[Adrian II]

Ouch!!!

Another 50 AVL owners sending their heads in might have made it economical.

HOWEVER, having seen what Bullet Whisperer does in squish band modifying the hemi heads for classic CI Bullet engines it's not un-replicatable (is that a word? It is now...). We'll see what sort of results the owners get from these two, there may be someone who can pick up the baton if interest ever picks up.

A.

[DanB]

Here's a couple more of the head. It's a Beauty!   Missing the rockers which should be turning up soon.  Sucks that the new shop priced this mode as it has!!!





Need those rockers, then I can check for interference with that big intake valve!

Surely do appreciate all you've done ace!  Hoping I can help out with that big deficit burden.

[Bullet Whisperer]

Very nice job on the head, Ace !
 Dan, take special care with cams and their timings - especially the inlet, with that large valve, make sure it clears the piston crown when it is starting to open - there is not much room to play with 
 B.W.

[DanB]

Dan, take special care with cams and their timings - especially the inlet, with that large valve, make sure it clears the piston crown when it is starting to open

Yeah, I'm a bit worried about that was well. I'll lay out some clay and see what I see.  I figure I can play with the inlet cam, or cut recess in the crown or use thicker head gasket.  I'll post more when I have some data to share.

[Bullet Whisperer]

Dan, what needs careful consideration here is the squish clearance. While I acknowledge this aspect of your engine is yours and Ace's 'baby', when I build engines with squish bands, I set the squish clearance correct first - usually 1mm, plus or minus only a few thou - then everything else has to be made to work within and around those parameters. For instance, it would be counter productive to end up with a 2mm clearance at the squish faces at TDC, in order for the valves to clear the piston - the engine would work, but the squish bands would not, so you wouldn't be getting anything from them, other than a boost in compression.
 If you pay particular attention to this area, you could reap dividends on the power front, but, get it wrong and you could be missing out on considerable power gains and / or risking mechanical damage 
 B.W.

[ace.cafe]

Yes, I fully agree.
Our prescription is to set the correct squish distance, which should be around 1mm,  and do a valve to piston clearance test. If there is any piston/valve touch, or insufficient clearance, we will make relief cuts in the piston crown to suit, so that we can retain proper squish distance, and also have appropriate safe clearance for the valves. We like .060"(1.5mm) for intake valve, and .100"(2.5mm) for exhaust valve clearance from the piston around TDC.

The area of concern for piston /valve touch is around TDC, and up to the point where the piston begins descending down the bore.

[Adrian II]

With the stock 500 AVL/Electra-X I had no problems with a set of well-used "S" cams borrowed from B.W. and timed on the dots, but swapping to an apparently very similar-looking Indian Bullet inlet cam just resulted in inlet valve to piston contact. I could have tried retarding the inlet cam by one tooth but just put the AVL inlet cam back in the end.

As far as I can remember tooseevee's Fireballed AVL head works with stock AVL cams, so you're breaking new ground here!

A.

[DanB]

Thanks BW and Ace for the guidance. So I understand, the 1 mm, +|- squish has been designed into the head taking into account where the crown is in cylinder (.015 in below) and the thickness of the gasket. Is my thinking correct?  Do I check this with a quick test: laying out solder? 

Once squish done, then we see where the valves are and determine next move.

Am I about right?  Corrections, additions, feedback most welcome!  Looking to learn more!

[tooseevee]

Thanks BW and Ace for the guidance. So I understand, the 1 mm, +|- squish has been designed into the head taking into account where the crown is in cylinder (.015 in below) and the thickness of the gasket. Is my thinking correct?  Do I check this with a quick test: laying out solder? 

Once squish done, then we see where the valves are and determine next move.

Am I about right?  Corrections, additions, feedback most welcome!  Looking to learn more!

             As Adrian said, My engine is stock except for what ACE did to the head.

              My clay test went fine. I made a clay pancake per Ace's thickness measurement (I have pictures somewhere). One valve (intake I think) just barely touched the clay.

               Hey - a favor - do you have the original 2008 Minda left hand switchset with the decomp lever built-in on your bike? If you do I will start a new subject line. 

[DanB]

a favor - do you have the original 2008 Minda left hand switchset with the decomp lever built-in on your bike? If you do I will start a new subject line.

Yep. I still have it. Right now, the decomp just flaps in the breeze as it isn't connected to anything....

[tooseevee]

Yep. I still have it. Right now, the decomp just flaps in the breeze as it isn't connected to anything....

             Good. Thanks. I'm gonna start a new subject with some questions. Might be a couple hours.

[DanB]

Got the rockers back in. Wasn't hard with a hard wood dowel as a mandrel.



Next step: sent thickness of gasket and the piston height over to Ace.  Then we check for valove interference. 

2CV: did you find source for the hardened washers?  I pulled one off. Was going to leave it the way I found it... now I'm thinking,  since I'm here might as well go the job right.

[tooseevee]

           
2CV: did you find source for the hardened washers?  I pulled one off. Was going to leave it the way I found it... now I'm thinking,  since I'm here might as well go the job right.

             Sorry. Haven't been around 'til now (6:30PM).

              To be honest, I cannot remember what I ended up with now.

              I do remember that we had a lot of discussion about them (on this forum) back when I was planning my reassembly. I said "These are machined and very accurate washers. Where do I get them"?    Some said "Don't need 'em", some said other things.

              I've never had any luck with this Search function and so it goes.

              I'm gonna go now and look at my bills and notes.

              Ace, do you remember any of this?
   

[tooseevee]

   I'm gonna go now and look at my bills and notes.         

           Nope, no luck.

            I reassembled it in the Winter of 2014. All done by December. Something might be back in the dusty stacks somewhere about hardon washers...

            I have it circled in my parts book (500321) so maybe I called Tim, but I have no bill for ever getting them (yes, I keep everything). Except meticulous notes 

[tooseevee]

This head, and the other one done along with it, will be the last two AVL heads that I can do.
I just got a bill for $2238.00 for each one of these heads done at the new shop. Total $4476. I sold these jobs at $1400 each(total $2800), so I am going $1600 in the hole for doing these 2 jobs. Obviously I cannot continue doing that.
 

So, that's that.

            I just realized that I've not read this until this very night (Sat. at 1/4 past 7) and I feel really bad now and don't know what to do except send you money I don't have 'cuz I'm a senior citizen on a fixed income