Well, pulled the FZ engine and took it apart. One race away from complete destruction
2MG rods were pretty much done with the beating, small ends very loose and pistons hitting the head.
Three pistons had parts missing from the skirt etc.
We had a former Pro rider race this contraption back in 2022 for one weekend and he really gave it the beans. Being used to 600cc super sport bikes he said he had the revs between 9K and limiter basicly the whole weekend
I even raised the limiter 400rpm to 11600 so he could have a slightly wider operating window.
This engine loves revs and made 125hp at the wheel with 11200 limiter and the curve was still climbing at a rate of close to 1hp / 100rpm.
Built back in 2018 or 2019 and was used for classic racing and trackdays for a few years and I knew the rods are our weak link so I asked the owner if I can upgrade the engine with stronger rods and 50cc more displacement.
As I write this I just fitted 2005 R1 pistons to 2001 R1 rods, not a straight swap but easily doable.
Small end of the rod is much stronger compared to stock rods and to my calculations we could theoretically rev this thing as high as 12800 to reach the same piston speed the early R1 has.
Wanting to keep it safe I'm planning on raising the limiter bit by bit on the dyno to see when it starts to run out of steam.
I was asked about the cams etc. etc after a YZF 750 classic superbike (engine built by a pretty famous engine builder who works in MotoGP) couldn't pull away from our ancient FZ. I just said I mixed some old crap in a bucket, shaked and put it together