[Bullet Whisperer]

That's interesting the cylinders if stock should be flat with no spigot. All the  ones I have are flat. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this.  ERC

Hi ERC,
 If you look at the pictures near the top of page 1, you can see an early 700cc Meteor I worked on a couple of years ago. It has been in the same family from new and, as far as we know, I was the first to lift the heads at 20,000 miles from new [it was laid up in 1968]. You can see in one of the pics that it has spigots at the top of the liners.
 Scottie - if you have ground your spigots away, some solid copper gaskets for a Meteor Minor sports should go straight on for you, with maybe just a bit of filing at the pushrod holes required 
 Here is the machine I overhauled completely after all the work was done, only the paint work was left alone.
 B.W.

[ERC]

Thanks for the info on that B.W. That's very interesting, then the heads must have had a cutout to accept the spigot?  ERC

[Bullet Whisperer]

then the heads must have had a cutout to accept the spigot?  ERC

Hi ERC, correct - you can see it clearly on the underside of the head in the last of my three pics on page 1
 B.W.

[ERC]

Figured it out B. W. Scottie has pre 1955 cylinders on a 1957 engine case. Went through all my old parts manuals the # for those cylinders is 36500, they have detailed pictures showing the spigot on the early ones. Glad you could throw knowledge in on this B.W.    ERC 

[High On Octane]

Every damn time I work on this bike it becomes more of a mystery.  So let me ask this then.  Are the spigots good or bad to have in there?

On the Hitchcocks diagram, the '63 Series 1 Interceptor shows no head gaskets, spigots or any head gasket of any kind. 

http://hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/partsbooks/pages/687/Cylinder_and_Head_Assembly


The '64 Series 1 shows the spigots and the cylinder cross ring.

http://hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/partsbooks/pages/2474/Cylinder_and_Head_Assembly


I'm really starting to think that the Interceptor composite gaskets from Cometic might be my best choice with this.  I had the gentleman there describe the pic of the gasket to me and it is definitely what I need.

Figured it out B. W. Scottie has pre 1955 cylinders on a 1957 engine case. Went through all my old parts manuals the # for those cylinders is 36500, they have detailed pictures showing the spigot on the early ones. Glad you could throw knowledge in on this B.W.    ERC 

What is even more bizarre than that is the fact that it is sitting in a '63 Interceptor frame and has the Interceptor head stays.  How can it have a a '63 frame and be titled as a '58?

[ace.cafe]

Maybe it was originally titled as a 58, and later the frame was switched, and the engine number still matched the title, so they didn't worry about it.

[ERC]

That happens, I've got a couple that the title year is different than the actual year of the bike.  ERC

[High On Octane]

Tom - I think I'm going to pull my heads in a little bit here while I'm listening to the Broncos game.  I'll take the heads to work in the morning and lap the valves and try and get the one to seat and lap the rest of then while I'm at it.  I'll be extra careful removing the heads so I can reuse the gaskets.  Just a few quick questions:

I want .25 on the spigot height correct?

Knowing I only have 125psi in my good cylinder, and being that I can physically see thru the spark plug hole that the intake valve is no where close to hitting the piston, I should beable to safely remove the base gaskets, correct?

And lastly, what brand/type of compound do you recommend using for this job?

Thanks.

[ace.cafe]

Tom - I think I'm going to pull my heads in a little bit here while I'm listening to the Broncos game.  I'll take the heads to work in the morning and lap the valves and try and get the one to seat and lap the rest of then while I'm at it.  I'll be extra careful removing the heads so I can reuse the gaskets.  Just a few quick questions:

I want .25 on the spigot height correct?

Knowing I only have 125psi in my good cylinder, and being that I can physically see thru the spark plug hole that the intake valve is no where close to hitting the piston, I should beable to safely remove the base gaskets, correct?

And lastly, what brand/type of compound do you recommend using for this job?

Thanks.

I don't know what height you need on that spigot. I have no measurements or experience with those vertical twin head gaskets, so I can't say what they need to be. The OEM Bullet head gasket likes to have a .025" gap which will crush correctly for sealing both surfaces, but I have no idea whether that will be correct for your heads and gasket.

Yes, it is likely that you can remove the base gasket without worry, but it wouldn't hurt to do that clay measurement on it to be sure.

I use regular silicone RTV on the gaskets, but only a very thin smear of it applied around the pushrod tunnel holes. We don't want any excess squeezing out into places where we don't want it to go.

[High On Octane]

This is what I discovered last night.  I'm thinking that whoever put this motor together with the 3/8" head studs didn't bore out the holes in the heads big enough.  I had a hell of a time trying to get the heads off again, took about a half hour to get the 2 heads to release.  And when I finally did I noticed all kinds of metal shaving around some of the studs.  I had to put a large screwdriver thru the head steady bung on the frame, put a ratchet strap over the screwdriver and put the hooks in the intake and exhaust ports, tighten it until I couldn't get it any tighter, then go back with a pry bar and try to work it loose from the joint.  Needless to say I still ended breaking the tack weld where 1 fin was already broke on the left cylinder and broke a small piece off of the right cylinder.       Good news is once I got them off, the mating surfaces appear to be in excellent condition still.  Even that small area between the 2 cylinders wasn't damaged or burnt.  You can see in the pic of the cylinders tho where the gasket was to small for the bore and flared up a bit, other than that, the gaskets are still in one piece and didn't appear to have that much crush on them.








And A Video Of The Seats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssd7i7y6m_Y&feature=youtu.be

[ace.cafe]

From the looks of the surfaces, it appears that there may be a flatness issue on the heads on the exhaust sides, where the gasket appears to have leaks. I would check those heads for flat surface, especially on those areas.

[High On Octane]

Am I better off just removing the spigots all together?  Seems like Roger doesn't have any spigots in any of his twins.......   

[ace.cafe]

I can't see from this angle how far the spigots protrude up, but they need to go all the way into the head recesses in order to work right. And that means they have to go all the way up in there with the gaskets in place. If that is not happening, then there will be problems until that is corrected.
You can cut the barrel gasket mating surfaces on a lathe, without cutting the spigots, until you have removed enough material to have taller spigots. Measure as you do it, and make it so there will be enough spigot to fit full-depth into the head recesses with the gasket in place and crushed.

Alternatively, you can cut off the spigots entirely, but then you will definitely need a new head gasket type that has a fire ring, or is a solid copper type gasket. Then there are no concerns about spigot height anymore, and the gasket thickness just needs to be taken into account as to how high it sets the heads off the barrels, because that gasket thickness will affect the compression ratio. Like a car.
And if the head recesses overhang past the edge of the head gasket, they should be welded-up or filled with something that can't burn out, because any overhang of the empty spigot recess over the edge of the head gasket can cause the head gasket to blow.

You can do it either way. But it needs to be done right, whichever way you pick.

[High On Octane]

Thank you so much Tom.  I really appreciate all of your insight and help.  I think I will just remove the spigots for now, they came right out with a pair of vice grips last time I removed them.  I will also check to make sure the heads are still flat, but I have a feeling that the spigots were actually holding the heads up as they protrude out of the cylinders about a full inch.

[ace.cafe]

Thank you so much Tom.  I really appreciate all of your insight and help.  I think I will just remove the spigots for now, they came right out with a pair of vice grips last time I removed them.  I will also check to make sure the heads are still flat, but I have a feeling that the spigots were actually holding the heads up as they protrude out of the cylinders about a full inch.

That's very interesting.
The Bullet spigots are integrally cast with the barrel liner, and cannot be removed without machining. If they are pressed into the barrel, then removing them will leave an open area where they used to be, and that could affect some things. Might be good to post up a photo of the cylinder with the spigot pulled out, so we can see what is going on with that thing.