IN THE BEGINNING (which was December 2008), I purchased a California-spec Y2K VFR800Fi as the bike on which to install an A&A supercharger kit (aka "Torocharger"). I was never a big fan of the the 5th-gen VFR, but had ridden them in the past and respected them as very good bikes, but when I started to read about Dan's development of the "Torocharger" on VFRD I was so impressed that I decided I just had to buy the kit as soon as it became available--and a suitable bike to fit it on! I've already got a couple of red VFRs, so I was happy that my research indicated that the "Y2k" yellow model (in the USA) would be perfect for my needs. Soon enough, a fellow member of the venerable VF/VFR Mailing List mentioned that his was for sale on Craigslist, and I flew up to San Jose, helmet in hand...
Brett's RC46-RHS This was the bike essentially as purchased by me.
Brett's RC46-LHS Hmmm. Looks like those wheels could use a bit of a clean... ohmy.gif
My Y2K came with a perfectly decent Staintune slip-on, but at some point I decided that such a special bike really needed a special underseat exhaust, so I posted a plea for help on VFRD, which was soon answered by sa1713 (Jim), who was instrumental in getting Dan Dreisbach (http://www.naked-scu....com/index.html) to weld-up a custom y-pipe for me to use with my Erion headers and Laser Xtreme end cans. Many thanks, Jim! :beer:
These two significant mods occupied most of my free time during my recent two-week vacation in California. At the same time I installed some silicone water hoses and fitted a Power Commander V and Autotune unit. I also generally cleaned everything as I ecountered it--including what seemed to have been about eight years' worth of chain lube spooge all over the LHS of the bike... I've also got a pile of other cool parts and mods waiting to go onto this bike, but wisely decided not to try to do EVERYTHING at once--just a more manageable several things at once! cool.gif
Anyway, this is what $950 buys you these days (Laser Xtreme end cans not included!):
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RC46 Laser Dreisbach Erion Package Y My Laser underseat system and undertray, fabricated by Dan Dreisbach.
(The Lasers are not even because I asked Dan to leave the final trimming of the tubes to me, once I had decided how much I wanted the exhaust to protrude from the rear of the bike.)
RC46 Laser Dreisbach TBR In Fixture (Jim This shows the jig made by Dan Dreisbach to duplicate Jim's Laser underseat y-pipe. (This photo actually shows Jim's TBR exhaust--my Erion was very similar, but the outlet was about 50mm longer, and had to be cut-down.)
With this jig, Dan can make as many similar y-pipes as he wants. Too bad the number of people with TBR or Erion full systems and Laser Xtreme end cans handy is somewhat limited! I imagine if other exhausts could be provided to him, he could probably fabricate other underseat exhausts as well, but I don't know for sure about that.
The Erion full system was purchased via eBay from Dynojet Research (of all sellers!) a couple of years ago. I suspect they had used it to dial-in their Power Commander map for the RC46-I and then put it on a shelf.
So, after dithering a bit, selling a house, putting the bike in storage for nine months, buying another house and messing with that for a while, it was time to get down to business with the VFR:
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P1020921x Starting to strip the bike down for the installation adventure...
A freshly powder coated RC36-I rear wheel almost goes w/o saying on a project like this! (The RC51 SP1 front wheel in the background was done at the same time, for some strange reason.) cool.gif
P1020930x The entire left side of the bike was covered in chain spooge and gravel. (Photo taken AFTER degreasing with GUNK or equivalent.)
Fortunately, I just love cleaning chain lube spooge. angry.gif
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P1020932x Countershaft and sprocket area cleaned and ready for the installation of the new OEM front sprocket, DID chain, new OEM rubber chain guide, Sidewinder titanium alloy 43T rear sprocket and Penske shock.
Ah, that's better. (Still need to clean the insides of the fairings--oh, joy!)
Despite the fact that nobody will ever see them, I decided to fit mega-bling blue silicone water hoses to the bike. There are no kits for this bike that I am aware of, but inspired by this post by IDA71 on the UK-based Honda VFR Club, I decided to wring a few more pounds out of the credit card and ordered up all of the bulk hoses I needed. Oddly, the hoses are generally cheaper in the UK than in the USA, so I bought them before I came over to California and brought them with me. Because I was installing them on a bike with an A&A supercharger kit, I needed to order three more 45-degree elbows (two for the oil cooler and one for the blow-off valve) and generally ordered a bit more of each of the straight hoses, just in case. (If I had to do it again, I might also order the missing bits noted below.)
P1020972x Fitting the silicone hoses to the left-hand side of the engine.
I should point out that the smaller blue hose (which runs from the pump to the thermostat housing) ultimately needed to be clamped much closer to the engine so that the overflow bottle would fit properly. The one OEM rubber hose visible in the photo below goes to the "fast-idle wax unit", which is only found on the Y2k and 2001 models, and I did not change it for silicone because the bend was too tight and I hadn't ordered a 90-degree or 180-degree elbow and joiner to replace that hose. Oh, well! (Didja notice the cool rubber hose clamp "jackets"?)
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P1020978x Top of the engine, within the vee, showing some of the silicone hoses.
As you can see, the silicone hoses are a throttle body-off job, so it made a certain amount of sense to install them at this point, rather than after all of the forced induction gubbins had been levered into the frame. In case you're wondering, my sources for these hoses were AP MotorStore and Demon Tweeks (for the 25mm billet Samco hose joiner) in the UK, and I also ordered some missing bits and silicone vacuum lines from Flex Technologies in Torrance, California.
Then it was on to the supercharger install... I can report that the supercharger and all of its related plumbing _just_ barely fits!
P1020980x A&A Supercharger kit being installed--just installed the throttle bodies back onto the engine.
Dan (Toro1) highly recommends having the fuel injectors professionally cleaned before installing the supercharger, so I actually bought a spare set of throttle bodies on eBay in the UK, pulled the injectors and had them cleaned some time ago.
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P1020982x A&A Supercharger kit being installed--the spacers go between the throttle bodies and the top plate.
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P1020983x A&A Supercharger top plate, as modified for a Y2k VFR (the temperature sensor has to be relocated from the center of the plate, due to the fast-idle wax unit otherwise causing interference).
P1020989x A&A Supercharger top plate.
P1020992x Shows the Rotrex's output--as I said, it's a bit of a tight fit! Subsequent adjustment allowed it to squeeze in there without distortion.
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P1020994x Top rear of the engine. Shows the K&N breather, the relocated rear-cylinder coils and the PAIR valve block-off plates (among other things!)
I ended up swapping the No. 1 and No. 4 coils, because the spark plug wire for the No. 4 cylinder was a bit short, once the Rotrex was installed. I had noticed that the No. 1 spark plug wire was a bit long, so swapping them worked out perfectly. The OEM spark plug wires actually have "1" and "4" marked on them in white, but a few dabs from a black Sharpie should eliminate any subsequent confusion!
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P1020996x Above front of the engine. This photo was taken just before the installation of the Rotrex oil reservoir. The supercharger pumps and uses its own dedicated oil supply, so that means a separate reservoir (and maintenance schedule) is required. (Special oil, too!) All supplied in the A&A kit, though.
P1020999x Top front of the engine at the end of Part 1. The K&N air filter (with "pre-charger" sock) attaches to the Rotrex supercharger, but it squeezes right up against it (and is actually slightly deformed by the valve cover). To say it's a "tight fit" is one hell of an understatement...
P1030003x Test-fitting of the blow-off valve.
P1030013x A&A Supercharger (almost) fully installed. What's missing are the Rotrex oil lines, which go to and from the cylindrical oil reservoir in front of the "airbox". It looks like it might have been better to attach the lines to the Rotrex unit prior to its installation, because doing it at this point would be very tricky without removing things to get access (and re-torquing various bolts and re-tensioning the belt). It might be possible to get the lines on without doing that, but I haven't yet tried that.
The only other significant supercharger install steps necessary from this point relate to the fitting of the upgraded fuel pump (naturally, supplied in the A&A kit) into the fuel tank, loading the Power Commander maps and hitting the starter button...
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P1030014x A&A Supercharger crank drive...
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P1030011x Left front of the engine at the end of Part 1.
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P1030017x Right front of the engine at the end of Part 1.
Let's take a look at the Laser underseat install.
Jim's RC46 Laser underseat system was completed last year, but I'd had a couple of sets of Laser Xtreme end cans sitting around the workshop for some time, purchased with a view to installing them on my UK-based FP (as shown in that thread). However, the custom welding was always the sticking point, so they never got installed. But I did like the look, so when Jim responded to my "WTB" thread with a link to his install thread, I was hooked! There are several versions of Laser Xtreme CBR600RR exhausts, with mine having been made for the '05-'06 model [."]http://shop.laserexh..._CBR600RR.pdf]. They are helpfully stamped with the appropriate homologation numbers and symbols (though that is somewhat irrelevant in the 'States), even though these particular end cans are supposed to be used with a separate resonance chamber and a pair of "road legal" inserts (oops...) However, Dan Dresibach welded-up some inserts of his own for me to experiment with, should I choose to muzzle any of the exquisite Honda V4 music in the future.
Initially I had some trouble getting the end cans to mount high enough, which was caused by the y-pipe contacting the bottom of the right side of the undertray, but a simple modification I did to the undertray solved that. The final installation steps will be to (carefully) mark and drill the holes and cut the spacers supporting the end cans from the top. I didn't want to rush this step, as I will only really have one good shot to get it perfect.
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P1030041x Test-fitting of the Lasers, showing the front/side brackets Dan welded on (awaiting final fitting and drilling of the holes).
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P1030039x Clearancing of the undertray to clear the y-pipe.
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P1030031x This is the stainless heat shield Dan devised to keep the undertray cool. It was originally riveted and separated from the aluminum undertray by washers. I had to remove it (and fit additional washers) to clear the button-head cap screws I used to mount things to the top of the undertray (e.g., the battery box and the Penske reservoir). I hope it will still work!
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P1030035x Another shot of the Lasers' rear mounts, which will attach to the stainless steel plate above, using the captive nut brackets mentioned below.
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P1030030x Intermediate shot of the undertray, showing the trimmed side (back of the shot) and the side yet to be trimmed in the foreground.
I had noticed that the sides of the aluminum undertray would be visible at certain angles, and it was not necessary to have them so long, so I trimmed them back a little bit--cutting a template out of card stock and using that to mark both sides.
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P1030024x This is a prototype of a rear fairing support idea. They willl attach to the new stainless steel plate I fitted to the rear of the undertray.
After a horrible experience making a stainless steel custom undertray for my FP, I absolutely loathe working with the stuff, but I decided it was necessary to use stainless for these parts. McMaster-Carr made it all so easy (but not particularly cheap!) to order stainless steel stock, as well as the hose clamps and most of the A2 stainless fasteners I used.
As I've eliminated the OEM plastic read fender entirely (well, except for the battery box I carved out of it!) the two locating lugs in the taillight housing have nothing to fit into, so brackets like these will support it instead. The locating lugs actually may be more to locate the taillight than support the fairing, but I think it's a good idea to pull everything together using the OEM mounting points/lugs.
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P1030034x The Lasers will mount to the stainless steel plate above, using the captive nut brackets Dan fabricated and welded onto them. (Unfortunately, sized perfectly for UNC nuts! I will have to grind down some M8 nuts to make them fit.)
One reason I didn't drill the mounting holes was because I had to find the right stainless steel fasteners to go with those captive nut holders... I decided to use 55mm M8 fully threaded cap screws in conjunction with several locking nuts in order to achieve a degree of adjustability and sufficient support. (Looking at the nuts again, I think both of the middle ones should be locknuts.) I would have preferred socket caps, but could not find them fully-threaded, and I need the thread to accomplish the adjustment. M8 stainless "allthread" would have worked, too.
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P1030063x M8x55 A2 stainless steel fully threaded cap screw & nut arrangement for supporting the rear of the Lasers
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P1020947x Laser underseat y-pipe, fabricated by Dan Dreisbach (and polished by Jim!).
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P1020948x Laser underseat pipework.
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P1020961x Top of the undertray, showing cut-down battery box, Penske reservoir, PowerCommander V and Autotune.
The undertray's location was determined by the clearance necessary for the Lasers, and doesn't leave much space under the seat, but all of the electronics fit, as well as the Penske remote unit, the tool kit and even the lug wrench, extension and owner's manual. The battery box was cut out from the OEM rear fender and attached to the alloy undertray with two M5 button-head cap screws. It actually rests on the subframe crossbar, so apart from the angle (which is close), the battery effectively sits in the OEM position. I've also got a Corbin Smuggler (single seat w/trunk), which pretty much color-matches the rest of the bike, but the fit is apalling. Something's warped--and I'm not sure what or who... dry.gif
Dan also welded a bung into the final collector section of my Erion headers, into which the Autotune sensor fits. I intend to set-up the fueling using Dan's PCIII maps, converted to PCV format, and not hook-up the Autotune until I have a good base map for the supercharger. After that, it may be useful--or for sale!
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P1020965x Dynojet Power Commander Autotune sensor installed in Erion header (custom location)
So, this is how the bike currently sits in my California garage:
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P1030052x Right-front of the bike at the end of Part 1.
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P1030049x Left-rear of the bike at the end of Part 1.
P1030050x Right-rear of the bike at the end of Part 1.
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P1030048y Some things to come. RC51 SP1 forks, lower triple, axle, spacers and wheel, 900RR yellow mudguard (same color code as the Y2k VFR) and 929/954 upper triple clamp. Lurking behind is my prototype xenon retrofit headlamp.
Sometimes, I do finish my motorcycle projects...
...but not this time! This is end of Part I of this story; sadly, family and other commitments meant that I simply ran out of time and decided it would be best not to rush the last couple of supercharger install steps and break-in, or the finalisation of the Laser underseat install. Part II will follow in a few months, when I return to California, and will include (hopefully) a running bike, as well as a "Frankenviffer" RC51 SP1 fork conversion and (possibly) my Xenon retrofit headlight conversion. Perhaps then we shall all see just how dangerous is the Yellow Peril...
Ciao,