TOPIC:

Stan will advise me again to get the valve stems ground.... I did think about that, but there was no way of knowing that that needed to be done before the stems were in the head, and the head on the block..

I would indeed! lol Well, yes, difficult to do it on a mounted cylinder head of course... The clearances you will end up with now will leave you not much to play with. And who knows what's happening with all those valves showing 0.00. Might be already being depressed by the shaft.

Actually it was easy to check when the cylinder head was on the bench - just install the camshafts and do the measurements. Remove camshaft, grind valves, and check again, install a shim adequate for targeted clearance. That's what the shop did on mine.

Well, I think the 200 shim is the limit if I remember correctly. The 220 you have would be a start.

Apologies for long time no update. Combination of work pressures and yet another distraction.... (I just cannot resist a good opportunity!)





I picked this up in France last weekend. Great condition, very little rust and RHD but wouldn't start, so the guy selling it had no chance to flog this in France. I picked it up for a song. Will get it running and plated/insured and then will flog it off for hopefully a bit of a profit. Proceeds to go towards the valve stems being ground and the head shimmed by Oz from Zed Parts.

Paul

A Shaguar!

Quick update: no progress as the head is still with OZ for shimming and I had forgotten about english engineering... what a nightmare! Got it running, but leaks oil like a sieve despite trying three times to get the oil filter to seat properly!

Thank goodness for the Forums!

Paul

I take it the Jag has the oil leak since the KZ head is still at the shop.
Food for thought- Leaking oil filter if a spin on type, I've seen aftermarket filters with the proper thread size but a different lip seal diameter that will leak.
The other thought is if the vehicle has sat for an extended period of time not running, the oil pressure relief valve my be stuck closed and the oil pressure is through the roof over pressurizing the filter and causing a leak at the oil filter lip seal.
You have to think outside the box when dealing with something that hasn't run for a while or bought because the owner that sold it had an issue that he couldn't overcome. If you owned the car and just did an oil change and all of a sudden you have a leak at the oil filter, the obvious conclusion is the oil filter- something is wrong. But you have a second scenario now since it's sat for a while and dumped by the owner in a not running condition. A puzzle for sure.

Everything has been on hold as I have been to Cape Town for a week to visit my sister in her B&B (African Queen Guesthouse Noordhoek). I hadn't been there before and it was lovely. GREAT biking country! Near perfect roads, great weather and fantastic scenery! Traffic in town scary, but on the open roads its great.

Anyway, I took the Jag's oil filter housing off and inspected the relief valve - it was new and working fine. But thrice I put on the filter and it chucked oil. So before I left for RSA I cleaned the whole thing properly, smeared a little gasket sealant (the same I used for the Kawasaki cylinder tub and head) inserted new gaskets and oil filter ring (with a little more sealant), bolted the oil canister on after seating it carefully, and went on hols to leave it to cure. (btw, it is the type with a long bolt through the centre of it - not screw-on).

I still have to replace a few water hoses, but hopefully Thursday I'll start her up again and hopefully not have another leak - of ANY kind!

Back to the KZ: bad news from Oz on the head:

As the head stands it is not usable, the valves have been cut too far into the head, and at the wrong angle, leaving too much contact on the valve/seat face.
If the valve guides were too worn then I would have suggested getting another head.

But as the guides are within service limit, we are going to re-cut the valves and seats at the correct angle to get the 1mm contact needed. At the moment you have over 2mm on some of the valves and seats. Then we are going to take the 0.3mm of the valve stems, hopefully that will be enough to be able to shim the clearances and end up with a head that is usable

The problem is we will not know if we are successful until we have the correct setting for the valves and ground the stems down and tried the shims.
If it works as it should do on paper, then you have a head back to use, if not then we have not lost anything as the head is no good as it is at the moment.

Will be ready to test early next week

So lesson learnt: do not give a bike head to car guys to refurbish!

I'll report back later this week/early next week. I may need a new head

Paul