RC Engineerings cam followers.where are they now ?

Was searching through EBAY when I came across a Sid Pouge main cap insert that bolts in to the crankshaft cap to prevent the camchain from jumping teeth whilst swapping cams etc.



Haven't seen one of these for sale for years as non of the current KZ performance suppliers have taken to producing their own version.
Ok! so it's maybe a bit of a trinket and no performance enhancer but it got me thinking of the replacement followers that RC Engineering used to make.
These items had lightened/drilled skirts, a closer fit for the shim and no groove around the top to help resist shim spitting.
As far as I know only RC did these but why has no one else carried on producing something similar.
Almost every other KZ performance part is being produced by several companies but not lightened followers.
Is there some reason no one else took to producing them, maybe patent issues, increased bucket bore wear or failure due to fracturing of the drilled skirt ?
If non of the above is the case then why has no one else took to making them, especially as Ti retainers are so popular in reducing valve train inertia and lightened followers would reduce this even more.

Do you by any chance have a picture of one?...........It certainly sounds like a good idea

I think APE has oversized followers. They might have what you are talking about built in.
Steve

Schnitz Used to carry that cap insert in a nylon version the last ones i got I just called Sid and ordered them from him as far as the followers are concerned I see no need today as we have much better valve springs than they used to have I have done many engines with over .500in lift cams W/O issue.

i'm old enough to remember the r.c. eng. shim on top followers....... :blink: the holes were to reduce weight for valve float . no groove for the shim to rock into.... :blink:

just a personal thing for me i don't like to remove the cams to adjust the valve on a street engine ...i still silver solder the groove and machine them back flat so as not to spit the shim on stock shim on top buckets.......I do this for cams that are less than .430 lift....anything bigger I would do shim on bottom :dry:

you can take a piece of nylon, countersink it and make your own cam chain keeper. still sid made some cool stuff. :ohmy:

Just think, I've been running 40 year old springs, they were rubbing against each other and the bike still ran like a bat out of hell.
Steve

DFIGPZ wrote: as far as the followers are concerned I see no need today as we have much better valve springs than they used to have.

If that were the case then there would be no need for Ti retainers to be used either but they are also readily available for KZ motors.
Any reduction in valve train inertia is a good thing regardless of the valve spring quality.
That aside, the question was, is there any good reason why no one is producing the RC style followers today, even just a shim under lightened version,

bluezbike wrote: Do you by any chance have a picture of one?...........It certainly sounds like a good idea

I have a pic of some RC followers in an old mag but can find nothing on the net.
The only similar image I've found is of a modified shim under oem bucket which may give you some idea as to what RC produced although their holes were smaller and in pairs on the skirt.

turboking wrote: i'm old enough to remember the r.c. eng. shim on top followers....... :blink: the holes were to reduce weight for valve float . no groove for the shim to rock into.... :blink:

just a personal thing for me i don't like to remove the cams to adjust the valve on a street engine ...i still silver solder the groove and machine them back flat so as not to spit the shim on stock shim on top buckets.......I do this for cams that are less than .430 lift....anything bigger I would do shim on bottom :dry:

you can take a piece of nylon, countersink it and make your own cam chain keeper. still sid made some cool stuff. :ohmy:

Sid was a Kawasaki genius back in the day.

A good EDM machinist could do that with a wire machine. I may have to do some research.

zed1015 wrote:

bluezbike wrote: Do you by any chance have a picture of one?...........It certainly sounds like a good idea

I have a pic of some RC followers in an old mag but can find nothing on the net.
The only similar image I've found is of a modified shim under oem bucket which may give you some idea as to what RC produced although their holes were smaller and in pairs on the skirt.

Thank you Zed, now that I have a visual I remember seeing a shot like this in an article about engine work done by Sanctuary in Japan and the there seemed to be four rather large holes in the skirts.....I will try to find it and post it

When I ripped the motor apart on my TC it had the RC followers with removable top shims. The bike had not run since the late 1980's so I had some vintage speed parts on it. It was a real pain to remove the shims, so I can see that they would keep the shims from being spit out. I will try to post some photos soon.