Millyard Kawasaki Z1 1600 V8 motorcycle - How its made

in this video i'm going to show you how i made the engine for my kawasaki said 1600 v8 back in 2001. the first thing i had to do was to get hold of an old set of kawasaki z1 crank cases and using my handsaw cut the top crankcase in half to remove the gearbox section then i had to work out how far i could lean back the rear bank of cylinders before the bottom of the barrel would hit the primary drive gear this was done by eye by filing metal from the bottom of the upper crank case until it led back just the right amount with the rear banker cylinders now leading back to their set angle i can now notch the front of the crank cases to fit the front cylinders by sawing out this section here and here's a top view of the crankcase showing the rear bank of cylinder mountains lent back with the front part of the crankcase sawed off a second set of crankcases i then had to miter that to fill the gap and create the v8 crankcase this was a critical part of the job i had to cut this section out and it had to fit perfect and i had to get it right first time otherwise i'd need to use another set of crank cases but after lots of filing i eventually got it onto some sandpaper glued onto a bit of wood lapped it backwards and forwards for hours until it fitted perfect it was like a three-dimensional puzzle keeping these two parts in line when i was lapping them to get them to be parallel square and true but eventually they all fitted perfect and there was barely any gaps so i was really pleased so i was now ready for welding and here's the crank cases after i had them vapor blasted and the first stage welding was complete the next thing i had to do was reposition the starter motor because the rear bank of cylinders were lent back the motor had dropped down and hit the gearbox so i had to move it out a little bit you can see in this view the starter motor sticking out past the side of the crankcase in its new position with the starter motor roughly in its new place i had to make new pieces of metal to weld onto the crankcase to extend it out 10 millimeters and also allow me to drill new holes to mount the existing standard generator cover and here it is all finished and drilled ready to fit the cover and it fitted perfect with the crank cases roughed out i stripped down two crankshafts to look at all the parts to work out how i'm going to fit an extra four connecting rods into the standard space where a standard crankshaft will fit looking at all the parts i could see that the kawasaki z1 crankshaft was really over engineered and i was able to shave metal off all the parts to give me the extra space so i fitted the connecting rods into the lathe and turned off about five millimeters from their width and then i bought thinner roller bearings as you can see here but i had to make a new cage that was a complicated job and here you can see the slimmed down connecting rod with the existing standard roller bearing the side thrust washers are also very thick on the zeb1 crankshaft i was able to remove a lot of material they're about nearly three millimeters wide so i took them down to one i was also able to reduce the thickness of the flywheel webs so within the connecting rods thinner thrust washers thinner flywheel webs i was able to fit two connection rods onto each of the four crank pins and here's all the finished parts for my v8 crankshaft all i had to do now was make some new big end roller cages out 7075 t6 aluminium i measured an existing vegan cage to get the sizes to make the aluminium cages just making them a bit narrower and here's four blanks ready for slotting i made a little fixture that clamped onto my vertical slide on my old my first muzzle makers lathe with this and a little slot drill in the chuck i could then machine the slots but they had radius ends so i had to make a broach that i go in and out to cut the corners out sharp with the new big encages machine and the new thinner rollers i could do a trial assembly and i was really pleased it fitted perfect before i can assemble the crankshaft i need to make eight bronze bushes for the little end eyes to reduce the diameter so i can fit z650 pistons i need to fit smaller pistons to allow for the offsets between the cylinders with the little end bushes fitted i can now start assembling the crankshaft in my lathe starting with the inner four cylinders as the modified crankshaft components were pressed together the original positions of the bearings remained and here is the finished v8 crankshaft that's exactly the same width of a standard z1 crankshaft but i'm feeling a bit hungry now so i think i'll go make myself some toast mmm that's much better right let's get back on with this i've got so many photographs to go through a good feature of my v8 engine is that the bottom crankcase is absolutely standard and all the welding and the works in the top crank case but that's quite extensive so i thought i'd better give it a bit of heat treatment before i carried on much further so i put it in the oven for about five hours at 230 degrees c and here's the underside of the heavily modified top crank case the next thing i need to do is machine the areas where the bearings sit for the crankshaft and in this picture you can see where i had to redirect the oil gallery on the underside of the upper crankcase to bore the inner main bearing journals i just use a piece of steel with a cutter and i'm going to slide it in and out of the two existing outer bearings which i will hand scrape to fit perfect first with the crank cases bolted up tight together and the two outer bearings in place with the steel bar on the cutter i can put on a cup by using a feeler gauge against the bottom surface of the bearing which is untouched to put on a cut for the upper part of the bearing which has got weld on it then you progress in and out with the drill taking off metal a little tiny bit at a time until the cutter just marks the bottom crankcase surface then you know you're absolutely perfect with the main bearings machined i trial fitted the clutch shaft to make sure it all cleared which it did and then i can put the crankshaft in bolt it all up tight for the first time and it all span round great my crank cases were now a v8 rather than a straight four so i had to change the lugs on the right hand points casing to have two top lugs rather than one by doing this i retained the original look of the zeb1 engine from the right hand side the generator cover i fitted to the v8 engine was really badly damaged so i screwed it to a block of wood on my lathe to panned out the outer surface then i machined up a disc of aluminium and bolted it in place from the inside the rear-facing cylinder block needed a little bit of work at the bottom where it makes for the engine i had to file away a few fins to clear bits and bobs and then i had to make eight new liners from solid cast iron bar and i'll be boring them out to fit z650 pistons and this is why the capacity of my v8 is 1600 cc and not 1800 cc the rear barrel now fitted perfect and the front barrel is standard with the new liners machined i press them into the barrels and do some trial assemblies with the pistons first the back bank then the front bank building the whole engine eventually in one piece then taking it all apart again to build it properly this was a proper fun bit of the build working out how to do the cam timing the ignition timing and building it all up and taking it all down building up taking it all down and eventually thinking right this is it now new gasket i'm going to build it for the final time and it's going to run with the engine pretty much complete it was time to start thinking about the frame this needed massive amount of modification to fit the engine in and still retain the original lines of the zeb1 with the frame modifications complete it was time to refit the engine just to check it still fits perfect before it goes off the paint a week or so later the frame came back from the powder coaters it looked amazing in this gloss black i couldn't wait to get the bike up on its wheels so i took it into the kitchen because i needed a bit more space when i built the front wheel i spoke to into an 18-inch rim from a kh-400 this gave me a bit more clearance at the front to clear the engine and here's the engine all ready to lift in that was a proper difficult job with the engine bolted tightly in the frame i could complete all the wiring and do the ignition timing properly with dial gauge and a degree disk until it was just perfect i had relocated the battery and the battery box and all the electrics on the z1 frame to clear the exhaust manifolds at the rear i had the stubs already made but i had to complete this system now weld it all up remove it and send it off for chroming and here you can see the battery and the relocated electrical components i fitted the z1a petrol tank and it hit the carbs underneath on both sides but this was easily rectified by cutting out two pockets and welding in some new pieces of metal then there was plenty of room i refitted the tank and it fitted perfect so now i had to trim down the side panels to clear the rear exhaust pipes when i first made the v8 i fitted yamaha cv carburetors because they were really short but they turned out to be difficult to tune so i thought i need to fit the standard zb1 carburetors but they were too long but i thought if i cut them down i might be able to make them fit so that's exactly what i did what i had to do was to convert the carburetor from a link lift to a cable lift by cutting off the top inch of the carburetor just here then the slide when it's pushed up to there if i cut off the top part of the slide as well i can make a screw-on cap and convert it into the old vm style bikini carburetor so now it's a simple job of gripping the carburetor body gently in my vise and sawing off the end with my hacksaw being careful to saw just above the line so i can machine it down to size on my lathe with the top portion removed i cut off the little bits around the side as well just here so i turn the carburetor vertical to make it easier and saw them off with my hacksaw i then removed the final little bits being careful to make sure i don't cut too deep then it's all ready to go in my lathe to machine into a nice smooth diameter and cut a thread a one millimeter pitch thread with a carburetor body gripped in a three-jaw chuck and supported with my tail stock center i carefully machine the end face nice and square then i change cutters to machine the diameter carb bread is only gripped very lightly in my chuck so i take very fine cuts with the diameter skimmed i put a bit of zx1 extra lube oil on the surface and then put my single point cutting tool up and cut a one millimeter pitch thread with the thread machining finished i take the carburetor out of the chuck to have a quick look and i'm really pleased it looks perfect so i'll get a little file and deburr a few sharp edges off the webs and then i'll refit the throttle slides in to check for the height so i put it right up to the top make a little mark with a pen and then i can put that back in the lathe and machine that down the throttle slides are now shorter than they were originally but fit perfectly in the body and when pushed right to the top they are wide open which is just perfect and here's a modified carburetors fitted to the v8 the petrol tanks side panels and rear fin were away at my friend neil's paint shop being painted in said 1a colors and i couldn't wait to have a go on the bike so i thought i'll just put some fuel in the carburetors and give it a ride up the street and it went really well and the pull from the engine was immense and i was really chuffed hello hello is that emmett brown it is great now i need you to take me back to the year 2002 as soon as possible so i can get some video of my old v8 what do you mean if you've got a flat battery well there's no electricity left to charge it because it's all been using electric cars oh that's new because it i'll have a quick word with greta and see what we can do okay then bye sadly i haven't got any video of my v8 running apart from this one clip that's about five seconds long so that's all i've got for now but who knows i might make another one and i can make a proper video [Music] the v8 is on display in the barber motorcycle museum in birmingham alabama usa so if you're nearby and passing don't forget to call in and have a look i hope you enjoyed this video on my couch that could be a i've had a lovely time looking back for my book on how i made it anyway hope to see you all soon and don't forget to subscribe [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Allen Millyard

Views: 411,538

Rating: 4.9364586 out of 5

Keywords: Super Six, six cylinder, home made, shed, shed made, old school engineering, engine repair, Z1, Kawasaki Z900, Kawasaki Z1, Hacksaw, hand cutting, MCN, Classic motorcycle Mechanics, The motorbike Show, HCA, Filing, Files, Colchester Lathe, Elliot Milling Machine, 1970's, Kawasaki, Camshaft, Dontgiveup, Notaseasyasitlooks, Haveago, millyard, millyardracing, hyperride2, lockdown, Mikuni, Its fast, swiss army scissors, QBond, Kawasaki V8, 1600cc, Z1 V8, millyard V8

Id: sjxiHLZdSGw

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/barstowtovegas]

Jesus, he did all that with mostly a hacksaw, a lathe, and a lot of eyeballing. Insane talent.

Also, I love how he finishes most sentences with “and it was just perfect,” like God declaring “and it was good” in the Old Testament.

[u/dv73272020]

Damn, that's proper talent right there. Wish I had that kind of know how and equipment. Oh the things I would do...

[u/DanTheFireman]

This dude is insane. Literally slaps engines together and they run great. It's the most batshit insane stuff I've seen and I love it.

[u/Prey_Void_Ire]

Why in gods green earth wouldn’t you video the thing revving it’s fucking tits off?

[u/niubishuaige]

Oh yeah I just cut off the top of the carbs and .... It fit perfectly!

I saw the original conrods were so thick so I just shave some off and ... It was perfect!

Typical british understatement

[u/fresh_gnar_gnar]

This guy fascinates me. The human pinnacle of engineering ability.

Im wondering with the utmost respect, but is it plausible he's on the spectrum?

[u/Toots-suite]

Awesome, the dude can engineer his own V8 by hand but he doesn’t own a toaster.

[u/Dongdingaling]

Odd, there doesn't seem to be any staggering between the two banks of cylinders

[u/xeno37]

Kick starting a v fucking 8 must be an experience haha