CLANK IX, This isn't Kansas anymore...
Last week my new Triumph pistons arrived from Moss. They turned out to be
some kind of weird Oriental repro. Anybody heard of "Toto Pistons"? Me
neither. The pistons were the four-ring variety, which, in general I
understand to be prone to breakage, and on close inspection, I found that one
of the gudgeon pins was loose in its bore. Grrr! Back they went to Moss!
British Frame & Engine came through with a set of 87MM "Mahle" pistons.
At last, all the parts were in. Or so I thought. Down to the machine shop
with the new pistons. Machinist sez, "say, Jerry, you wanna look at your head?
See, the intake valves sit too deep in the head after grinding them". Back to
the Moss catalog for a set of intake valves.(ding!) Aw, what the heck. At
this point in the project, $60 starts to look like chicken feed, anyway.
There's an old Russian saying "Since we've gone on such a drunk, let's cut
the last pickle". Guess I'll take the rocker arm shaft down to get it rebuilt
too. That should eliminate the last valve tick.
Speaking of valves, the replacement cam chain sprockets from TRF have NO
TIMING MARKS. So I guess I'll have to time my cam like the hotrodders do.
Luckily there's a cogent description of this in the TRSC Tech Tips.
Remember the crack in my block? The machinist wound up welding it, and
helicoiling the hole. Hopefully, it will take the 105 foot-pounds. He also
surfaced the top of the block, taking good care to remove a bare minimum. ( He
told me that my block top surface turned out to be "tilted" to the tune of
about 2 thou. )
The danger in block resurfacing is that the cylinder liner may protrude too
far. My britcar mechanic friend tells me that this can lead to head warpage.
I have the block back, but the machinist still has the liners, so we'll see how
the protrusion turns out. If it's over .0055, I have two choices: I can sand
down the tops of the liners, or I can take them back to the shop, and he will
take them down.
- Jerry ( looking forward to driving my TR )
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