Z650 Special...not for the purist.

[Paul Whitehouse]

That’s great info. Crofty...many thanks mate.

[LeeJackson]

Looking good, I’ll be following closely since I’m doing my 650 again just now also. Any plans to do anything with the crank? I’m wondering if there is much can be done really other than big ends since they are cast rather than the big motors being pressed.

[Paul Whitehouse]

Cheers Lee. I hadn't planned to touch the crank other than, as you say, big ends. I'm only upping the standard engine to a Wiseco 700 setup and don't want to go to crazy.
Yours is looking good...the 750 engine is a great way to go. The turbo setup looked cool...was that out to 810?

[LeeJackson]

My turbo was totally standard, but I’d never had much luck getting it running properly back In the day so decided for the refresh just to go with a NA engine. I’ll be going to 810 on this one, should be fine for the crank being standard. Will replace big ends anyway just to be safe. Hopefully see some progress soon on my end!

[Paul Whitehouse]

Well it’s been quite a while since the last update.

This lockdown and the fact that I’m on Furlough leave has meant I’ve been able to spend a lot of time in the garage working on project 650.

Over the last few months I’ve been scouring the internet for parts and was able to start thinking about beginning a dry build to see where we were at.

With the empty engine casings in the frame I was able to align the tank and seat unit parallel to the frame and with the right proportions between it’s bottom line and the top of the cam cover. The build has gone reasonably well, although there are a lot of alignment issues and a few spacers to be made up here and there.

Loads of work still to do and lots of parts to mock up.

I’ve bought a Delkavic stainless 4:1 exhaust that I will offer up next to see where I’m going to need to weld brackets to mount this. I’ll post more photos once this is in place.

Stay safe and well guys.

[000zeds]

When did you move down under

[Paul Whitehouse]

That's weird....viewed on my phone, they're the right way up !!

[LeeJackson]

That’s looking great Paul! Love the Rickman shape tank. If you need a fairing I have a NOS rickman I picked up around 20 years ago I’ve always planned to use on something.. lol.

[Paul Whitehouse]

Hopefully the photos are the right way up now
Lee: I hadn't planned to run a fairing...but would be interested to see it. Could you PM me some details and a couple of photos.

[sanderz]

Looking good, keep it going Paul

[Paul Whitehouse]

Another good day in the garage yesterday. Dry build of the exhaust and also set about some of the outer casings with the polisher.

[chrisNI]

Looking good.

[TimH]

Looks good so far will be interesting to see how it turns out.

[Paul Whitehouse]

A couple of photos showing the latest `dry` build status.

The fabrication of the tank is underway. It uses the existing Z650 tank as the base. This allows me to pick up on all the existing location features on the frame.
The carb bodies have been ultrasonically cleaned and a light vapour blast. No internals at this stage, but now gives an idea of the finished look of the bike.

[KWACKERZ1]

I like this good project Paul.