HEADS UP
Power with provenance, a cylinder head with a bit of history.
We continue to try and get closer to creating a proper Superbike from the Golden Era as we possibly can, and now we’ve got the flat-slides working – we’re not doing too bad. The bike is going better than ever.
Our latest addition to the ZX7-R is a factory cylinder head. Yes, a proper Superbike cylinder head from one of the Eckl machines built in the Netherlands and raced in Germany. We are told it was worked on by one of Chris Walker’s mechanics!
Ritchie knows a guy who’s collected these Kawasaki works parts and stored them for years. We were so lucky that he was willing to sell us this priceless piece of kit. Excess alloy has been removed to lighten it, it’s been skimmed, it has cut guides, it has captive head bolt washers and the oil breather pipes have been removed and the holes plugged
Captive washers and all the breather holes plugged - proper factory!
.
After Cadwell Park we wanted to check the bottom end journals and big ends after the problems we’ve had and we’re happy to say that the oil pressure issues have now been cured. While the engine was apart, we thought it was a good time reassemble it with this cylinder head.
Two halves make a whole new motor...
So, Ritchie cleaned it and sprayed it black to match the rest of our engine and I found the time to prepare, clean and replace all the valve seals, lap the valves in and assemble it all with the stiffer springs while he was away on a much-needed holiday. When he got back we built the engine together over the weekend with the racing cams he bought from the same guy a year ago. He’s been a fantastic contact to know and a very helpful to Ritchie.
He has some great bikes himself too; proper Kwackas with cam-gear drives, dry clutches, factory exhausts, the lot.
Wouldn’t you just love one of these? Chris Walker’s ZX7-R.
Anyway, the cylinder head cleaned up quickly and easily. Reportedly, the works mechanics used to decoke them after about three meetings so there wasn’t a lot of grime to get rid of. The exhaust ports just needed white spirit and a scrub with an old toothbrush, then a splash brake cleaner to bring them up like new.
Giving it the works, a good clean of the exhaust ports and it’s ready for the valves.
With the valves lapped in, everything was reassembled and ready. When we started the bike, it sounded the quietest – mechanically – it’s ever done. The difference in performance was clear at Mallory Park during practice on Thursday, before the race weekend, Ritchie unofficially broke his own lap record of 54.5 with a 53.9 second lap.
On his way to a new lap record - Ritchie pushes the Wasp to the limit.
We also had to make a trip to STS motorcycles in Foxton to get our new Dymag front wheel straightened out after Ritchie clipped the big bumps on the exit of the Bus Stop. It turned out fine in the end and we had breakfast at Chris Walker’s dealership, which was just 10 minutes down the road.
That was a real treat because we got to meet and talk to the ‘Stalker’ and see his original Eckl Engineering ZX7-R – talk about coincidences, there we were, with a factory head on our bike talking to Chris Walker about his original factory bike and the mechanic that may well have worked on our cylinder head.
An unexpected trip took us to Chris Walker's Kawasaki dealership near Grantham for breakfast and a good chat with the man himself about all things ZX7-R.
It turned out to be a weekend of ups and downs and Ritchie will tell his story soon, but from the Team’s point of view it wasn’t such a disappointment. The bike ran well, it broke the lap record and if it hadn’t been for a cam chain tensioner breaking just before the start of the first race we couldn’t really fail our Kwacka – from a performance point of view that is.
We’ll be looking forward to Brands Hatch now – our home circuit – where we hope Ritchie will be able to turn things round in the Championship. It seems odd that he’s only been beaten once at Cadwell, winning 10 out of 14 races, and yet he’s second in the championship! It was the technical DNF with the oil pressure gauge that was the killer at the double points round at Oulton Park.
See you all at Brands.
Team 71
Thanks again to all our sponsors: Wiseco Piston Inc/Race Winning Brands, Kais Suspension, Carrillo, Cradley Kawasaki, Nova Racing Transmissions, Mark Wright at Holbeach Tyres, OPIE Oils, R&G Racing, TA-Creative and Dymag, also to STS motorcycles for helping us straighten a bent wheel in time to race at Mallory
