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Engine Cradle
Smooth Torquer - 18/7/04 at 10:57 AM

Hi guys,

Now that I have got my hands on a 2003 R1 engine, I need a cradle to mount it in my Luego chassis.

Does anyone have any pics of the GTS Tuning R1 Engine cradle (GTS-8009)?

I think MK do a cradle for the R1, but only list a Blade one in their price list. Can anyone confirm this, and its price?

Can anyone think of a reson that these engine cradles wont fit into a luego engine bay?

As always pics of anyones engine cradles installed would be a great help

Thanks

Sam


JoaoCaldeira - 26/7/04 at 01:25 PM

Hi.
I was thinking about buying a complete Luego Velocity Xt kit, but the fact that they don't have a kit for the R1 / Blade / GSXR (only the ZZR) made me step back.

Do you think that you can use their chassis and adapt other engine cradle? As their chassis is powdercpated, if you add another rail won't you have to powedercoat it again?

Thanks,
Joćo Caldeira


Bo - 22/10/04 at 06:25 PM

I will bring this one up again.
I also have a Luego Velocity and are very interested in seeing any pictures of the engine cradle for the R1 engine....

Any advice ?


phelpsa - 22/10/04 at 06:30 PM

Be a proper locoster and build it yourself!


Bo - 22/10/04 at 07:00 PM

That is exactly what i am trying to do, I just don't know how much support is needed for the engine, hence the humble request for pictures.

Even though you might think it was funny, I would prefer not to drop the engine while driving.


marc n - 22/10/04 at 07:11 PM

send me an email at info@mnrltd.co.uk and i will forward some pictures of our mountings on our car including the cradle so you can see if it is possible for you to retrofit

regards

marc


Bo - 22/10/04 at 07:22 PM

You've got mail

Thanks


phelpsa - 22/10/04 at 07:31 PM

I am not making a cradle, but using car engine style mounts. We were looking around forsomeone to make us a cradle originally, but no one would make one for an unusual engine.

I didn't mean to offend you (if I did) and it wouldn't be funny for the engine to fall out (I know, it happened to my quadbike when I was 10)

Adam


marc n - 22/10/04 at 07:38 PM

you have mail too !

just noticed i have been upgraded to builder rather than junior builder just shows you there are rewrads for all this waffling

regards

marc


Bo - 22/10/04 at 07:41 PM

No worries, it takes a lot more to offend me

How the ??? do you manage to get car style mounts to fit the engine ?

This is my first build and I am a little bit stuck here. I don't want to little support (obviously) but on the other hadn I don't wan to build a ton of bridgework if not necessary either.....


Peteff - 22/10/04 at 07:55 PM

the principle seems the same for most bike engines.I made one for my ZX9R engine and put a couple of extra tubes under it for pickup points Rescued attachment cradle.jpg
Rescued attachment cradle.jpg


phelpsa - 22/10/04 at 08:03 PM

Do you have an AutoCAD viewer. I have been practicing and have a drawing of the engine with mounts, I can email it to you if you want.

Adam


Bo - 22/10/04 at 08:43 PM

quote:
Originally posted by phelpsa
Do you have an AutoCAD viewer. I have been practicing and have a drawing of the engine with mounts, I can email it to you if you want.

Adam


Yes please, fire away. I discovered my email was hidden, I have fixed that now.


phelpsa - 22/10/04 at 08:48 PM

YHM!


phelpsa - 22/10/04 at 09:01 PM

Just incase your email didn't work:


Bob C - 23/10/04 at 08:19 AM

Hi Guys,
I didn't bother with a cradle - just made up mounts with rubber "sandwiches" (not shown on the pics - just a long 10mm bolt pretending) to hold the engine in 3 places. Except at the front I used a suspension rubber instead. Is there an overriding reason to make a "cradle"?
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=showphoto&photo=engmntri.jpg
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=showphoto&photo=engmntrr.jpg
Bob C


sebastiaan - 23/10/04 at 09:06 AM

Bob,

Have you got three mounts on the engine, or just two? to be properly mounted, it needs a miniumum of three mounts!

Unmounted, the engine has 6 degrees of freedom (it can move up an down, for and aft and from side to side and rotate along three axis).

A properly designed mounting arrangement can achieve 0 degrees of freedom (what you'd want with your engine, obviousely) with three mounts, but not less.

If you've only two POINT mounts, the whole assembly can still rotate around the axis through these two points.

Look at the way a car engine is mounted, this achieves 0 degrees of freedom with three mounts (two engine mounts and one tranny mount).

A cradle would only be needed to facilitate easy mounting, imho.

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

ps. Using the prop as the third mount would deffo be out of the question!

/edit/ Whoops, just read the original thread again and you do have three mounting points. In that case it seems OK, just as long as these mounting points don't change in relative position to eachother a lot when cornering / braking. Try jacking your chassis up at a front corner and see what happens.... You don't want to use the enine as a load bearing part if it wasn't in the bike (don't know if it was, though)

[Edited on 23/10/04 by sebastiaan]


Bob C - 23/10/04 at 06:48 PM

Yeah 3 mounts - the front mount picture is attatched.
I've got no cradle but the engine is supported on rubber for (I hope) a bit less buzz - the rubber means I can't be stressing the engine itself (that's my theory anyway). I've seen the cradles but couldn't see the justification for all that extra metal, except to create a "standard interface" to the chassis so any bike engine. will fit a "standard" chassis.
Cheers
Bob Rescued attachment engmntfr.jpg
Rescued attachment engmntfr.jpg


Hugh Jarce - 24/10/04 at 05:29 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Bob C
I've seen the cradles but couldn't see the justification for all that extra metal, except to create a "standard interface" to the chassis so any bike engine. will fit a "standard" chassis.
Cheers
Bob


Fully agree. I've always wondered why Locosts invariably use a cradle to mount bike engines.
I've been around BECs in one form or another, in various road and race series, for many years and have not seen the point in the cradle.
It just seems like a lot of extra work and unnecessary material.
I always asumed it was a way for the manufacturers such as MK etc, to adapt a car-engined chassis to accept a bike engine without having to keep two entirely different chassis in stock.
Bob C, your Locost will be somewhat of a bone shaker compared to a normal sedan, and I very much doubt if you would notice any engine vibrations except maybe at tickover when there is quite often a "buzz" in some unsupported sheet panels.
The modern bike engines are so refined and well balanced that there is virtually no perceiveable vibration.
Some bike engines only have internal balancers just to prevent the bike's side mirrors from being blurred!


phil_far - 24/10/04 at 07:31 AM

Agree, most BEC's do not need a cradle. The only reason why I put a cradle in is to stiffen the chassis even further. in my opinion all cradles are waste of material except the Westfield/Dax whic use a form of X brace which makes the chassis feel 20 times stiffer!!

I copied them; photos is my archieve


Peteff - 24/10/04 at 12:49 PM

I did one to make handling the engine easier. It hangs level with the two lugs I left on the top mounts and I don't need to struggle to hold it up while I get the chains on. The Westy one looks very involved for what it does and seems to use more metal than my effort.