Hey all want some engine work done this winter for my cbr 954. Would like some one in the Dallas ft worth area.
Wanted to get a ball park $ for some work I want done . I have a 2002 954 w 20 k miles , motor is all stock
I have wish list.
1 would like Mild increase in Hp (20 or so)
2 but want as reliable as possible
( will use on track days and street )
3 need some tranny work prob undercut and hardened
4 new bearings,
5port n polished ?
Has stock exhaust w 2 bros slip on but will probably
Upgrade to full exhaust
Balanced stock rods maybe ??

Any referrals of a guru in my area helpfull

Thanks

 

954 transmission doesn't need hardening after undercutting. No point in balancing the stock rods if you are planning to use stock rev-limit. I do have set of balanced stock rods on the shelf thought. And probably you will need the bores fixed which means 980cc kit or machining the stock pistons when the bores are machined. My bike has 20hp more then stock and it has a fully built motor and Akrapovic full exhaust so if you wan't gains you really need a do lot to the motor.
Whit the porting you won't see huge gains on the 954 without finding what restricts it's breathing on the intake/exhaust side and adding cams to that.
Best bang for buck should be a good full exhaust ( Akrapovic, Arata, Hinddle, Sato, Micron or Arrow on the 954).

 

With so few people doing real machining work with motorcycle engines and how big the U.S. is, you may have no options locally. I don't (as far as head porting, cam grinding, cylinder lining, etc.). I have multiple speed shops that will do cars close to me, but none that will touch a motorcycle head or top case. So it requires a lot of talking on the phone and shipping everything, and then assembling it yourself.

You can't just say "I want a port and polish" on the work order and then ship something off to APE or someone (and you don't want anything polished, btw). You need to talk to them, ask them if they've ever seen the 954 head, what they would suggest, how much work they do, what other kind of work they do, is it done by hand or machine, do they mostly do drag or road race (and which one do you want?), do they mostly work with F/I or N/A etc.

And that's just for your head porting. A lot of these things depend on other factors. The guys doing the head are going to want to know what you're doing for a cam when you ask for suggestions. The guys who do your cam want to know what you're doing as far as valves and pistons when you ask them their opinion about which cam you should do.


Simply put, unless you're a sick/twisted freak like myself, don't get involved in heavy engine builds because they'll suck all of the money, brains, and time out of you before you even hear the engine crank. Stick to bolt-ons and a good tune. And when your skill surpasses the 954 on the track, buy a new bike.

 

+1
And once you get it running and aren't satisfied it goes to pieces again.
With some body ellse doing the assembling it will cost a lot of money. It won't necasserily go right on the first attempt so you could have to do few re-assemblings and try what works the get the gains you wan't if the goals are realistic.

 

WOW very disappointing !

 

It's just part of it for modern I-4 bikes.

For example, if you had a Buell - and you wanted a big-bore/Hi Comp kit for your bike - there are companies that will sell you 2 new jugs with everything assembled in them. All you have to do is put in wrist-pins and you're in business, throw the heads back on and you're ready to go. I mean, it's about as complicated as putting together a coffee table from Target...for comparison's sake.

There's not exactly a big market for sportbike engine modifications (unless you're talking Kawi zx12/14s and Busas). No one on the street wastes their time with it and just about every racing series outside of WSBK doesn't allow bottom end modifications...


If you really want to do it, my advice would be to get a definitive plan for what you want to do, buy a blown 954 engine (I bought one for $300 - it just had piston slap), build it, and keep your bike running until your new engine is completely finished.