Tierney Hollen V4 Oil Kit ========================= ------------- written by: Robyn Landers rblanders@math.uwaterloo.ca last revised: September 1997 to include part number of large oil filter previously revised: November 1994 copyright: by Robyn Landers. Copies must include this header. ------------- I have installed a Tierney-Hollen V4 oil kit on my 1983 Honda V45 Sabre. This is a description of the kit and my experience in installing it. After tens of thousands of miles with no cam wear, I can tell you it certainly seems to work. DESCRIPTION The Tierney-Hollen V4 oil kit claims to solve the common Honda V4 problem of premature wear of cam lobes and rocker surfaces. It is similar to ideas developed by Honda Racing which solved the problem for HRC, unlike the other approaches such as use of the special valve adjusting tool and so on which help but don't cure. The stock oil system picks up oil from the oil pan through a strainer to the oil pump. The pump feeds oil out in two directions. One, at about 6psi, runs towards the transmission. It splits to feed the tranny and the cylinder heads. The other, at about 70psi, runs to the oil filter and from there to the crank and main gallery. The kit requires removal of the existing external oil lines that run from near the transmission to the cylinder heads. An adapter is placed between the engine block and the oil filter. Freshly filtered oil at higher pressure is taken from the adapter to the cylinder heads. T-H claims 50% increase. PARTS LIST Check the ad in the back of Motorcyclist magazine (any issue) for a photo of the kit parts. Well, not any more. They used to advertise every issue but seem to have quit late in 1991 or so. One black anodized aluminum oil filter adapter, a new threaded hollow bolt on which it mounts, a brass L fitting that screws into the adapter, a long piece of braided steel hose that runs from the L fitting to between the cylinders, a T fitting, a medium and a short piece of braided steel hose that run from the T fitting to the cylinder heads. There's also a bolt to block off the feed from the transmission, a set screw and O-ring for the adaptor, and two Honda bolts for remounting the charcoal canister on emissions-equipped bikes. Some LocTite is provided, as well as a mini allen wrench for the set screw, and a rod to screw in the new threaded hollow bolt. PREPARATION Remove gas tank, drain oil, remove oil filter. Removal of radiator is recommended. (It would be pretty darn difficult without doing this!). I also had to remove my carburetors for other reasons. While T-H doesn't suggest this, it sure gave me a whole lot more room to maneuver. It's possible to install the kit without carb removal, although more awkward, and carb removal itself is a big pain, so I don't know which would be better. Remove external oil lines. Remove existing hollow threaded bolt from engine block. (I can't see how to do this without using pliers and damaging the threads.) Thoroughly clean engine block threads with non-flammable solvent. INSTALLATION Block off the original oil feed with the bolt provided, attach new oil lines to T-fitting and to cylinder heads. Test-fit hollow threaded bolt, adapter, and brass fitting so you can see how it's all going to go together. When satisfied, take it apart, apply LocTite, and reassemble for real. It took me a whole day to complete the job, but I had the carbs out (which is optional) and I did a valve adjustment (time consuming) plus my bike has the SportFairing to remove and reinstall. If you were doing just the T-H kit and nothing else, I bet it could be done in half a day. PROBLEMS Sigh of disappointment here. Like every other aftermarket goodie I've ever put on my bike, I had problems. First, the anodized finish on the adaptor made the threads too tight for the brass fitting, so I had to have the adapter threads re-tapped to clean out the anodizing. Not a big deal. Next, the instructions give no hints at all about how to route the hoses. After reinstalling the carbs I found I had one fitting preventing complete seating of the carbs. Flipped it over and re-routed, and all was fine. The long oil line has different fittings on each end, but they don't tell you which end goes where (despite obvious intentions for a certain orientation). The biggest impact is that you can no longer use the stock oil filter because the addition of the adapter between the engine block and oil filter results in no clearance for the filter behind the exhaust header pipe. This really freaked me out! I had to dent in the contours of the end of the oil filter plus loosen the exhaust system to gain clearance for the filter. So it looked like oil changes would be a big pain from then on. However -- see section ahead for good news on an alternate Honda filter that works just fine. CUSTOMER SERVICE They're pretty small time, so for phone support you leave a message on the machine and someone calls you back in a day or two. But they are quite helpful, and they went to considerable trouble and expense to ship me the kit on a tight schedule due to travel. CONCLUSION While kit is made of quality parts clearly, there's really no easy way to tell if the kit works as claimed. But they told me their warranty extends indefinitely. The kit is fairly unobtrusive looking, and presumably I'll no longer be fearfully imagining cam lobe material disintegrating when the engine is overheating in a traffic jam or when I'm winding it out near redline on some fun twisties. $250 for the kit is a heck of a lot cheaper than a set of new cams and rockers and labour. OIL FILTER UPDATE The oil filter problem has been solved! By chance, I visited a Honda dealership which had recently installed a T-H kit. They ran into the filter clearance problem too, but found an easy solution. The newer model Hondas use a smaller filter which they found to be compatible for flow rate, relief valve pressure, etc. This is the filter used on the GL1500, RC30 and others. It fits perfectly on the T-H kit and there's lots of clearance. My only problem was finding an oil filter wrench small enough to grab it. The original filter is about 3.25" diameter; this newer filter is 2.5" diameter. Part number for the smaller filter is 15410-MM9-003. (The original larger filter number was 15410-MB0-00x (for some x) and is now 15410-MJ0-004.) CLOSING ANECDOTES The Honda shop that told me about the oil filter trick said they ran an engine with the cylinder head cover off to see how much more oil was reaching the top end. Verdict: a heck of a lot! While at the AMA Museum, I saw Freddie Spencer's VF750 Interceptor Superbike. It had an oil modification kit as well: oil is taken from a deeper sump up to the heads. The T-H kit should be better because it's fresh from the filter. Tierney Hollen Engineering 573 Hampshire Road, Unit 233 Westlake Village, California 91361 phone (805) 497-2679 changed to 499-8645 Or, from their business card, 721 Blue Oak Thousand Oaks, California 91320 August 1994 update: my most recent valve adjustment was at 71,000 km, which means the cams are about 33,000 km old, and the T-H kit has been on for about 28,000 km. The cams are in excellent condition with no signs of scoring or pitting. Also, I have had no leaks or other problems with the kit. Verdict: it works! ALTERNATE METHOD A fellow rec.motorcyclist, Phil Rastocny, has also researched this topic and tells me he developed his own oil system modification, not quite as fancy as the T-H kit, but nowhere near as expensive either. He looked into various revisions of the top end oil feed bolt, and provides step by step instructions on how to improve this bolt, and replace the thin stock oil lines with larger diameter lines. If you want a copy of this, let me know. This is the basic idea my mechanic suggested to me years ago as an alternative when I was considering buying the T-H kit. FROM THE RUMOUR MILL Several other rec.motorcyclists told me they were going to try to get one of these kits. Those few who got back to me said they could not get hold of T-H. Given that and the cessation of advertising, I suspect T-H is no longer selling these kits. That's too bad. ----- Robyn Landers | "Any profit should go to Arnie's `get the rblanders@math.uwaterloo.ca | daemon carved on Mount Rushmore' fund." Den0051, KotV4 | - Marty Albini, DOD0550 VF750S Sabre (his) FZX750 Fazer (hers)