There was another Suzuki based V8 engine done quite a few years before the, now well known, Hayabusa V8, it’s the Sesco Suzuki V8. Actually, we could also call it a Kawasaki V8 or a Yamaha V8, because it could be any of those, too.
When I was talking to Greg Nelson of Nelson Engineering about his V-Quad engine, we also talked a bit about the V8. Greg used to race circle track back in the early 1980s and this engine was created to run in midget racers. It used a Sesco Engineering built dry sump crankcase and it could be fitted with two banks of four cylinders from Suzuki, Kawasaki or Yamaha motorcycle engines. The engines were air cooled but they were also fitted with a hefty 6400 Btu oil cooler which actually handled much of the cooling work. It had Hilborn fuel injection and a single belt drive handled the magneto, fuel pump and oil pump. The whole engine weighed in around 220 pounds and had an 11,000 rpm redline. Greg says he still has one of these and parts for several more.
It’s interesting that this engine was built 25 years ago and worked very well. It’s no wonder the Hayabusa based V8, using more advanced engines and technologies is such a winner. Just another new idea from the past. Neat.
Ry says
Allen Millyard has been building these for years, mostly old kaw’s .
I have seen a V6 H2 2 stroker and recently a 2600 cc V12 from 2- 1300 IL6’s.
Truly awesome engineering .
Oh and he doesn’t wuss out and put them in a car , he puts them in the original chassis.
Paul , definitely worth checking out .
kneeslider says
Allen does some very impressive work and he’s been mentioned here before but he’s never had his own article. I think it’s time to correct that.
poweredbybeer says
Now that’s some serious engine porn, is it just me or does it look even cooler than the ‘busa v8? I’d love to hear it run. Does anyone know if it’s a flat-crank or 90-degree crank?
Canzvt says
I would like to know how these engines manage to be built up like this. Basically in order to keep the same cylinder centerlines with one bank offset from the other, either the rods need to be narrowed, or the crank journals need to be widened or both. Anyone know which it is? Ken? Drysdale in Aussie build up some awesome 800 V8’s from FZR 400 engines, and even put them in chassis’s commercially for awhile. He used completely stock FZR rods with a wider journal crank.
On another note, I have been thinking about taking 2 RX1 engines and bolting them to a cradle and gearing their outputs together and making what I guess could be deemed an H8 (sorry but purely for car use). Bolt on a couple of turbos and it should be good for 350 hp at 10500 for 30-40K miles. Any thoughts on that?
kneeslider says
poweredbybeer and Canzvt,
If you go to Nelson Engineering to this page and click on the Circle Track magazine logo, it connects to a pdf file of an article on this engine with more internal detail and photos.
aaron says
Canzvt – I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how the multi engine motorcycle dragsters used to do it. you can also get a v8 made of r1 engines from RST. also – you’re thinking of ian drysdale, who also made a 1000 v8 from yamaha 600’s and a v-twin from royal enfield bullet motors (with paul carberry)
http://www.werple.net.au/~iwd/index.html
http://www.drysdalev8.com/v2/index.html
Canzvt says
Aaron, Thanks for that. I have seen the Drysdale bikes when I lived in Aussie, and they are very interesting, and sound awesome. Where can I find the RST you speak of? I spent some time googling, and didn’t come up with anything.
As for the square (H) 8, this is an idea I have had for awhile. Started with a pair of 2 stroke triple snowmobile engines. Why I like to RX1 engine is that it doesn’t have a gearbox, only a cush drive geared down output shaft. If the output shaft could be changed to something with a gear on it instead of a snowmobile taper, then you could put 2 of these side by side and run them into a gearbox or bull gear or something, then to a clutch/pressure plate, then bellhousing and gearbox. So basically you have 2 engines running side by side into a common output. Coupled and tuned correctly, this would be very compact. Put into the proper chassis (Ariel Atom look alike maybe), this would be a rocket.
chris says
any idea what kind of power this thing makes?
daddyc479 says
I spoke with Greg today he is a true credit to this hobby/sport, I will be sell some stuff to get one of the v4’s it is a work of beautiful engineering.
aaron says
Canzvt, here’s a few links to the rst-v8
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=57&t=160108
http://www.sevenbuilder.com/id/83/v8-caterham-rst-v8-in-a-seven/
http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarreviews/49734/caterham.html
guitargeek says
That’s a lovely thing up there, and it’s great to hear you’re going to finally do an article for Allen Millyard! Hey, how about the Drysdale V8 750, whatever happened to those?
Hank Nelson says
The Suzuki V8 engine was originally designed to provide a cost-effective entry into open wheel midget powerplants. Ron Hoettle (sp) and Mel Kenyon teamed up to produce a complete racecar. Ron (Sesco Eng’g fame) designed and built the engine while Mel built the rolling chassis. I bought Mel’s famous Suzuki V8 racecar back in ’87 and took it apart enough times to know how it works. The crankshaft, a beautiful affair, was carved from billet by Scat. I had spare cranks still in the box! The center of the crank had a gear hobbed into it. The crank gear meshed with another gear set into the block which rode on roller bearings. This gear was an assembly of 2 gears side by side; one meshed with the crank and the other provided the cam chain drive. Now if you look at the photo of the engine you’ll notice that both heads point towards each other. That would mean one would have to run backwards, right? Well, Ron had another gear to run the opposite bank’s cam chain. Reverse rotation of the cam drive chain was accomplished by having the first cam gear mesh with the second gear! Voila; reverse rotation. The crank allowed the 2 outer pistons and the 2 inner pistons to rise and fall with each other. The crank drove a Gilmer belt that spun a V8 Vertex mag. The block was cast aluminum and used 6 steel main bearing caps; one on each side of the center gear. I sold the car to a collector in Australia and sold the spare engines and parts to a motorcycle machine shop in the central US. BTW: I routinely spun the engine to 14,000! With no dampener or flywheel, she was snappy! Soft on torque but very long legs!