Having grinding and polishing one of the heads, I spent a while cleaning all the bits of
aluminium out, by rinsing everything in clean meths and using some carb cleaner to blast through the valve guides
and the like. I then did just a little bit of valve grinding to check that everything fitted right and reassembled
the head with the valves, the new inlet valve oil seals and the new springs. I am reusing the old spring caps and
cotters as they seem to be fine.
By the way, you can see the shiny inlet ports in this photo.
I then started to install the head on the block, but realised that I need some
thread locking and sealing stuff, or at least I do according to the workshop manuals. I'll have to get some, until
then I'll just get on with the other head.
I had originally planned to go up to Ellis's myself at the weekend, but there was just
not enough time. Coincidentally, Duncan went up there a couple of days ago and I arranged for him to collect the
stuff that I had ordered. So, I went around and collected it from him.
Everything looks OK, but there are a number of fasteners needed yet which I will need from somewhere. It's also clear that I haven't got the clutch release bearing, nor the arm that it rides on.
Having returned from yet another holiday, I got stuck into the other head. I'm
getting much quicker at the modifications now and I finished those this weekend and finished bolting the two heads
to the block using the new gaskets bought from Real Steel a while ago.
Tomorrow I'll see if I can get some of the valve gear started. One issue here is that the "preload" has to be set on the hydraulic tappets. This is essentially the amount of deflection that that tappet is in in a no-valve-lift situation. The problem is that it is apparently quick tricky to set without using adjustable pushrods. In my case I've got some shims on which to mount the rocker shafts, but I suppose it could take a lot of assembly a re-assembly to get everything right.
I need to go up to Dax again soon as I probably need to rethink the order slightly. I suspect I'm going to change the colour and I might order a different sort of rollbar. I might also change some of the details about the electrical bits and pieces too.
After some fiddling around with preload setting I managed to get all the valve gear back
together. In order to measure the preload you need to use a piece of wire of the right thickness to measure how
much the lifter is compressed. Interestingly, the earth wire of some 2.5mm square flat twin and earth main cable
is just about the right thickness for the Real Steel hi-rev lifters!
in case you've got to this frame directly and can't get out, go here.