It’s been a bit of a rocky start for my Radical ownership. After 2 HPDE days on track I am having engine problems. A bit disappointing since I sought out a low hour motor but I guess this stuff happens. According to my research the 1340 and 1500 are fairly reliable but now I’m scrambling because our season is short and I have a bunch of non-refundable HPDE events booked with friends.
Does anybody keep a spare motor around? I’d be interested in one if somebody knows of a good deal.
Ben, there's a newly refreshed George Dean engine listed on Facebook in the Totally Radical group. I can't seem to post a link, but Tim Day has it listed for sale.
What is wrong with yours?
It might be more cost effective to fix your current engine.
Remember there is a Gen 1 / Gen 2 etc
Ben, there's a newly refreshed George Dean engine listed on Facebook in the Totally Radical group. I can't seem to post a link, but Tim Day has it listed for sale.
Thanks, I found the link and advertisement. It looks like an interesting option. I need to do more research regarding the differences between the stock motorcycle engine and the Radical 1340. Is it just the dry sump or are there other differences? Plug and play replacement or tracking down additional parts?
What is wrong with yours?
It might be more cost effective to fix your current engine.
Remember there is a Gen 1 / Gen 2 etc
My motor had the internal cam chain guard break and a small piece went through that area. It appears to be repairable but is beyond something I feel comfortable working on. This means transporting the car 8 hours round trip to the closest Radical dealer and being at their mercy timing wise during a busy race season. Sure any engine is repairable but it seems the lead time for rebuilds is quoted in months, not days or weeks and a new motor from radical is 5 weeks minimum. I am now a bit paranoid on the reliability and trying to wrap my mind around a solution that doesn’t have me missing scheduled events during a relatively short season. This is what leads me to consider having a spare motor around. I can’t get too excited about ownership of a race car if it proves to be 50/50 whether I will miss an event.
With all that said it is usually cheaper to fix or overhaul the existing motor as long as the R and R cost makes sense.
It also seems that the best shops for overhaul are booked out further and ideally you want the best shop doing the overhaul which requires timing to be during the off season.
George Dean is one of the best engine builders in the country. I’ve had a number of his engines over the last 15 years with zero issues. You can’t go wrong by buying one of his. He may know the one for sale, you may want to call him to see if it will work well for you. I have a new SR3XX that will be here in a week or two. When that engine needs to be refreshed I’ll send it to George for that work.
Jeff
