Where it all starts
My IQ is in pretty good shape for a 2012 model, with just over 50K miles, no mechanical issues, driven in mostly dry weather, and no road salt to eat away at the bodywork.
Day one... January 1st 2017.
My IQ Raised up about 12" on 4 jack stands, the Hood and front Bumper were removed to allow access to the engine bay. Working under the IQ was much easier than I thought it would be, lot`s of room. Engine and trans will be removed in one piece, Both are very compact., But my Garage is quickly filling up with parts.
Engine, ECU, A/C wiring loom, cooling, and pretty much everything else has to be removed.
Here is what the IQ looks like after being driven in South Florida for 50.000 miles. No rust, or pitting on the Aluminum anywhere. This photo shows the unique layout of the drive shafts on an IQ, which are located in front of the engine, this is the main reason different engine upgrades are not an easy option.
Lifting out the engine/trans in one go, lots of room once the front cross brace was removed.
To get to this point took about a day because all the parts were carefully removed and packed up for storage. You never know at some point I may put this all back to stock!
The IQ Engine is very compact. I`m assuming it also very light (for a car), but not as light as the R1 that`s replacing it. The front drive axles will be re used, so will the Diff that I will take out of the IQ transmission. These will be used to determine if the IQ-R1 concept will actually work before I go buying more expensive LSD Diff and drive shafts.
Done! Well it looks like there is a lot more room under there than I first thought. The front sub-frame is shown here, (The Black square frame at the bottom of the frame rails) This braces the lower suspension arms and ties all the frame and transmission mounts up. This was the reason I chose to try the conversion as it could be unbolted and removed from the car so I could build the engine cradle, Measuring up the drive train for the new R1 engine while it was out of the car and on the work bench was much easier.
When all the parts were removed I took the car outside and power washed the engine bay. Apart from some dust it was really clean and looked like new. One thing I hate doing is working on a dirty car, this also helped when I was marking out the layout on fresh clean paintwork.
Here is a comparison shot of the old engine, trans and the new R1 engine, I estimate the R1 weighs about one third the weight of the other 2, and factor in all the other parts that were attached the saving in power to weight is amazing. I will weigh the IQ once the conversion is fully completed to see exactly what the difference is.
Hard to understand how the R1 can push 175 HP from 998cc and the IQ just 95 HP from 1325cc. The R1 also has a 6 speed sequential gearbox, 8 injectors and slipper clutch in one compact unit. wow!
The Yamaha R1 can be tuned to get over 240 HP and more for the competition Drag bikes, That`s a lot, but it just goes to show what is possible.
The old parts are sealed, wrapped and stored away... just in case.