Engine is out; suggest servicing recommendations

[Riggerlee88]

Hi all,


I am after some advice. Engine is out as I am working on the cafe racer conversion, would i am after would anyone suggest is there any works I could be doing to the engine whilst it’s out of the frame to ensure longevity and good health of the unit? She has 45,000 on the clock but only came into my hands late summer so I am unsure on its service history or check history ie valve clearance etc. Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated cheers

[agricola]

Id definitely do the valve check/adjustment while its out.

[fazersharp]

Take the opportunity to remove the exhaust studs and replace with stainless steel. Search the forum for exhaust studs.   

[Riggerlee88]

Cheers for the advice @agricola thankfully I have changed the studs what a pain that turned out to be only one snapped though, I have purchased some bell head nuts to prevent water ingress onto the thread fingers crossed that works.

[tommyardin]

Take the opportunity to remove the exhaust studs and replace with stainless steel. Search the forum for exhaust studs.

  Definitely a good move, did mine while still in the frame, not easy but not impossible either.
Stainless studs with plain steel nuts, or, Stainless nuts on plain steel studs.
Stainless with Stainless is not good because of 'Galling' (Cold Welding) can make it impossible to undo.

Stainless steel turnbuckles on a yachts standing rigging are a disaster, they are strong and fine until you need to adjust or remove them.

Had a survey done on Zara (Yacht) last spring ready for the new season (Insurance requirement) and we had to take the mast down for the survey and to replace a navigation light head, ended up having to cut all the turnbuckles off with a disc cutter as they refused to shift.
6 new turnbuckles at £47 each and a lot of work. I put one of the old turnbuckles in an engineers vice and attacked it with a set of 24" Stilsons, all I managed was to twist the 60 mm long x 10mm stud around like a candy twist and snap it off, no sign of movement on the threads. Don't need galling on an exhaust stud.

It's worth putting dab of copper slip on the studs before you spin the nuts on, I remove the stud nuts one at a time, not all at once, each year and reapply copper slip to each as a part of my winterisation service, they come undo with no problems at all.    

[Fazerider]

Take the opportunity to remove the exhaust studs and replace with stainless steel. Search the forum for exhaust studs.

  Definitely a good move, did mine while still in the frame, not easy but not impossible either.
Stainless studs with plain steel nuts, or, Stainless nuts on plain steel studs.
Stainless with Stainless is not good because of 'Galling' (Cold Welding) can make it impossible to undo.

Stainless steel turnbuckles on a yachts standing rigging are a disaster, they are strong and fine until you need to adjust or remove them.

Had a survey done on Zara (Yacht) last spring ready for the new season (Insurance requirement) and we had to take the mast down for the survey and to replace a navigation light head, ended up having to cut all the turnbuckles off with a disc cutter as they refused to shift.
6 new turnbuckles at £47 each and a lot of work. I put one of the old turnbuckles in an engineers vice and attacked it with a set of 24" Stilsons, all I managed was to twist the 60 mm long x 10mm stud around like a candy twist and snap it off, no sign of movement on the threads. Don't need galling on an exhaust stud.

It's worth putting dab of copper slip on the studs before you spin the nuts on, I remove the stud nuts one at a time, not all at once, each year and reapply copper slip to each as a part of my winterisation service, they come undo with no problems at all.    

Using different grades of stainless steel is supposed to go a long way towards avoiding the risk of galling.
I used A2 threaded rod for the studs and A4 dome nuts and haven’t had any problem. Though admittedly, I do stuff the nuts with Copaslip too which would probably be adequate protection even if you used the same grade of stainless for both nut and stud.

[tommyardin]

Take the opportunity to remove the exhaust studs and replace with stainless steel. Search the forum for exhaust studs.

  Definitely a good move, did mine while still in the frame, not easy but not impossible either.
Stainless studs with plain steel nuts, or, Stainless nuts on plain steel studs.
Stainless with Stainless is not good because of 'Galling' (Cold Welding) can make it impossible to undo.

Stainless steel turnbuckles on a yachts standing rigging are a disaster, they are strong and fine until you need to adjust or remove them.

Had a survey done on Zara (Yacht) last spring ready for the new season (Insurance requirement) and we had to take the mast down for the survey and to replace a navigation light head, ended up having to cut all the turnbuckles off with a disc cutter as they refused to shift.
6 new turnbuckles at £47 each and a lot of work. I put one of the old turnbuckles in an engineers vice and attacked it with a set of 24" Stilsons, all I managed was to twist the 60 mm long x 10mm stud around like a candy twist and snap it off, no sign of movement on the threads. Don't need galling on an exhaust stud.

It's worth putting dab of copper slip on the studs before you spin the nuts on, I remove the stud nuts one at a time, not all at once, each year and reapply copper slip to each as a part of my winterisation service, they come undo with no problems at all.    

Using different grades of stainless steel is supposed to go a long way towards avoiding the risk of galling.
I used A2 threaded rod for the studs and A4 dome nuts and haven’t had any problem. Though admittedly, I do stuff the nuts with Copaslip too which would probably be adequate protection even if you used the same grade of stainless for both nut and stud.

Same as that, I used S/Steel studs, plain steel nuts and S/Steel dome nuts over the top to act as lock nut, it also keep the water away from the stud end, along with Copper Slip.

[Riggerlee88]

Good advice I will remove and install some copper grease. Ref the valve check is the process simple enough to do also any advice on where is best to purchase new shims?

[daviee]

checking the valves is easy enough get the online manual and go through it that way as for shims you can either get them online ebay fowlers yambits etc but check first as sometimes you can swap about if your lucky but if not use the chart to make sure you order the right size

[His Dudeness]

Checking is easy but to adjust them you have to take the cams out so you have to re-time the engine and you need a suitable torque wrench to do up to the cam cap bolts. It's not difficult but there's a chance you can get it wrong and damage something important

[Bretty]

If the engine is out and the valves do need adjusting (they will likely not need adjusting amd still be in spec)
, It might be worth considering a camchain change.

I would be tempted to change the camchain anyway (it'll cost you a day and about £100 in parts and gaskets), but you might as well with the engine out.

[Riggerlee88]

thank you all for your advice its much appreciated, I have completed coating the frame so now my attention can shift to the engine coating but first check the shims etc.