Shock, Horror does that mean age related wear is acceptable 
ET: Engine (Twin) metering wires
- Thread starter Paul Williams
- Start date
When Gary Robinson welds the followers, He fills in those holes, Cheers Bill.
Hi Paul. As an aside, I've just put wires in my own rocker feeds, and found I had 1 (inlet) feed bolt had a 1/32 hole drilled horizontally through the tube, giving twice the feed! (- is this a Spares version?). I calculated the required size of wire to get back to a 1-off 1/32 hole + 0.020 wire as a 0.026 wire passed through both holes. This was sourced in the shape of a pin ( - not a needle, as they tend to be brittle).
"I would also recommend the valve guide seal kit the the Spares Company do rather than wire restrictors if the guides are letting too much oil through".
without doing a full desk top study on this mod' does it require machining of the guide for a retaining groove or some such thing?
without doing a full desk top study on this mod' does it require machining of the guide for a retaining groove or some such thing?
The top of the valve guide (above the locating flange) is shorter and the new lock ring has a machined recess to carry the seal.
I have never seen or used a guide with a seal, Are they OK to be used with Mk2 cams ?. Cheers Smoking Bill.
Hi Bill, I've got Mk 2 cams and valve guide seals and they have worked fine for about 20 years, although new seals are now due. They were originally fitted by Ron Kemp when I had lead free seats done. Cheers, Stu.
The only trouble to me would be, Should the guides not have some lube', They must wear out quicker ?, I remember at a rally years ago, Someone had fitted guides a bit too tight, And the valves where sticking, So I have always done them a bit loose. Cheers Bill.
I have only ever assembled one head that had the stem seals in the guides, because the knife edge at the top is not needed the set up would suit higher lift cams where more travel is available. However, I personally believe that the original guide set up with the right clearance and sharp knife edge works fine, and I do like the idea of the lubrication of the stem as Bill mentioned. Air cooled engines run way hotter than liquid cooled modern engines, although as Stu has done many miles with nil trouble, then the seal mod seems ok. I would say most early Vincent engines suffered from the oil passageway through the liner to lube the piston skirt was too high, as the later pattern liners have the drilling lower via the machined slot. My guess is that this was actually the main cause of oiling up of spark plugs rather than too much oil in the heads..........I am also a firm believer that the oil returning from the rockers down each pushrod tube aids greatly in lubricating the cams and followers. If you look at how the oil feeds to the cam spindles actually work, the oil flow to each cam lobe is extremely poor........The inner most lobe only gets a "Timed squirt" as the cam rotates past where the hole in the bush aligns briefly with the corresponding hole in the cam spindle..........next time you have a look you will see what I mean. I machine a small radial groove in the inner cam bush to create a constant passageway for a more continuous flow of oil, and I check the depth of the hole in the spindle first from the crank case wall outward so the groove in the cam bush lines up with the hole in that spindle. The outer lobe does not suffer from this issue, as the hole in the spindle delivers oil to the open cavity between the two bushes, where the outer cam lobe is.