Firstly, I’m aware that I’ve not posted an update on September’s track day. Suffice to say, the tyres were great and a whole lot of fun was had! I want to be able to show videos of laps with the R888s along side previous laps to make decent comparisons… but for that I need better video editing software than Windows Movie Maker. And really, that warrants a better PC than the one I’m using. As a comparison though, last September’s fastest time was 1:41.470. This year, on the R888s it was 1:39.1… and I’m not convinced I’m a better driver! Maybe slightly, but that’s what I want to see with side-by-side videos.

Anyway, back to this engine build. Not a lot has happened since last time. The garage is too full of gardening junk accumulated over the summer so working on the engine isn’t too comfortable. I’ve managed to clear a bit out though and am trying to get back into the swing of things. To add a bit of momentum, I’ve ordered the inlet manifold necessary to marry up the GSXR throttle bodies with a mk2 head (courtesy of DanST Engineering). That arrived yesterday, so I set aside a few minutes in the garage this morning.

I flipped the engine back over and set to work dismantling the rest of the inlet side. Pretty simple affair involving the removal of the oil cooler coolant pipes, the oil pressure switch (and associated take off for the VVT solenoid) and the knock sensor.

With that done, I unpacked the inlet manifold.

As the throttle bodies are in pairs on not individually, they can only be spaced in the middle. Naturally, this isn’t ideal but by making the intake lengths equal we can minimise the negatives. Looking inside it is all nice and smooth – DanST Engineering have done a good job here.

Despite still have the wrong head fitted (Mk2.5 not Mk2), I couldn’t resist cheekily offering it up.

Unfortunately, it only went on that far. All the holes are in the right place, it just looks like they need opening up slightly. I’ve emailed DanST just to check.

It’ll be nice to find some time over Christmas to finish this build off. If I can get the engine done and dusted in January, then the ECU fitted and mapped in February that’s plenty of spare time before track day season starts again.