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[Guest]

How many Guys do all there own engine stuff heads bores honing ect? I try to do all my own stuff and had a question that I never got answered like so many others on some other Bike Forums. Torque Plates you think people in these expensive engine shops even use them? I have seen evidence they dont and ?? does it even matter? I was about to gnaw away at some huge alloy 7075 slabs and make a set of torque plates for my GS engine Hobby. I wasnt sure even if it was needed? I had access to a aerospace CMM (cocordinate measurement Machine) where i worked and found some mighty poor nmachining done for mighty high cost by so called speed Motorcycle shops. Made me lose My Mothers Milk so to speak since I dont wanna cuss here!! $spent over 2000 for a ??Race Crank that was out over .007 to .014 thou Valve Jobs done on serdis out .036 thou and so on amazing. Thanx Mike

[cbxchris]

I can believe that. The issue is that many of the people able to do good work do not have access to the machinery to do so.

[rapidray]

Mike, I do all my own work, except the cylinder boring. I am VERY particular about machine work & will only let 2 people do my cylinder boring. One is Kim Barringer at Carolina Cycle & the other is a good machinist in San Diego. They both do EXACTLY what I ask for in clearances & ZERO taper when I get stuff from them. It takes a little more time to do GS sleeves correctly with them sticking out the bottoms of the block to eliminate the taper. Few people will spend the extra time it takes to get them dead on correct. I will spend my money where they WILL do them right! All the head work I do myself for the same reasons. If I had the money & room I would have the machines to do blocks also! Cranks all go to John Pearson, Stan Gardner or Bob Mosher. I wouldn't send a moped crank to Falicon!!! Pearson does my transmission undercutting also.
Ray.

[Steve]

... Cranks all go to John Pearson, Stan Gardner or Bob Mosher. I wouldn't send a moped crank to Falicon!!! Pearson does my transmission undercutting also.
Ray.

I have heard this endorsement of Pearson by more than one person on this forum and a few others locally. I had some basic machine work done there, as he is in my virtual "back yard" (less than 25 miles away), and found that he has a "slightly modified" GS sitting in the shop.

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[GregT]

I agree with Ray in that like him I've been doing it long enough to have sorted out who does the best job local to me. Having worked that out, you then ensure they know you're coming to then because they do good work - and you'll be checking it each time to ensure they continue the same standard...
There's one reconditioning shop here who advertises heavily and has good gear...but i wouldn't get them to do a lawnmower engine. I've just pulled down a blown engine which they did for someone else. Comparing what the owner was charged for vs what is actually in the motor, he's got a good case for court action...

[nickp]

Hey Ray, i guess you have some history with falicon, but just for the record, i have used their cranks in my bikes at levels up to pro mod & prostock with no problems. i have heard of some bad cranks from them but usually if you dig deeper there are end user issues. i will also qualify that by saying i had work from the old days when tom ran it and from the new owners. same thing, excellent work. Billy Vose runs their cranks extensively in his pro mod gs motors with nothing but excellent results. just saying mate. nick.

[Nessism]

Regarding torque plates, the cylinder liners sort of float inside the cylinder block at running temperatures. I don't think there is any liner distortion due to the head clamp load so torque plates wouldn't do much of anything. At least that's what I'm thinking.

[madmikeracing]

Thanx Guys I agree, being a Home Shop Guy I try to do all my own stuff, used to get heads sent out but then made the mistake of checking depth cuts done and also concentricity and was apalled!! Now made Fixtures so I can use my Mill a Bridgeport with solid carbide Pilots to do my own stuff, also building a new flowbench but all costs money and it seems moneys tight for me this year again, anyhow what a awesome bunch here, !! Kudos to you for replies, Maybe a home made type posts would intrest people. I tried sending pictures but my new camera wont for some reason downsize pics small enough to email. SHI.. Cheeses me of my old one was simple to change new one no adjustment that I could find 10 megs stuffs to large drat! Anyhow Thanx Mike

[Steve]

I tried sending pictures but my new camera wont for some reason downsize pics small enough to email. SHI.. Cheeses me of my old one was simple to change new one no adjustment that I could find 10 megs stuffs to large drat! Anyhow Thanx Mike

I don't bother re-sizing any of my pictures.

I have a Photobucket accout and have the preferences set to automatically re-size any picture I upload to a maximum of 800 on the long side. That way, I keep my full-size originals, I don't have to worry about re-sizing pictures, and it saves space on Photobucket's servers, allowing you to upload more pictures within your free space allotment.

By the way, to post pictures, you can't upload them directly from your camera or computer, you have to use a hosting site of some sort. When you have your pictures uploaded there, go to the IMG link, copy it, then paste it here. You can do up to 10 pictures per post that way.
Click on any of the links in my sig to see what that size picture looks like.

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[stetracer]

Falcon might do good work for a few racers but they have screwed so many Florida racers that I don't know of any that use them anymore. I know I will never use Falcon again.
Ray is correct on Kim at Carolina Cycles top notch shop and great guy to deal with.

[Big Jay]

Can't imagine a Serdi valve seat out .036". Our Serdi has a vacuum tester built in, and every head that goes out of here is tested. A seqat that far out, wouldn't pull any vacuum.

As far as the machine work, it takes the right equipment and operator experience. Altho the Busa engine is now the main deal in the performance industry, I am still amazed how many of the older air cooled fours we still do. Always about 20 of them in the shop at any given time. They come in from all over the world.

As for cranks, all the roller bearing stuff goes to Gardner unless it is just for pin welding. Stan refers all of his plain bearing customers to us.

[madmikeracing]

Jay I never said Runout on the serdi, Runout was quite bad also, I dont know how that guy did it but ...anyhow too late now, So what type of measurable CONCENTRICITY DO YOU GET FROM HEADS YOU DO? Just curious, ive seen some hideous work, Dont worry Jay I havent checked any of youre stuff yet ha ha alls good man, Later Mike

[Big Jay]

We get it pretty much dead nuts. Everything laps in perfectly and pulls max vacuum. One of the reason so many shops use us is they don't have to worry about "come backs" from cylinder head and block work.

[madmikeracing]

Big Jay
The .036 was depth cut way too deep, the runout was .017 at the worst seat!! What measurable runout do yo uachieve with you're Heads yo udo? As a Machinist im Wondering what is actually acceptable? I do know a couple thou may not seem much but .017 seems high to myself, I ended up repairing it as well as I could, Thankyou Mike

[madmikeracing]

GS Head from Garage shop, made all the tooling and fixtures worked out surprisingly well, also just did couple crankshafts, lots of fun, Mike