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Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 7:51 pm
by Ricko
Posted before about upgrading and Soosh planted the idea of doing the above rather than running over my budget of £500 on another kit.
Can anyone give me any further info on carrying out this conversion? As I understand a TS185 piston kit is required, and the barrel bored out to suit the 64mm piston, would the crank need a longer rod length, maybe RD400 which I think is 115mm and the barrel set down on a packer of 3-4mm alloy, in order to get the ports right height?
This would prevent top and tailing the barrel I think if I'm on the right track, or is using a standard rod the way to go?
What about the head, could a 150 be machined to suit, or one used from another kit?
Anyone done one, run one?
Further info or help,would be great!
Looked for further info on the topic but can find very little, port timings, clearance's etc would be good.
Gleaned what I could from the SR thread, but would like to do the iron barrel if I can now the idea has been sown!
Cheers Rick.

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 8:28 pm
by dirtyhandslopez
Asked the same question when I came on here...
What I ended up with was a ts 185 wiseco piston,TV cylinder TV rod, TV head, standard carb, big bore pipe. I had to use close to a 2mm(old roadsign)ali. packer that I made myself. Buy packers, don't make them, to much time involved. I opended the exhaust to 42, raised the exhaust port until there was 40mm above the port, flowed and matched inlet and exhaust, timing 21. It flies has plenty of grunt and is as fast, if not faster than a 200.
A 150 head reprofiled and combustion opended a hair will work. If you don't open the combustion chamber a little, compression will be high. Not unuseable, but high. How much to open? I have no idea.
The conversion was done becuase we had run out of oversizes on the barrel.
Good luck.
Do a search, I am sure there is something I forgot.

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 8:38 pm
by J1MS
If you can get hold of a 175 head to re-profile it will keep the compression down a bit, but it will still be close to 10-1 when its been re-profiled and skimmed.

The barrel can be ported to rev or pull, the RD 115mm rod is better than the 116mm TV rod, IMO.

If you can get a good TV 175 barrel these usually make a better choice for boring out to 64mm and on some barrels the transfer ports are larger in the bore than the 150 barrel.

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 8:48 pm
by dirtyhandslopez

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 10:02 pm
by mawso
Given the choice don't bother with 150 barrel, the spigot and walls get too thin when rebored. If the barrel is shortened you might have issues with the pipe you choose...sometims they don't line up too well after. I had trouble with a fixed manifold pipe; a PM25.
I've had this conversion that way and used both Mitaka and Wiseco pistons upto 65.5mm. The barrel just got too hot on a decent run out...but it revved like fcuk with a JL2 on and used to lift the wheel in 2nd on hard throttle. A real screamer it was.
The compression was mega when the wiseco was fitted...do they have a different deck height? sometimes you could literally stand on the kickstart!

I wanted the TV conversion and bought an alloy SR barrel 185 barrel for £30, with Mitaka piston, RD400 rodded crank, had a Dave Webster tune with boost port added and a 175 head profiled. When we built the top end we couldn't get the packer right and at BDC the piston protuded and obscured some of the port still, but was fine elsewhere...So it was left until we thought of something. In the meantime I bought the ultimate iron Suzuki 190...TV barrel conversion. I love it. It is a match for most small block conversions and some 200's. I bought a full bike bike purely for this engine. It'd been on the road for a few years already before I got it, but it still takes a good thrashing and just keeps on going!

It's a great little kit and can be done relatively cheaply...a lot less than £500 anyway! The alloy SR cost £30, piston £25, RD rodded Indian crank £130, Tune, boost port and head reprofile £60.

I did see on ScootRS website that they have TV barrels for sale too.

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 11:08 pm
by Stokie
The Dave Webster tuning manual gives you the port timings and measurements to top and tail the barrel.
If you're looking for someone to do the conversion rebore, tuning, crank build etc then I'd personally speak to the following (in no partiicular order) Ralph Saxelby (RS Tuning, Doncaster) Harry Barlow (ProPorting, Leicester), Mark Broadhurst (MB Developments, Doncaster) and Martin Cook (Chiselspeed, Leeds)

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 1:19 am
by corrado
I thought all the top and tailing was only if you stuck with a 107 rod. Std piston has a compression height of 39mm, the TS185 is 30mm so needs the 115 or 116 rod. I thought this was a bolt on conversion. I've got an Indian 175 barrel and the plan was to get it bored out to 64mm then use a TS185 piston with a TV rodded GP crank, the head reprofiled, then get the port timings sorted by someone in the know, bugetting for around the £150 mark not counting the crank as I've already got one.

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 5:55 am
by scoothappy
Hey
you need a 2mm packing plate with that piston and a tv rod. works great!

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 7:35 am
by GP Kevo
Stokie wrote:The Dave Webster tuning manual gives you the port timings and measurements to top and tail the barrel.
If you're looking for someone to do the conversion rebore, tuning, crank build etc then I'd personally speak to the following (in no partiicular order) Ralph Saxelby (RS Tuning, Doncaster) Harry Barlow (ProPorting, Leicester), Mark Broadhurst (MB Developments, Doncaster) and Martin Cook (Chiselspeed, Leeds)
If you're in the USA, I'd add Dean Suinn (Deanspeed) to that list. He's been building Suzuki 190's (as we call 'em stateside) in all states of tune for decades. His Specials class racer was / is a Suzuki 190 conversion.

Re: Suzuki 185 conversion

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 10:08 am
by Stokie
Have a look on the original MB site for more info - http://www.mbdevelopments.co.uk/lambretta/lt3.html