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The start of the 7000 dollar money pit

98K views 318 replies 42 participants last post by  rkfinch23 
#1 · (Edited)
The start of the 7000 dollar money pit... i mean $19000

new here guys figured what the hell id start a build thread. I bought a 2014 grom about a month ago with 120 miles on it and now has 1300. I'm having a blast with this little thing. ive had many different bikes though out my life. i did land speed racing and drag racing even set a few records and am a 200mph club member. I still own street bikes dirt bikes mini bikes and even a 250 shifter kart. my life has always been around motorcycles and continues to this day as I build custom motorcycles for a living. now I just need to figure out how to post a picture so that I can start this thread lol
 

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#4 ·
It's not a money pit, its a learning curve on how to make a little motorcycle fast.

I have lots of motorcycles and a few fast ones and one or two custom motorcycles but I have never had any attention about my motorcycles as much as I have with the Grom, maybe I did when I got the first 1999 Hayabusa back in 99.

Congrats and ride safe
 
#7 ·
OK, well, now I don't like you. I mean, I do, 'cause that's cool as hell. I guess I'm more along the lines of peanut butter and jealous than I am in out right dislike for you. I love my job, but I wish it was slightly different and involved bikes and not cars. Lucky bastard.... Although I know it's not luck.

Anyways, now that the awkward love/hate part is out of the way, I'm curious to see what you build now. I'm torn between making mine a track bike or a cool looking street bike.
 
#12 ·
ran across these pics today and even they aren't of a grom they are of one of my little toys with a horizontal grom style engine. I was in the pitbike scene pretty big 10 years ago mainly hot rodding the china motors. I did get this thing to crack 100mph as a 137 on NOS. and got very very close as a 173cc all motor before losing interest to something else.
 

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#13 ·
Since you did the pit bike scene a while back and I assume these Chinese engines where air cooled HOW did you control the heat and esp the crank case vent or crank case pressure due to the high RPM causing the oil to heat up and air pressure to build up in the crank. Most of us are using oil catcher units but there must be a better solution to drain the oil back into the crank. I talked to a old Harley engine builder at the last Hollister biker event this pass 4th of July and he came up with a solution of drilling/tapping another crank case vent line/tube and he built some kind of one way valve and catcher unit that would release the air pressure build up but return the oil back into the motor. Thanks for any feed back.
 
#16 · (Edited)
cisco believe it or not I don't remember it being a problem. we did vent the head as well as the crankcase. I can tell you that if its pushing/blowing oil somethings not right. weather it be the size of the crankcase vent or blow by. on our turbo bikes we are making way more power per hole and they don't blow anything plus on the big nasty bikes, they have vacuum pumps on the crankcase pumping pressure out. I'm getting ready to do a tak 181 4v and we will see. right now I'm figuring on maybe ditching the pcv and wideband in favor of the finbro ecu jus to get away from the stock ecu. id (like) to tryin keep the fuel injection
 
#19 · (Edited)
cisco believe it or not I don't remember it being a problem. we did vent the head as well as the crankcase. I can tell you that if its pushing/blowing oil somethings not right. weather it be the size of the crankcase vent or blow by. on our turbo bikes we are making way more power per hole and they don't blow anything plus on the bike nasty bikes, they have vacuum pumps on the crankcase pumping pressure out. I'm getting ready to do a tak 181 4v and we will see. right now I'm figuring on maybe ditching the pcv and wideband in favor of the finbro ecu jus to get away from the stock ecu. id (like) to tryin keep the fuel injection
GSX is using the same Takegawa 181-4V but he is also using a carb instead of the F/I and he also got the HD crank/rod from Finbro but he had to put a bushing for the correct hole size for the piston wrist pin/rod connection and also drilled some oil holes in the bushing for oil lube. GSX is hitting 100+ mph and he also has a Tak 5 sp but said the Kitaco 5 sp is a better choice.

I rode with a couple of guys with the Takegawa 181-4V super head BBK kit and those engines are the best, the only thing to look out for is the valve tappet tabs that sit on the valve they seem or look like the weak point of that kit. I was told if the rocker arm goes all the needle bearings go all over the engine causing big time failure to the engine internals.

Right now I also have a Takegawa 181-4V super head kit and I also bought a Koso 34mm throttle body and inlet tube for this BBK and I will port match the Tak 181 head to match the hole size of the Koso inlet tube which is about 29-30mm. I also bought from HR the Kitaco crank and beefy connecting rod which has the right hole size for the wrist pin. Those will either go on one of my two groms which blows the engine first or I might buy a third grom and build that one from the ground up.

Thanks for the feed back on the crank case pressure and crank case vent info.
 
#20 ·
cisco you are more then welcome, I will know more after I get one of these things running. I do plan on cutting the hell out of the 4v head much less the 34mm tb. an engine is only an air pump and theres always more power to be had out of the head.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Keep up the good work on the grom, I know how you feel about money pit, but like you I love motorcycles and I have two groms so that is twice the money pit and soon to be a KTM 390 Duke money pit. Seems like I rather work on these little motorcycle than upgrading my 1999 Hayabusa.

Cured the Crank case pressure issue on my BrianS 170 BBK engine but on my Finbro 183 BBK engine still having oil coming out of the crank to my mod airbox even thou both groms have the same exact parts for crank case pressure using the oil spout filler as a relief for pressure and increasing the size of the i/d hose for both crank case vent and oil spout hole and routing the hose up high and around the gas tank and back down to the mod air box.





Hey ride safe.
 
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