Torque motor, what's in there?

Great replies and advice.
kzz1p
1. Money: Even though I work for a living, I plan on going through the entire powerplant. Head to Cavanaugh, crank/clutch basket to Falicon. I have a 1015 Wiesco kit from Overstocked.com on the shelf. I have Yoshimura "Bonneville" grind cams, new, from back in the day. Also a set of Norris cams, think they are around .409 lift, don't know duration. Don't want to stroke crank and reluctant to bore cases for larger displacement kits.
2. Fuel: Pump gas
3. Maintenance: I tinker all the time.
4. Skill level: Riding-40 years-average ability, wrenching-built a few engines-they all ran and lasted-above average ability.

I'm not commited to using any of the above components. I just want a strong reliable efficient engine. Bike will end up a "hanger queen" when finished. Sure is gonna be fun! Thanks again for taking your time to help me. Ride safe, Steve

APE Jay wrote:

Whenever you increase the displacement of an engine without increasing it's ability to breath better, it usually doesn't make much more power, but it moves the powerband down the RPM scale.

It becomes a tractor motor and wants to rip your arms off. Riding it, it seem like it has a bunch more power when in fact it doesn't, but is a blast to ride.

yeah but with a little headwork its more than enough to leave you wondering what happened to the stoplight you left 3 blocks ago!:laugh: street bikes spend the majority of their time in the lower to mid range of power band anyway thats where i suggest aiming a streetbike motor for.big valves ,giant ports and big camshafts are fine on a dragbike where the throttle is pinned to the stop through the run,but not really practical on a streetbound brawler.

shighley

There are many ways to build torque. As you see from the posts there are guys here with years of experience and know what they are talking about. Some of these guys have been around the block more times then the Ice Cream truck. I will try to add some suggestions to the mix.

The first thing I will tell you is to keep it simple and don't spend all your money on this project. The reason I say this is you don't want a design/engineering project right off the bat, give your self a chance to add to your skill level and have fun.

The second thing is save money for hind sight after you get it going. You may want to add this or that as you go. I have seen so many projects where people get beat-down or go broke, the project ends up in the trash or being sold for half of what is invested in the project.

I am glad to see that you have a pretty good grip on your riding style and your needs. So far your ahead of a lot of people! You may have the engine building bug, by the time you finish this one. That extra money will help for the next project! hahaha!

I am not trying to discourage you in any way, just save you time and heartbreak. We all started at the bottom, learned and worked our way up.

I remember when I was a kid and got my first ten speed. I was always starting off in 5th. gear. Boy, it was hard at 1st. but I could go a long ways before I needed to shift gears. As my legs got stronger, I had the torque to take off faster and really pickup speed. Torque can be used for
tractor pulling power (quickness with low gears) or with tall gearing for high speed (MPH)

I'm sorry that I didn't just give you a parts list, I chose to share a different kind of wisdom with you. I felt this was the best thing I could offer someone new to Z building.................kzz1p

PS- I will post some suggestions for parts, soon. I have rattled on enough, I hope they don't kick me off the site.

In my mind torque equals high cylinder pressue at lower piston speed. High cylinder pressure equals high octane, hence the first problem. In a perfect world all you would need to do is. Install the biggest piston size w/the highest compression possiable, a head with high port velocity, short duration cams with low lift and very little valve overlap & high velocity carbs. If octane wasn't an issue all you would need is 12.5:1 pistons, cleaned up head with turbo cams and a set of 29's. Boy could you plow the fields with that. Now back to the real world!
Just to think aloud, I would try to leave super high compression out of it. I would think more along the lines of medium to low compression. I would use cams that would lower my power band and increase my cranking compression to a point. Since turbo cams come in a few diff sizes, that would be on the top of my list. That would give me short duration, small lift and very little valve overlap. The down side would be, no 10,000 rpm redline. Now for the pistons. Don't hold my feet to the fire on this! If you used a turbo cam with a 10.25:1 piston, your cranking compression would be appx. #270 lbs.(no pump gas) My next guess would be turbo pistons (appx.7.5:1)with a milled cylinder or head. I think if you got the compression to about 8.5:1 to 9.0:1 you would be around #200 lbs. Then add a good flowing head with 29's and a small tube header like a Denco (monocone or tricone) and 16t/33t gears.

I think it all works out to about the same as 10.25:1 pistons with stock cams, but with a lower rpm range.....Who knows I'm just guessing!

shighley wrote:

crank/clutch basket to Falicon. Steve

Send the crank to Stan Gardner 207-664-0377