Project Kawasaki Hybrid Part 7 A Bit Of Push And Shove

Scoop’s Kawasaki Hybrid engine is doing the hokey-cokey this month.

- Steve Cooper

Projects: you have to love them. It really doesn’t matter if you’re doing a pin-point, 100% perfect show bike or just fettling that long term rider… they all have the power to go belly-up on occasion.

The first major niggle to blight the project was finding one of our carefully selected barrels had a crack in it. Amazingly this priceless piece of Kawasaki ephemera had been looked at by five pairs of eyes and was only spotted when the cylinder had a first cursory pass on the boring bar. Closer inspection revealed a gudgeon pin may have tried to make a break for freedom. Thankfully Kawasaki Hybrid guru Ian Bird found another on the shelf so we were back in the game after what could have been a major wobble.

Looking into the damaged cylinder we could see the subtle boost ports previously machined by crankshaft and Kawasaki specialist Gary Clarke which meant poor old Rob Pemberton of SPA Motorcycles had to fettle the replacement to suit.

And Rob has also been busy sorting out the cylinder heads removing the previous scarring from detonation while, at the same time, taking some compression out of the heads. The new profile gives the heads proper squish bands and gives the spark plug a much better chance of working as it ought, which should give the new pistons a much easier life. And I’m hoping I won’t have to feed the engine any more pistons as the new ones are pukka, expensive, Wossner jobbies all the way from Germany. They come with a superb reputation and apparently eclipse pretty much everything else out there. I still wince at the price but you can’t beat quality kit.