[Spridgets] My bug eye problems

[Matt Hagopian]

We dont actually have to weld, we took the piece out of the piston and it
didnt break through, smoothing it out. I didnt check the chain myself, I
will ask my grandfather about that. As for grinding them down... There is an
unneccessary "extrude groove" sorry couldnt think of the word to describe
it, and it is scoring the pistons as you can see. Our remedy is to grind
that extrusion off of the valves to keep it from hitting. All my grandfather
does is build race engines for Jaguars. This is our first experience with a
1275cc and frankly neither one of us knows much about it. I would love some
good info about the car itself (yes Im picking up a book on it) if someone
cares to share any "secrets". Basically its a cheap racecar for me and
whoever else wants to use it as my grandfather runs 2 series one Jaguar
XKE's.

Matt~

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 7:41 AM, John D. Caffrey <jdc6 at lehigh.edu> wrote:

>  Matt Hagopian wrote:Guys, we pulled the head off before pulling the motor
> out... Look at what we
>  > found! My grandfather was right! Sent the head out to the local guy to
> do
> > some work on it. Pulling that piston out because one of those pieces is
> > actually stuck into it, machining it off/out and putting a weld to cover
> it
> > up. Grinding all of the valve heads down because as you can see the valve
> > heads are hitting.
>
> > Comments? Concerns?
>
> Matt,
> You're kidding, right?  You cannot possibly grind a valve head down enough
> to make the clearance you need!!!  Clearance should be .060", and removing
> that from a valve would severely weaken it, the margin on the valve is
> usually only .030".  The proper fix is to machine valve reliefs in the
> pistons. Was the cam timing checked during the disassembly? Chains don't
> last very long at race rpm, especially single row chains.
> Welding on the pistons of a race engine is another unusual idea that may
> distort the ring lands, and give future ring sealing or sticking problems.
> If you want this engine to last you need to find someone experienced with
> RACE engines.
> John
> Fogelsville, PA
>



-- 
Sincerely,


Matt Hagopian