info on drag bikes all day every day. It's nice to see you in here reviving the threads! What an awesome build and I'm seriously following along for the end result. By far a cool build to see go down; she's going to be a beast and fun to ride when you're done with her.

Thank you. The build is on hold at the moment, im having my new house built so once thats done and i get the garage going, we will get back going on the mods.

 

[LivesInGarage247]

So after installing the discacciati rotors and wearing them in the first ride ( probably 1 mile) i noticed a pretty alarming grinding sound. Remembering how many times ive pushed these pads apart with a flat head cause have the wheel off and my kids love pressing my levers, I assumed my pads were chipped and grinding. I notice the pads were wearing super uneven and I made the call to redo the entire brake system. Fun times. So the small piston on every caliper was starting to seize, and had lots of water goop build up inside the calipers, so i ordered a rebuild kit. I know some will say this is a waste of money. But for now the calipers themselves will be the last upgrade to the system. If everything works out with these rotors i will get matching discacciati master/calipers. So the rebuild kit and a new res, are on the way. I also got some spiegler rennsport braided lines, and ebc HH epfa pads which are aggresive street and some track use, slightly grippier than the regular fa but not as good as the gpfa. Should be good since these are lighter rotors and my super light rear rotor doesnt grip for anything, so i assume these rotors will probably have slightly less bite to them. Should balance out. Just waiting on the oem rebuild kit and we can get these brakes finished and have some fun while the core engine parts come in before this build.

 

[LivesInGarage247]

my lovely water goop in my split and disassembled calipers.

 

[z28freak84]

Any progress? I'm building an 06 ZX10R with 2016 cams, '15 throttle bodies, and '15 head.

I'm curious how the two will compare in the end.

 

[Innovate_ATL]

Awesome thread man! What exactly is the sucker mod? I plan to pull my secondaries as well, cutting the rod out is perfectly fine? No idea what my K8 makes, she trapped 116.8 though with bolt-on's and a tune. SWB/stock everything else.

 

[pavelartushkin]

hello to everyone

Is there any movement? I'm putting together a 06 ZX10R with 2016 cams, 2015 throttle bodies, and a 2015 head.

 

[pavelartushkin]

hello everyone

I'm not sure what my K8 is made of, but she caught 116.8 with bolt-ons and a song. Everything else is SWB/stock.