TECHNICAL > ALL MOTOR TALK
Oil mods, easy and fun~
Jonny Hotnuts:
The oil mods:
There are a few things a guy can do to these engines to get more oil where its needed. Take note that these mods are for engines making 2-3+ times OEM HP. Truth be known the OEM oiling system is very adequate and capable of taking a bike well 100K miles without issues. Some of these mods should not be done for daily drivers and all should be done at your own risk.
There are 2 very important terms dealing with an oil system. These terms are ‘FLOW’ and ‘PRESSURE’. Think of filling a 2-5 gallon buckets with water. You can use a high pressure 1” hose with 300 psi and fill it in about 2 seconds…..or use another 5 gallon bucket to dump into the other. The bucket poured has almost zero pressure but massive flow. Two different ways to fill a bucket in the same time but one uses flow and the other uses pressure. These concepts are critical to the busa oil system.
The whole idea of ‘improving’ the busa oil system is to provide more oil to the bearings. More oil directly equates to less bearing failure even with massive load stresses, and in the event of a bearing failure can lessen the damage.
First, lets take a look at the heart. It consists of the pump and regulator.
The regulators job is to regulate pressure both low and high. The pumps job is to pump oil…..seems like a simple concept….but pressure in the system is generated by restrictions so any modification designed to decrease oil flow (jet reductions) in hopes that it will send more oil to the bearings will fail. AS with the APE high volume pump gear. It all goes out the regulator……
Look at it this way:
(pump puts oil IN the system, everything else bleeds oil off)
-Pump (100% in flow to system [OEM GEAR]) to regulator (-33 out flow) - jets, coolers, and secondary oiling (-33 out flow) main and rod bearings (-33 out flow).
One of the common mods is to restrict jets…..but heres what happens:
-Pump (100% in flow to system [OEM GEAR]) to regulator (-55 out flow) - jets, coolers, and secondary oiling (-11 out flow) – main and rod bearings (-33 out flow)
With high flow pump gear:
-Pump (130% in flow to system [APE GEAR]) to regulator (-85 out flow) - jets, coolers, and secondary oiling (-11 out flow) – main and rod bearings (-33 out flow)
Basically all that happens is the jets flow less, regulator flows more and main and rod bearings get EXACTLY the same! This will be true IF the OEM regulator has enough flow capability to outflow. IT IS MY OPINION THAT THE REGULATOR BY DESIGN WAS NOT MADE TO BE ABLE TO FULLY REGULATE SYSTEM PRESSURE! This is only guess….and the fact that Suzuki has a block in the regulator piston so it only goes ½ way down the out jets…..hummmmm. I believe even with the OEM pump gear the pump can flow more oil than the regulator can vent out. These are just assumptions on my part…..
1st mod. APE high volume gear.
2nd Billet ‘high pressure’ oil regulator OR (and what I do) make a restrictor to the oil pressure regulator by using a washer with an inside hole of ¼” that sits on top of the regulator.
Example with high volume pump, restricted or high pressure regulator only:
-Pump (130% in flow to system [APE GEAR]) to regulator (-33 [now limited] out flow) - jets, coolers, and secondary oiling (-48 out flow) – main and rod bearings (-48 out flow)
Clearly more oil is going to the bearings…..BUT also more oil is going to the head, transmission, piston cooling jets and other items that DO NOT NEED EXTRA FLOW!
Mod 3
Restrictions of the piston cooling jets.
I have used 2 methods for restriction, soldering the ends and drilling and putting a.032 drill in the end and pinching the tube around the bit. Soldering the ends looked cleaner but was time consuming and a huge pain. I recommend the pinch method. I have not done flow tests but can say that with these restricted to about .030-.035 will at higher pressure….will flow near the same amount of oil as OEM jets will with the OEM pump/reg. Many people block these 100% with no problems....truth is all the oil going out the rods and mains gets slung around and will oil the pistons, pins and cylinders. Because I run 5 miles wide open I only restrict mine....if I did 1320 I would block them completely.
Mod 4
Blocking the stator jet
Bad idea for the daily driver….good idea for the drag racer (or LSR).
Mod 5
Reducing oil to the head.
(this I read about somewhere else….)
There is a through bolt that supplies oil to the head. Now that the pump and regulator flow more if left OEM the head will receive much more oil than needed. Drill and tap the end of the bolt and use a .125 jet to restrict flow.
Mod 6
Block oiling to the counterbalancer.
If you have a balanced crank and removed the counterbalancer you will also need to block the passages or starve the motor. Easiest (and cheap) method is to use the APE counter block off. www.hayabusazone.com
Now with the HV gear, Modded regulator AND restricted secondary oiling:
-Pump (130% in flow to system [APE GEAR]) to regulator (-33 [now limited] out flow) - jets, coolers, and secondary oiling (-28 out flow) – main and rod bearings (-68 out flow)
As you can see much more oil is now going to the bearings and basically the same is going to secondary systems.
Mod 7
Problems with Koenig:
Awesome pan….but…
A. The o-ring on the pick up swivel (at least on mine) is slightly smaller then what it should have been. This could of caused bubbles to be introduced into the system. I have seen 2 instances where you could blow air past the o-ring. Something to look for….I would bet someone with oil fluctuations is due to this smallish Oring and couldn’t find what the prob was…..or others that lost motors/bearings because of this.
B. The bolt that limits the swing travel…..they used an off the shelf screw that protrudes about 75% into the pickup tube!!!!! Remove it and cut it off so only a small nub in in the pipe. Hard for me to believe they did this….
C. Remove the prescreen and put a radius on the pickup intake end block. This will allow a much higher oil volume to be taken up without cavitation.
Mod 8
Removing the castings sides of the OEM oil restrictor behind filter.
When removing the oil cooler you will need to remove the restrictor plug (oil goes IN the filter and back to the motor through the pipe) The interesting thing that Suzuki did was include the pipe with the oil restirctior on one side….and the oil from the oil cooler on the opposite. I do not think this was done by accident. I believe it was to balance oil flow on both sides of the filter. If you remove the cooler and restrictor use a die grinder with carbide tip to knock down the walls allowing oil to be able to flow around the base of the filter unobstructed. I also drill out the threads so the oil pipe now has a smooth bore.
Before
after
Mod 9
Radius the oil filter discharge pipe.
The end of the pipe the filter screws on is squared…..Think of this flow the same way velocity stacks work. By putting a slight radii on the end of the pipe will help oil flow back into the motor.
Modifying the ease of the flow now translates into MORE pump flow:
-Pump (136% in flow to system [APE GEAR]) to regulator (-33 [now limited] out flow) - jets, coolers, and secondary oiling (-31 out flow) – main and rod bearings (-71 out flow)
Increasing flow to the bearings:
Mod 10
I have done some flow test….sounds crazy but I use a garden hose and a tape measure. Connect a garden hose to the oil filter IN pipe and turn it on (low). You can measure the water stream coming from each bearing supply hole (shells off). (Note; you can also check flow of piston jets the same way)
I have noticed slightly less flow going to the 1 and 2 bearing. You will notice that all other bearings are fed from a large primary gallery….and then takes 2-90 degree turns and goes waaaay down in size.
Drill out this passage to 5/16” all the way to the end (and no more!). Tap and plug this hole. I don’t BUT it would also be a good idea to remove the plug doing the same to its adjoining ‘feeding’ passage (also small).
Mod 11
Increasing the ‘slit’ width under the shells
Its easy to see that with the shells installed part of the oil hole into the shell is blocked by the castings below. I do not do this mod but many use a fine cut off wheel to remove some stock from the sides to expose more of the shell hole to the feed below.
Mod 12
Modifying the bearing shells.
I have done this mod but it makes me uneasy. Truth is I don’t like to handle these shells let alone drill on them. I have drilled additional holes….and oblonged existing holes. Using the now available gen II bearings with long holes is the only way to go!!!!
Mod 13
The Gen II crank
The Gen II crank has grooves around the main journals. This, along with the long holes in the gen II bearings provides significantly more oil to the rods. Suzuki CLEARLY recognized the need to provide more oil to the rods by this change. This change made many of the before mentioned oil mods unnecessary (but not entirely).
I have (to my knowledge) the first Gen I crank that has had the mains fluted like the Gen II (on its way in a week or so) and was done because of the significant improvement in oiling. www.marinecrankshaftinc.com
Mod 14
Bearing tolerances
Ok, this is not really a mod but important. Oil like all liquids under pressure will FLOW TO THE POINT OF LEAST RESISTANCE! Because oil flows to the mains FIRST and then the rods if you have your mains loose and your rods tight all the oil will flow out the crank and starve the rods. So in building these engines you need to have your mains tighter than your rods…..but not so loose you would drop pressure to the mains! I personally run on the tight side of tolerance for the main and closer to the looser spec on the rods. Get this wrong and you will smoke the motor. This is why engine builders get paid the $$$$....because they know this poop.
Mod 15
Restrict oil to the turbo!!!!
You are tapping a line off the main artery of the motor. You must run a restrictor in the line and the turbo doesn’t need 50 gallons of oil running through it!
In closing, I made most of this up, may of missed some important ones or was way off base in calculations.
Take everything I say with a grain of salt….
~JH
speedduck:
Ok, there`s some good stuff to improve oiling. Couple thougths here, i had this billet high pressure oil regulator and after minor bearing damage it seemed to get worn inside, some debris gone through and left it leaking, doesn`t happen so easy with original regulator which is steel.
Anybody used high-vol oil pump ? I think it was available from TTS few years ago.
Is there more need for piston cooling with turbo engine ?
How can the oil passage from mains to rod journals in billet crankshafts be adequate when there is mostly one hole ? It has to lubricate whole journal from one point.
glenn71:
if you look at your cases where your oil pump bolts onto the motor and where the pickup bolts onto the cases theres alot of sharp edges in there on the suction side of the pump.i radius all in there and port match the oil pump faces itself on the outlet hole.In regards to the billet cranks one oiling hole,the hole is drilled to take advantage of gyroscopic force to drag oil out into the rod bearing.Im concerned with a higher volume oil pump gear running the sump dry and i can see on the cam journals nearest to the cam gears,theyre doesnt seem like it wants any less oil to the head but could do with an improvement in oil returning to the sump faster.Ill be trying a high pressure relief valve firstly with the stock oil pump gear.My question though is your assumption that a large percentage of oil goes straight out the stock pressure reg,so are you saying that below 115psi oil pressure theyre is significant oil flow out the regulator,because with 40weight oil hot,you rarely reach 115psi with average bearing clearances and only see that pressure when the oil is warm.What i dont think is ideal is to put the oil pressure reg BEFORE the restrictor that diverts flow to the oil cooler,i know this will stop blowing the oil filter off the motor cold, but the bearings oil pressure is a diluted response on the other side of a filter and a restrictor.Interestingly blocking the oil jets without restricting the oil to the head would potentially lower your oil level in the sump as it has to migrate more oil out of the head instead of just bouncing off the bottom of the pistons.
sportbikeryder:
--- Quote from: Jonny Hotnuts on March 04, 2012, 01:30:07 AM ---
Mod 5
Reducing oil to the head.
(this I read about somewhere else….)
There is a through bolt that supplies oil to the head. Now that the pump and regulator flow more if left OEM the head will receive much more oil than needed. Drill and tap the end of the bolt and use a .125 jet to restrict flow.
--- End quote ---
did you really use a .125 jet or was it a #125 jet? I have used a #125. A .125 jet wouldn't restrict any flow as it is larger than the current hole.
dave3.4:
great write up :thumb:
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