RB Racing Turbos...Big Twins: Shovels to M8's (Click on Image or Text Below)

             M8 Turbos                            Twin Cam Turbos                            Evolution Turbos                         Shovelhead Turbos 

V-Rod Turbo

Note: As of 2024 we are only doing EFI EVO Turbos on a custom prepaid basis...only Motorsport level EFI with Motorsport Programmable ECUs and custom Mil-Spec Wiring.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Generation (1): RB Racing EVO Turbo Kits...Blow Carburetor Through 1985-1989

A long long time ago we made blow through carb turbos starting with the Mid 1980's EVOs. We tucked a small IHI turbo (RHB52) between the frame and the engine. No intercooler and a boost sensitive fuel pump system.

We never did draw-through EVO Turbos.

Above: Joe Walker's famous "Jap Zapper" our last "blow thru" design (1985-1989)

Blow through carburetion is a bitch. We had to make all sorts of special parts to make it work. Joe Walker won innumerable "shows" with this bike. Later on we fuel injected the bike (RSR EFI) and Joe added twin nitrous bottles. We simply do not understand the show mentality.

Generation (2): RB Racing EVO Turbos 1989 on...RSR EFi Intercooled

(Our Older Smaller Intercooler design)

 

Pictured above is one of our RSR Closed Loop EFI Intercooled designs from the late 1990's. We were running intercoolers four times as large as this on drag racing applications and more than twice as large on our 1990's Bonneville bikes. This smaller intercooler was designed to drop inlet temperatures about 75 degrees F at low boost levels...It was not designed for higher output because there was too much of a pressure drop.

Generation (3): Larger Intercooler design EVO's

Turbos...RB Racing Horsepower Perspective...32 years ago

In the Early 1990's we were making 275 hp out of 104" Evo motors like Mike Geokan's famous #226 Blue Bike at Bonneville. We did not run them higher because we limited the airflow with the turbos we chose. The IHI RHB6 produced 255 hp at 15 psi....312hp at 22 psi measured at sea level...less at 4500 Bonneville altitude in hot August heat.

The bike featured our RSR Fuel Injection System with four 50lb/hr injectors running in a stage mode. We wrote a fuel injection program once for it and that program was never changed. We wrote the program before the bike turned a wheel with the turbo. There was no testing. We asked Mike if we could do a brief test on the bike as we designed it, built it, and programmed it...His answer.."It's a handfull and you can't ride it". Riding 8 second Suzikis, 215 mph GSXRs, record holding 375 Hp ZX-11s and 300 Hp BMWs...what the hell did we know. Egos.

Mike was adamant about "Not wanting to learn anything new" when it came to programming our efi. He didn't have to. It was his bike and no one else could ride it and it was setup by RB Racing.

1990's...Early on at Bonneville the #226 bike would suddenly shut off running about 22 psi of boost...something we had never seen before with Suzukis, Harleys, Kawasakis or any other turbo bike. We had brought spare microprocessors to reprogram if we had to. The RSR ECU had two microprocessors, one to house the operational code and one to house the serial programming data. When the bike shut off we checked everything and switched the microprocessor that held the data and the bike ran again but in subsequent runs it randomly shut off again.

We checked the programming and the RPM limits had been altered to 65535 RPM (Hex FFFF).

It was electrical interference from the spark plugs as it happened under high load. Mike's solution was he would need a pile of microprocessors and change them after each run. We asked him which glove he put on first before he ran...left or right. All he had to do was alter that order and the bike would run. That went over well. We drove back to LA made some additional changes on the input programming circuits and drove right back up to Boise...that's 1800 miles driving with no sleep and insisted the bike be re-wired to get the plug / ignition wires away from our electronics.

To this day more than two decades later the bike still starts and runs (retired) and Mike still believes you have to change the "chips" after each run. No...It was the gloves.

The bike held a 1997 Bonneville record for about 20 years. The 104" motor died when the Carrillo rods broke and a 93" ex Bob George (donated) Streamliner motor was inserted.

139" EVO Turbo 2005-2017...Exercise in spending $$$$

Three years planning first ran in 2008.

Above picture: Carl Pelletier of Competition Motorcycles delivering the 139" Turbo ORCA Motor to be installed in the Bonneville Bullett. RB Racing designed all the special parts like the 1/2" A-1 cylinder studs and the water-cooled cylinders as well as the pistons and other items. John O'Keefe did the porting to our flow specifications and installed the Ferrea valves we had made. Carl did all the final machining and assembly. We used the engine to test new ideas...Some worked and some didn't but we never lacked power..Over 400hp.

Expensive.

Our Bonneville efforts these days use sophisticated Cosworth Pectel SQ6M and other advanced motorsport controllers and 550 hp turbos. Our street bikes come with 360 hp turbos. Horsepower depends on a lot of factors like displacement, rpm, boost level , and cylinder head design... And, as it rises, the Harleys show their weak points...clutches, cylinder sealing, cranks and connecting rods, and final drive belts to name a few.

Carl Pelletier above with the RB Racing Bonneville 139" ORCA Single Cam motor with 8" rods, no gaskets, turbo ported SA B2 heads, Inconel valves, custom 1/2" cylinder studs, 32-2 crank trigger crankshaft , 600 psi Inconel head sealing rings, O-Ringed base cyl sealing,and water cooled barrels. Dry sintered iron lock-up clutch in a wet billet primary...Delkron FXR Case with a Jim's Fat5 transmission converted to hydraulic clutch. Not one Harley part. Way past 400 hp.

Carl assembled this motor three times...once to check the lower end, once to replace a cracked engine case, and finally to replace the pistons and install skirt buttons. Carl provided the 8" McClure rods and the Bandit Lock-Up clutch. Later switched to 8" Carrillo / Shaver rods. 

96" RSR Fuel injected and Turbocharged Fat Boy....Ran around for a few years in L.A and some 2500 mile trips. The Turbo was eventually removed (not exactly paid for) and the bike was sold several times minus the EFI and the Turbo. Zero issues save a leaky fuel plump (replaced).

The guy we did the turbo for said his bike was running rich all of a sudden. We replaced the O2 sensor and checked the programming and then traced it down to the guy putting high lead content race gas in it. He lied to us...wasted our time. Pump gas back in and it ran exactly the same as when we programmed it.

We ended up repoing it as "friends" seem to be lax about squaring up finances.

RSR EFI EVO: Does get Complex

 

Production Fixtures

Intercooler Fabrication

Here we are welding up a 300+ HP HD Turbo Intercooler after machining and prepping the parts for it. Air enters and exits at the larger part of the tapered end caps. After this the intercooler goes for ceramic coating. This chews up a couple of days off and on.  Expensive.

The intercoolers are sized to drop the inlet charge temperature closer to ambient i.e. if the charge temperature pre-intercooler is 150F and the outside air temperature is 80F and the bike is moving at cruising speed and then under acceleration, at say 8 PSI, then the inlet temperature will be close to the ambient 80F.

Various spigots for turbo connector hoses..EVOs, Twin Cams, OEM EFI systems, Cosworth Pectel FBW systems...For our intercoolers and plenum chambers. Does get a bit complicated, but with specialization and the intended uses, it always does.

Genuine Garrett Turbo.... Raw Castings

Start out with a genuine ceramic ball bearing Garrett Turbo...Add custom housings and you are at $1,500.00 before we start modifying things for a Harley V-Twin.

    

They just don't fit optimally the way the come...so we have to do surgery.

We use genuine Garrett Ceramic Bearing 360 HP Turbochargers. These come in as raw, machined castings in iron and aluminum. We then modify the compressor, exhaust housing and the turbo center section with machining. welding, sanding, and bead blasting operations. The parts are then ceramic coated for corrosion protection, heat retention, and heat dispersion. With more that 25 years going to the Bonneville salt flats, we know how important anti-corrosion coatings are...not to mention operation in the real world.

Then there are the 38 years of previous fixtures dating back to Shovelheads and parts which have since been discarded. Gets expensive. Thousands of man-hours.

Many Hours Later..Orca Turbo Pod

  

Cutting, machining, welding, anodizing, water jet cutting, ceramic coating, fixturing and assembly operations...It is no longer a $1,500.00 turbocharger but an Orca Turbo Pod that will go past 300hp and 25 psi of boost. Whatever it takes to make your 850lb Harley Dresser move. Past 200hp @12 psi. Dial the boost from your handlebar when you are riding.

On a Twin Cam 95" the turbo puts out about 165hp and 164 ft/lbs torque @ 9 PSI of Boost.

Annealed Copper Turbo Gaskets

Cherry Red with torch then drop in cold water. Turns copper into a soft condition. We anneal all our turbo and wastegate gaskets. No goo or silicone.

Wastegate Testing

With three regulators we test Boost Pressure, Exhaust Back Pressure, Adjustable Boost 8-25 PSI, and wastegate valve sealing. Here boost is controlled by a pneumatic controller. With advanced Cosworth Electronics we can control the wastegate with Phase and Anti-Phase fast acting solenoids.

  300Hp Intercoolers

RB Racing Harley Turbocharger System: Intercoolers Coated in Ceramic Black High-Emissive Coating for optimal performance and corrosion protection. You can run your big twin through the gears at low boost and about 180 Hp and the intercooler discharge temperatures will be close to ambient. We don't use small restrictive intercoolers or, even more stupidly, put the intercooler under the bike like one firm does.

Airflow in and out of the intercooler must be smooth so each of the 13 channels flows the same which is why the hats must be tapered. You cannot simply butt the turbo discharge up against the base to the intercooler as some firms do.

Front view left above. Rear view right above. The intercooler mounts securely with billet clamps to the crash bar. The intercooler is rigidly mounted and the turbocharger and turbo plenum move with the rubber mounted engine. Special flex bellows couplers (see below) connect the moving and stationary parts. Proven in years of use.

 

Turbo Plenum Chambers: All machined from billet and welded. Integral boost and water injection ports plus billet compressor discharge valve. No nuts, no bolts, no windows, and no blow through filter. Designed as a surge reservoir and to break up directional airflow before it enters the throttle body. We have five variations on these to cover multiple applications.

Oxide blasted and ceramic coated with a heat dispersant ceramic.

Plenum for our RSR EFI Systems with 56mm Throttle Body: Idle Air Control Stepper Motor, Compressor Discharge Valve, Boost reference port.

To protect our Harley Turbo Intercoolers against corrosion and to dissipate heat we use special Ceramic Heat Dispersant Coatings which are applied after we fabricate and blast the parts. These coatings are impervious to carb cleaners and other chemicals as well as normal soap and water cleaning. This is not powder coating as that would be an insulator and degrade the intercoolers efficiency. Plenum chambers are also coated.

Plenum Chamber. Optional water injection port.

                               Shipment of Turbo Kits

Some people in the past have picked up turbo kits here. Whenever we ship the kits it usually consumes several days to custom package, control the items, prepare the parts for shipment, and cart the boxes over for shipment with all the paperwork (triplicate for international shipment). We used to do this for free until we woke up. There is a $500.00 charge for the packing and cartage to a shipper on International which requires triplicate sets of documentation for each package..

As stated above: "Shipping charges are paid for separately by credit card. We negotiate the best shipping prices at time of shipment." One turbo kit: Three double wall boxes with all parts individually packaged. 76 pounds.

Note: Everything is Fly-By-Wire these days so we are discontinuing the above after more than 28 years of machining castings, butterflies and shafts as well other items.

We have a completely integrated inlet system with a 56mm (2 3/16") throttle body with integral stepper motor Idle By-Pass, and ball bearing shaft support with shaft seals. Combine this with a full 1/2" fuel by-pass fuel rail and port injection in either 2 bar or 3 bar systems with up to 6400cc/min delivery capability and you have the ultimate turbo package. Fully engineered and proven.

The throttle body incorporates push pull cables, screw adjustable idle stop, vacuum/boost port, TPS mount, Idle Air Bypass circuit, and a two bolt flange using 7/16" Allen Bolts that hold the fuel rail and throttle body to the inlet manifold. The TPS is bolt-on and forget. There is no need to "set" it. The throttle shaft rides in sealed ball bearings.

Here is a system with our RSR EFI set up with two (2) 650cc Bosch EV6 Injectors in a 2 Bar system for an 80" EVO motor programmed for 195hp @15 PSI.

Killer Wire...RSR Closed Loop EFI (Discontinued)

 Later on we switched to Raychem DR-25 coverings sealed with Raychem SCL and Resintech RT125 Epoxy.

Water-proof, abrasion -proof, Harley-proof wiring. Never a wiring failure since we started doing them in 1989. Automotive grade high temperature wiring with waterproof connectors, gold plated and silicone sealed Deutsch ECU 40 pin connector, Weatherpack silicone sealed sensors, and fused peripherals, all sheathed for abrasion protection. Very professional.

There is also a waterproof tuning switch that allowed programming with the ignition "off".

One of the last RSR Closed Loop Fuel Injection Harley Turbo Kits being shipped....What you see is 30 years of development. In 1990 there was nothing remotely like it and these systems went on to set Bonneville Land Speed Records and win Drag Racing Championships.

This one is headed for an 80" EVO Dresser...The RSR EFI is pre-programmed for 195HP in a 2 Bar (15 PSI) system. These systems shipped complete with a laptop, software and tuning cable . Time to move on to more sophisticated Motorsport engine control systems for Scratch Built ORCA EVO Motors that we have been developing for a number of years. Our Twin Cam Delphi systems remain the same in either 2 or 3 Bar configurations.

No Turbo...Think about it

Hers's a perfect Video example of one of our customers with our LSR 2-1 Pro Stock pipe and no turbo. If you think one of the "in your leg turbo" vendors can outrun this bike think again. If you see this bike pull over and park. No turbo and it's FAST. 190 HP fast

7 Second Old Pro Gas Champioship Design...Way More than Two Decades Ago

This Pro Gas 500+Hp system is custom built for race application and involves fabrication for intercooler mounts etc. at the builder / fabricator level. The Pro Gas system pictured below was built for National Modified Champion Wayne Pollack of Fuquay Varina, North Carolina. Wayne flew out to see us and agreed to build a bike around the system we would design instead of vice-versa.

Funny story: We wanted a twin scroll small A/R exhaust housing with a 500HP compressor housing from Turbonetics...They said we were wrong, but we insisted, and tempers flared. We got what we wanted by going through their castings. Bob Keller (owner) insisted that we apologize for our insistent rude behavior...We refused. We got what we wanted. It worked. They got paid. End story.

Wayne wanted to build a sophisticated Turbo bike but he made the serious mistake of ordering some cylinder heads from Nigel Patrick who did zero, zip, for a year after he took Wayne's money. The year delay caused Wayne to miss a complete season and his sponsors cut the purse strings and his "crew" dispersed to other projects. We had to reason with Nigel in a forceful manner.

Wayne sold the parts to Ken Browne, who continued with the project, but cut up the parts and left off the 500hp intercooler. There went 1% in hp for every 11 degrees F the charge cooling would have provided. Those of you unfamiliar with how much air heats when you compress it...at 22 psi the discharge temperature can be 265 degrees F. You can't find any turbocharged race vehicle without a large charge cooler.

Ken still managed to run 7.55 @ 173mph (176mph best mph) in the quarter mile and 4.80 @ 147mph in the eighth mile, and built a new bike with a bigger tire!

Ken's new bike is (2002-2004-2005 etc.) was further away from "what should be" and didn't work well. More weight, poor turbo location etc. Ken is a nice guy, but bad ideas, no matter how nicely executed, simply won't work. We talked to Ken, hoping he would just execute our original design, but everyone wants to do "his own thing". There is always a price for this. Hey! It's not death..It's a hobby!. Hey, he's even building a third one. Ken had to quit riding after a not too successful neck operation.

Wayne Pollack went on to wrench and ride the beautiful Majestic Turbo bike, initially with twin turbos (didn't work well) and later on with one very large turbo similar to the one pictured. We sent Wayne the turbo specs and drawings for a new design so he could shit-can the two turbo deal that Kevin Draper and Don Vesco cooked up. Wayne got to deal with methanol and Hilborn injectors with nitrous added to the mix. Boom! Blow up an Overkill Engine.

Wayne was always straight with us, he's a hard-core racer and like Wayne, we think there's nothing much better than kicking ass and trying to be the best at what you do...Wayne went off to ride Ray Price's Top Fuel Harley and to stay in shape just ran a 242.587 mph World Record ( Sept 2003) on Rich Yancy's turbo Hayabusa at Maxton. In 2005 Wayne upped the Maxton record to 258mph on Rick Yancy's Hayabusa.

We get a few calls each year about Pro Gas systems. We suggest you call us before you start building. Everyone wants to do their own thing but decisions can haunt you and they get expensive. If you're already far along we'll sell you some parts and keep our mouth shut in the advice department because it will already be too late.

Click on the below pictures for more details on these parts and people.