Been completely headless

The good thing loosing your head is when you get it back as new. New valve guides, valve seats cut three angles, facing took 0.12mm off, readily assembled. Of course ... new gasket!

A good idea is to check the TDC (top dead center) mark on the crank pulley. Use the book and respect the torque and order in which you tighten the head bolts.

Next are the tappets and the rocker shaft. Tighten evenly.
Enough for a summer Sunday morning...
Cheers.

Headwork

The cylinderhead showed some leakage around the valves when I tested it with petrol. One good reason to take the valves out and regrind them. Tonight's job: disassemble the cylinderhead. Say hello to my new tool, the valve spring compressor.

This tool permits to compress the valve spring. Then you get access to the cotters and can take them out. Release the spring and the valve spring retainer comes off. The valves come out, some by themselves, some need a little persuasion.

The valves should not mix up, cardboard helps to keep them sorted. Unfortunately, one copper insert came out with its valve. Tapping it back in didn't work.

This leaves me with two more problems: #1 getting an insert off the right size and #2 find the right valve stem seals. Those in the seal kit (left) aren't the same as in my engine.

And one more to prepare a sleepless night, how about this little crack? Is this serious? I will further investigate with some specialist friends and decide what to do.

Cheers.

Head off

Start of dismantling. Both manifolds off, water and oil drained, here we go. Piston tops look good, cylinder head gasket like new.

All parts and especially the valves look good. The probable reason being the piston rings, I will have to dismantle the bottom end as well.
Cheers.

Light head

Currently drooling over this one but have to wait for the right time (and money) ... after the complete rebuild which will take some more time anyway. Sold at Webcon for around 800.-£ it comes with valve guides and seats for unleaded. They claim half the weight (9.5kg) compared with the original cast cylinder head.

Add 200.-£ more and drool over this aluminium head from CNC , and read about the race engine specs they intend to reach with it. We're talking about a design from 1967 here !!! 

Just allowed myself some dreaming while fighting the "summer weather" depression (the rain has an approximate temperature of 18°C).

Cheers.