Visiting Jansberg

Saturday I woke up early, early in the afternoon. After a quick shower, I drove to the shop and set about loading the engine in the back up my car. Some towels to protect the parts, and some plastic to protect the seats secured the engine parts on the backseat. After a nice drive to Helsinge I ended up in the countryside at a small house, if it hadn't been for the workshop sheds next to the house, I would have been sure my GPS had failed me.

I parked the car and knocked on the door, Michael Jansberg came to the door and let me inside. I waited a bit in while Michael finished a new control computer for a 2200 Dynamometer for a Swedish customer. After putting the finishing touch on the computer and interface cards, Michael turned to me. He gave me the grand tour of his workshop, which is divided into several smaller areas. One area for port work, one for mill work, one with a dynamo meter and another for storage of various parts. While going thru the workshop he found various R6 engine parts, some used and some new that he put in a little pile.

After the tour, I fetched the head, crankcase, valves and pistons. Michael looked it all over and gave me a few tips and hints. His overall assessment of engine is that is in a good state. The pistons and bores are fine, and the valves and valve seats are fine. The pitting in the squish area is of no concern, and can be flattened slightly with some light sandpaper. The valves are "RSC" valves, so a replacement valve for the one stuck exhaust valve will be different (OEM). The piston rings are quite worn, which can be seen by the fully polished second compression ring. Michael wasn't impressed with the head work, which amount to a simple porting and decking. He hinted that I'll get some good result with some epoxy.

While we looked over the engine, we talked about high velocity tuning and other topics. Michael recommended the SpeedTalk message board, and I'm quite impressed with that place. It is full of insightful post regarding engine tuning.

I also need to change the main bearing on the input shaft of the gearbox, it has a rough spot. After looking over the engine, Michael gave me the R6 parts he had collected and sent me on my way home. I was most pleased with the visit, Michael is a very knowledgeable man, and he don't mind sharing his wisdom. He took an hour of his weekend and gave me free advice, I'm grateful and will send him a bottle of red grape juice.