Airhead Turbo on eBay?

[phactory]

drhack,

Luftmeister did not make 4 valve heads, Krauser did.

PhacK

Originally Posted by drhach

I've only ever heard old timers talk about these kits. Today, these kits seem to have the same kind of mystique as the Luftmeister 4-valve heads do. Lots of lore, not many people with high mileage examples. Just like the heads, most old timers seem to say that the turbos are problematic at best. I guess based on hearing what these guys say and noting that that particular system looks basically new and it is not mounted on a bike; if it ever was used, it didn't go many miles. That may mean something, it may not. I guess from a novelty perspective it could be pretty cool. I'd do it if I had a lot of spare cash and a few bikes to ride while the Airhead was down. Logically though, you can probably buy a much faster bike that won't need any tinkering for what you will pay for that system alone.

[Airhead Wrangler]

Originally Posted by phactory

drhack,

Luftmeister did not make 4 valve heads, Krauser did.

PhacK

Oh yeah. Woops. Well, anyway, I'm not planning on puting any luftmeister bits on my bike.

[Infracaninophile]

Somehow I knew we'd find an inmate here who had used one of these or seen one of these in action. Great pics on your site phactory.

How did it sound? Was there really water injection? If so, where did the water come from?

T.

[phactory]

The thing WAILED like a banshee! Yes there was a separate tank just for the water injection. Back in the day (circa 1982) the kit cost the original owner just about $4000.00! Add $7000.00 for the complete rolling Magni kit and another $7300.00 for the donor R100RS and you had one PRICEY machine!


PhacK

Originally Posted by Infracaninophile

Somehow I knew we'd find an inmate here who had used one of these or seen one of these in action. Great pics on your site phactory.

How did it sound? Was there really water injection? If so, where did the water come from?

T.

[Lornce]

It was actually reasonably well thought out. Properly set up with a large oil cooler and not abused i.e. don't run it too far off the tach, they worked fairly well. Nikasil top ends and the airhead bottom ends were more than up to the increase in combustion pressures. Just don't let the revs get carried away. That's when the problems started.

Needed more gears to really make them worth while, imho. Chewed through 2.91's like nothing, which is why so many guys blew them up revving them into the stratosphere.

A mix of water and methyl hydrate in the injection tank (suction, actually) worked best to quell pre-ignition.

Sold mine to a guy in Fort Erie ten years ago. Saw him back in '02 at the MOA National in Trenton. He had it set up and working well on an R90S.

fwiw,
Lornce

[drhach]

Originally Posted by phactory

drhach,

Luftmeister did not make 4 valve heads, Krauser did.

PhacK

Oops, that's what I get for typing before I've finished my morning coffee.

[Hawk Medicine]

Originally Posted by Jasper ST4

I don't think many were sold and as said there are much better options these days but Luftmeister did offer some nice products. Had one of their fairings for many years and still use their sidestand. I recently tossed out my two catalogs......

Ok....

Look guys, before any more of you throw away old Airhead performance and acessory catalogs, please note that I love those things and I'll happily pay your postage expences in exchange for your sending them to me. In fact, for nice copies, I'll throw in some CASH!

Please don't put that stuff in the garbage....!

Thanks,

[aerone]

I'm looking at an 1981 R80 G/S that I know has had a turbo on it. I can trade my R1200C for it. Trouble is, I can't run it cause the headers were tossed when the turbo was installed. The bike is pretty crusty, sitting a long time, probably missing some stuff. Advice ??

[Padmei]

Originally Posted by aerone

I'm looking at an 1981 R80 G/S that I know has had a turbo on it. I can trade my R1200C for it. Trouble is, I can't run it cause the headers were tossed when the turbo was installed. The bike is pretty crusty, sitting a long time, probably missing some stuff. Advice ??

Shit yeah get it running & take some video of it. i want to see how one of these goes against a standard bike.

As an aside I know bugger all about turbos however I thought they worked well on exhaust pulses & are good for multicyclinder engines but not so good on singles or twins due to the lower amount of pulses from the engine??? Is this right?

[skrub]

I owned the first kit sold. It was installed free at Irv Seaver to demonstate for socal dealers. I ran it for ten thousand miles with out any engine problem. Infactthat engine is in my best friends R65 and has over 300 000 miles on it. The main problem was the trans, it ate five speeds in 3000 miles. I was on the boost all time. I had three trans done in the time I ran it. All the input drive gear teeth had major stress cracks at the base of every tooth. The fix was to put in a four speed, end of problem. Mine had eight pounds boost other kits where then sold set at six. The thing was FAST. My 81 R100CS had a 80 mph speedo. You could run it up till the needle was on the stop and still stand it on the back wheel. I raced a Suzuki 1100 with a full Yosamira kit in a top speed run, Eddy said his speedo read just over 130 I had more to pass him but when I came out of his draft I got a big tank slapper, the S fairing takes over the fork at that speed. I had to take it off when I lost my license on the third 80 plus speeding ticket. If I only had the bucks get another in a wet second.

[bk brkr baker]

Never common, aftermarket turbo kits are like Russian roulette. A steep learning curve.
But, thanks to a few dedicated souls , they're out there.
I got a few rides on a turbo'd '74 900 Kawasaki.It made my eyes water.



This looks to be the same bike in the above pics with a new hue. it's in the Orlando Craigs' List now.

[Tosh Togo]

Originally Posted by Infracaninophile

Dork:

Don't know. It's just that this was the furthest thing I could ever imagine as being made for an air cooled, 2v, pushrod, 40's technology motor. Now, my wife's old Subaru WRX was another thing...

T.

You girls crack me up... BMW had a very good 2V pushrod aircooled engine, produced in LARGE quantities, mit direct injection, seven decades ago.

If you know what you're doing, forced induction is the easiest way to reliably make a lot of power.

If you don't, you break a lot of parts.

[kbasa]

Originally Posted by Infracaninophile

Dork:

Don't know. It's just that this was the furthest thing I could ever imagine as being made for an air cooled, 2v, pushrod, 40's technology motor. Now, my wife's old Subaru WRX was another thing...

T.

BMW had a bunch of supercharged race bikes along the way, so a turbo seems to be in line with BMW's history.

[Airhead Wrangler]

Originally Posted by kbasa

BMW had a bunch of supercharged race bikes along the way, so a turbo seems to be in line with BMW's history.

Not only did they make supercharged race bikes, but those bikes were so successful that they caused superchargers to be banned from motorcycle racing to level the playing field. They were getting 60hp out of a 500cc twin before world war 2. Ducati was getting similar output from their 500cc bikes in 1980.

[bk brkr baker]

Nice looking package.
Not so much in common with the average Air-Head motor. OHC vs. kinting needles.