Rick Grant <rickgrant@telus.net> wrote:
>However, and it is a big however, I live in terror of Shipfitters
>Disease. I can well remember when Adrian Redmond (I wish he'd return to
>this list) started some innocuous little project and ended up with a
>rebuilt motor, a refurbished frame, and a tickety-boo body.
>I am afraid, very afraid, that if I pull the head to do the valves,
>although they are showing no signs of problems, I will end up delving deep
>into the engine and god knows what else.
And right you are to be concerned. My big overhaul started as a failed
clutch slave cylinder. Figured as long as I was in the vicinity, I might
as well do the clutch, as it was 'due' in another 10,000 or so miles. And
as long as the gearbox was out, why not replace the rear main oil seal
which had been leaking since Solihull? And as long as I was doing the
seal, why not drop the crank and do the rings? Of course, that meant
pulling the head, soooo....three years later I was back on the road. My
big mistake was *not* swapping over to stellite valves in 1987. I had a
complete set of valves that I bought in '74 for a pittance and lead seemed
like it would be around for a while. Twelve years later, the head was
redone with stellite bits.
Learnt my lesson, I did. Since then, my cardinal rule has been "if it
ain't broke, don't fix it."
Do 'dry' then 'wet' compression tests. With lead absent from the scene,
valves and valve guides need to be addressed, though you can usually get by
without doing the rings if you have been religious with 3,000 mile oil
changes. (Without lead, valves should be viewed as 'consumables' like
tires or shocks.) The machine shop guy micked the cylinders and found that
I had .007" of wear after 175,000 miles or so, a figure he thought was
phenomenally good. The rule of thumb on rebuilds here is to take whatever
wear you have, double it and go with the next largest piston size, in my
case it was .020 over. You can mic your cylinders with the head off to get
a true idea of engine health/longevity. Let this be your guide...and good
luck.
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