Once the hairdryer was installed, it was time to get the plumbing sorted
out. No, Neil hadn’t backed up the dunny again (this time). Rather, we needed
to sort out the oil and coolant lines. Coolant wasn’t going to be a problem,
what with the radiator, the water pump and half a dozen external coolant lines
within easy piping distance. Spoiled for choice in regard to coolant, we
were. Oil, on the other hand, was both more critical and more difficult. CBRs
don’t have any external oil lines that we could tap into, so we had to look
a bit harder to find a suitable supply of high-pressure clean oil. Steve
suggested using a coolant feed instead, given their proximity and ease of
connection. Initially it sounded like a good idea, but on sober reflection
(which took a while, ‘coz we’re only very rarely sober) we spotted a flaw.
If we used coolant for both cooling and lubrication, the water pump would
get confused. Ecstatic with our powers of deductive logic, we smacked Steve
around the head with the manifold again (even harder this time), and went
back to pondering the problems of providing the turbo with slippery.
Strangely enough, it was Richard who made the breakthrough. Never one to
sit on his hands and use his brain while he could be fiddling with something
critical, he fired up the bike and started unscrewing bolts. Sure enough,
pretty soon he wound up with a faceful of high-pressure oil. With his typical
arse (he has no class whatsoever), he’d unscrewed the cover on the oil pump
inspection port and we had a supply of nice clean pressurised black goop to
lubricate the whirly thing. Bonus!
Finding a return port was a bit more difficult, and we had to resort to
handing Richard the electric drill, covering our eyes and standing back.
It meant a whopping great big hole in the sump, but there really wasn’t any
other way.