Few bits

Ended up stripping it, looks like respray time! as it needs nothing more than the seams repainting and bits cleaning up will prep it myself and send it off for a topcoat.

Engine coming on, made another better plate to blank the fuel pump hole, added an extra bolt, a baby M4 just to pressure the base of it as the bolts are at the top and will pull it in more here and be prone to leaks atthe base.

Notice the nice black relief valve cap and plug? Just wire brush them up and heat them with a blow torch till before your very eyes they go black, leave them to cool you have now effectively anodised the fitting, this gives some protection without having to paint them, it just oxidises the surface so it can't rust, like all those black bolts?! Nice tip, isn't not hot enough to change properties of metal.

Test built the front of the engine up to check everything fits, its all perfect it would seem can't get a 0.0015" feeler in anywhere on the gasket, I don't want a leaker!!

Cam endfloat set @ 5thou, probably 6 once I torque up the nuts and squeeze the gasket down 100%. Book it 4-8thou, it had only grown 1 thou in the previous engine over its mileage, probably running the plate in as it was new, I am reusing the old plate as its perfecto.

I lapped in the relief valve with a tiny bit of paste.

Before I added the blackened blanking plug below the oil filter I taped up the oil pump opening and plugged a few holes and attached the vacuum cleaner to the blank hole and sucked the buggery out of it. Nice to make sure there is nothing stuck anywhere- even after being jet washed and pipe cleanered about 5x! You could see it gathering up traces of assembly oil at the end of the main gallery i put there for a test - so the force was quite powerful and worth doing?!?

Sump is painted and baffle finished.

County brand rear main oil seals are a tighter fit on the crank than the red ones, I am trying a black repo one this time as there is a slight line on the crank from the seal and the black ones feels like it should be decent.

Rear oil seal housing and front alloy plate were cleaned with boiling water in the sonic cleaner, came up like new!

I will run a trace of gasket sealant along the tappet side edge of the head and round the rear corner, just a whiff, as this sealed that leak last time!! miracle. Even with the oil way blocked in the head there was a leak most its life. As they all do...I seemed to have fixed it anyway, its the tappets forcing oil out here or something.

I would think it'll be done soon. Head is ready to go on.

Hopefully I can get it painted in late Feb...Get the engine in and running by end march...Another year ?!

Time flies...I think our society makes life go far too quick, not suprising for most folks who are at work wishing their lives away, living for the weekend....

I was in Western Samoa living a local life, mucking in and time stood still in an ever increasing pattern, the rush just evaporated from me, I lost all stress and just blissed out. I got a dose of polynesian paralysis.... 3months here was like 12 here!

I came back from my travels with a bad attitude to our ways, especially after Samoa, maybe the best of all pacific islands for culture and unchanged life, not ruined by our consumer bullshit - a bad attitude to our society that never went away...I think it changed me alot, maybe not for the better, I don't aspire to that many of the things the great masses do thesedays.

Perfect life change for me at this time, moving to Germany and buying a pad near Nurburgring, renovating the house and setting up a seasonal B&B for Ringers, big garage with facilities for suspension setup and fiddling, tyre swaps fo bikes etc for guests. Do tours and possible tution for noobies. Earn enough to live and drive my Spitty at the ring in a house I own, come back to UK in winter or stay there and clean carbs, oh and find a proper women of continental value keep my guests happy 8-)