Should a track engine be refreshed?

[alex]

Question to those who've mainly done track miles on their RR.

Should you refresh a motor that has shown no signs of issues, just in case?

If so by what mileage?

Or should I just wait for an issue to happen and accept it might be serious by then?

- Alex

 

[bmwbadboy]

I have same question.

Dave from HM suggested to at least check valve clearances and from there on decide.

 

[fast_ryan]

Yes; especially if the track mileage is high. The engine itself will most likely be fine but ideally you will want the valve clearances checked at the very least.

 

[Corkgsxr]

Lad in our garage pulled the engine on a 14 to do a full check over and found one slightly bent rod.

No issues the previous race weekend

 

[alex]

Lad in our garage pulled the engine on a 14 to do a full check over and found one slightly bent rod.

No issues the previous race weekend

Blimey - without symptoms?

 

[Corkgsxr]

Nothing. Slight but definitely bent

 

[Corkgsxr]

 

[alex]

Within tolerance LOL

 

[Corkgsxr]

As I say there wasn't a issue 3 days on track without a miss. Or any weirdness.

 

[JamieMac]

I?d say that?s a little bit more than slight

If you?ve been doing say 10-15 trackdays a year, I?d check valve clearances and afterwards do a compression test of each cylinder over every winter. Most likely problems will be top end. If a cylinder is lower, it?ll generally be just fresh set of rings on all pistons and a Valve lap. Certainly a engine strip after 3 seasons. J

 

[bananaman]

Although that rod seems to me to be well outside tolerance, these engines are more and more built with very tight tolerances, it amazes me how they can be given 2/3 year guarantees ....
Gen 1 I had from new started making some strange noises 0n the 3rd day at Almeria, nothing I could put my finger on and couldn't replicate it when stationary. Decided to miss out the last day and get inspected when home.
Took in the Park Lane and they stripped it, telling me that it was out of tolerance. When questioned what was out, they said that a lot of it was but nothing definitive and wouldn't be happy re-assembling as it was. Cut a long story short, it was out of the 2 years but with full dealer history and BMW stumped up a new engine with me paying labour. Approx 5k miles, maybe half on track.

Think it also depends whether you are stock thou fast or just fast?

 

[scooby]

Although that rod seems to me to be well outside tolerance, these engines are more and more built with very tight tolerances, it amazes me how they can be given 2/3 year guarantees ....
Gen 1 I had from new started making some strange noises 0n the 3rd day at Almeria, nothing I could put my finger on and couldn't replicate it when stationary. Decided to miss out the last day and get inspected when home.
Took in the Park Lane and they stripped it, telling me that it was out of tolerance. When questioned what was out, they said that a lot of it was but nothing definitive and wouldn't be happy re-assembling as it was. Cut a long story short, it was out of the 2 years but with full dealer history and BMW stumped up a new engine with me paying labour. Approx 5k miles, maybe half on track.

Think it also depends whether you are stock thou fast or just fast?

thats an excellent result,especially as they wouldn't atually tell you what the issue was,if they told me that,i'd be thinking they was trying to pull a fast 1 getting me to stump up for a new engine!!.

i'd still be pushing to find out what was wrong with it though

 

[stuartb]

Not often you see a con rod like that, brilliant result with the replacement engine .

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

 

[bananaman]

I'm guessing it must have been true because they would have had to justify it with BMW

 

[assenholm]

Following here as well. Have a 2016 RR that has done rougly 8000 km now, and runs smooth as ever. Oil + filter changed every 5th trackday or so. In doubt if I should check all engine bearings etc. this winter or let it run another season before checking. Running it next season would prob put it at 10.500-11.000 km in total before checking it.

 

[alex]

Thanks for the thoughts here, sounds like a valve check and compression check should be booked in over winter...along with a suspension service (2 years) and brake piston refresh.

Tony from HM is doing some jobs at FWR when he's not needed by HRC for Alvaro...might ask him to do the needful. As, though I'd love to do it all my garage space simply isn't suitable.



- Alex

 

[scooby]

suspension service is somehting i never miss each year tbh,also gives the chance to hav ea chat with the tech guys doing it,an re-evaluating the settings,spring rate etc after tlking about whats going on with thebike,and if your speed is increasing etc

 

[alex]

suspension service is somehting i never miss each year tbh,also gives the chance to hav ea chat with the tech guys doing it,an re-evaluating the settings,spring rate etc after tlking about whats going on with thebike,and if your speed is increasing etc

For sure, Perry at HM did it last. Would hope Tony could go from there, but he may tell me to just take it all to HM for the suspension.

Tbh I have taken a wrong turn with setup, spent too long chasing zip ties because of bumps. So I can't give good feedback right now.

I need to spend some time with Dave on the data too to make sure I use that not anything else to chase suspension travel optimals.

- Alex

 

[scooby]

yea zip ties are the cause of a lot of poor set ups,maybe try a cam mounted so you can the fork movement (spike has a great vid of his) and get an idea,but theres no susbstitute for cold hard data.

some guys can tell the tech exactly what the bikes doing so it's easier for them to fine tune,for me i'm just happy to get in the ball park area of good feel,and then take it from there with tweeks every now and again

 

[mattals]

Alex were is fwr? Is Tony contactable there? Gutted he left HM