From:Drew e-mail:drewehe@verizon.net
Subject:RE: KJ Engine Development to show at Oley 2012 Date:Fri Apr 20 17:23:41 2012
Response to:4002
Any pictures of your efforts yet?
How close could we be to a New Henderson?




----- ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS -----
All of this really came about because of a post in 2005 that a Henderson buddy put on saying that he may be looking into having some new KL cylinders made. About a year and a half ago, I inherited an engine build that desperately needed cylinders. Fresh off of Cannonball 2010, and knowing that another Cannonball was in the future, and after having looked for about 6 months for cylinders, we decided to make them since there were no suitable cylinders available. The effort I will describe below has been the coolest and the most time consuming project I have been involved with (yet). We assembled a team of capable people, specialists in the areas of engineering management, pattern making, engine development and machine tool design. In roughly an eight month period, we went from a discussion at Oley 2011 to a running prototype. All of our components that we have produced have been made in North America. All development, likewise. It is hard to believe that a motorcycle that was produced for roughly 18 months could inspire so much passion and refuse to become extinct. It soon became apparent that reproducing KJ and KL cylinders could become a touchstone topic amongst antique motorcycle enthusiasts. Modern flow testing indicated to all of our team that we really didn't want anything to do with the original design, although reproduction KJ cylinders have been produced. I am going to drop some names in the next couple of paragraphs to add legitimacy to our effort. I was explaining to my friend Steve Huntzinger the anemic cylinder situation that exists for individuals wanting to build Henderson KJs. After my initial KL cylinder posting on this page, Dale Stoner contacted me and said that he was well into cylinder development a few years back but had stopped to pursue other interests.Per Huntzingers recommmendation I knew that I would need to speak with Steve Alsteadt SA Racing and Gary Robison Quest Engineering. Gary and Steve's accomplishments are simply too overwhelming to list here, having done engine development and design for major manufacturers from Detroit Diesel to Bombardier Recreational Products. Byrne Bramwell and Clyde Crouch were asked to do the engineering management on this project. Both men have extensive experience in project management and have reputations for getting results. Dale Stoner and Jim Hoover have worked their butts off on patterns and with Robison and Alsteadt on bending the air inside those pocket valve engines to provide optimized flow and cylinder filling. Initial flow testing indicated that the stock KJ manifold was robbing cylinders 1 and 4 of optimized charge and cylinder filling. New inlet manifolds were designed and are going through final testing as I write this. Many others have worked hard on this project also, people who have had ideas bounced off them, pawed through old castings, looked at drawings. We thank those folks for their help. Trips to Charlotte, Ohio, New York have been made and the team has worked very well together. As previous postings state, if you have interest in any of the new parts that we have developed, please contact Byrne Bramwell. Below you will find an itemized email that was sent to initial persons of interest collected from last year's meet at Oley. The dust is finally settling on our KJ effort. I've been relatively quiet on this forum as we had to see our components tested and used before we would bring them to market. We are ready to make some noise now.



Hi All

To all of you who expressed interest in New KJ cylinders, or who met with us last year at Oley, or expressed an interest in Henderson KJ's:

The development of the new cylinders has progressed well. The cylinders have been optimised by an expert in the design of performance cylinders. Several major changes have been implemented.
1. The combustion chamber has been modernised and the compression ratio raised from 4.4 to 1 to 5.5 to 1.
2. The exhaust valve has been reduced in size to increase the exhaust velocity, which has reduced the heat and improved the strength of the exhaust seat area.
3. The flow pattern of the inlet and exhaust gas tracks has been improved.
4. The outward appearance is virtually identical to the original cylinders.
5. Approximately 500 mile was put on 4 new cylinders this past winter with no problems with the cylinders.
6. A New piston shape was designed to improve combustion.

New valves have been designed.

New valve springs, and keepers have been made

New clutches have been designed built and tested.

Working with Tom Fickau many new engine parts have been made:
1. Main shafts
2.. pushrods
3. all engine and chassis springs
4. gasket sets
5. tappet adjusters and split lock nuts are coming
6. Magneto shafts, bushings and nuts are coming
7. Shift rods will be available soon
8. Slider and cluster gears have been ordered
9. crankshaft gears will be made
10. Many special nuts and bolts for the engines have
been made

excellent reproduction:
1. Clutch throwout bearings
2. Engine and rear wheel sprockets

Several new parts are well underway:
1. New and improved crankshafts are in production
2. New and improved cams are underway
3. New rockers are in production
4. New cam followers are in production
5. New rear wheel hubs are in production.
6. New rods and rod bearings have been made
7. A new inlet manifold has been designed that should improve the engine performance. One sample has been cast.

During this last winters testing, the new engine had significantly improved performance and the new exhaust valve system has resulted in a low exhaust gas temperature. The engine did not run hot at all in the 80 degree Florida temperatures. The engine was not working hard at sustained speeds of 60 to 70 miles per hour.

Several Henderson KJ's with these new parts will be running in the Motorcycle Cannonball this Fall.

Our group will be at the Oley AMCA meeting this month. We will have several items for you to see:
1. the test Henderson with the new cylinders will be there and running.
2. A new cylinder will be there
3. A Cannonball engine that is under construction
4. Other

A meeting will be set up for Saturday afternoon if you are interested, hopefully around 1 pm near the offices at the entrance.



Thanks

Byrne