HarleyTechTalk

Nibroc, here's your update.


I picked up the heads on Monday, and painted them. (had the shop bead blast the old paint) So today I'll be working to get the top end back together, I think I have all the parts now. I spent a lot of time tracking down gaskets that were the rubber coated steel type. No one supplier had them all, in fact the base gaskets came from Italy!

The heads look pretty good. The plugs are more or less located opposite from one another in the chamber. The plug angles are different, but at the end of the day I don't think that makes much difference. I do think I'll take a dremel and dress the ends of the new plug holes, I don't like seeing the threads exposed like that. Possible "hot spot".

He was not able to put valve seals on, there is simply not enough room. He did use Kibblewhite manganese bronze guides, and ran minimal clearance, so oil draw though them should be minimized. Also used Evo/TC style Kibblewhite valves and Kibblewhite springs.

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The cylinders were bored to .040" over, and using Wiseco 10:1 forged pistons. Also installed a set of Andrews R5 cams. Will be interesting to see how this thing runs now. Hopefully a little less blue smoke!

-JW

should be a lot less blue smoke

 

 

Wow; those look nice.  Is there a pretty pronounced dome on the Wiseco's?  It'll be interesting to hear your riding impressions...

Quote from: sharkoilfield on April 18, 2020, 06:47:43 AM
Wow; those look nice.  Is there a pretty pronounced dome on the Wiseco's?  It'll be interesting to hear your riding impressions...

I can tell you that with the "Pronounced Dome" on my IH dragbike...we needed to put Dimples in the Piston Dome to clear the plugs!!!!
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Yes the domes are up there, but so is the stock piston. The the Wiseco's, it appears the area is filled in a bit more.

One interesting thing with dual plug, by shining a light into one hole, you can get a pretty clear view of what's going on in there from the other hole. With the plugs I'm using, the only part that extends into the chamber is the electrode. I'll check it out if they interfere with the piston crown.

I'm thinking my machine shop guy used a bit too much valve spring, esp on the exhaust. Turning it over in 4th with the rear tire takes a bit of arm now.

After I got the heads and rocker boxes on, the problem now is what to do with the coil. Am using a Dynatek four tower DC6-4, and using the stock ironhead mount, it interferes with the front rocker box. The other bad feature of this coil is no screw terminals like typical HD coils. It has a pigtail hanging out of it to a connector, so no convenient "terminal block" at the coil to connect the other ignition wires to. Wishing I had gone with the Nology mini coils. Oh well, time to put on the creative hat and figure it out.

-JW

I ended up with 2 MSD super coils... pricey... but no F-Ups...I have a Butt Heavy FXR type Coil mount that will handily hold a pair of twin tower Dyna coils that I will be trying in the very near future..

OK, think I have it figured out. I have the tank mounted with a hole through the top frame tube. I can just use the same to raise the coil up enough to clear the rocker box. But now to figure out how to connect ring terminals to free hanging pigtails. Maybe just use 10-32 bolts and nuts with some rubber hose to insulate for now.

-JW

Quote from: JW113 on April 18, 2020, 01:21:11 PM
But now to figure out how to connect ring terminals to free hanging pigtails. Maybe just use 10-32 bolts and nuts with some rubber hose to insulate for now.
-JW

It come with the other side of the connector pigtail as shown in  instructions?
Why not use some male/female bullet terminals then heat shrink? They are available uninsulated also.
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That's nice... but I personally do Not trust that coil... granted mine was quite a long time ago... maybe they got Better??
Of course that coil will Not work for My use anyway...as I need a coil with at least 4 ohms primary!!!!
Maybe I should try one again with the MSD Box!!!!!

There are not a lot of choices for dual output four tower coils. If this one goes tits up I'll go with two Nology coils.

I could of used bullet connectors for the two coil trigger wires, but the problem is the +12V wire. I need 5 connections at that point. The coil wire, the run/kill wire, the ignition wire, the power wire to the Hi-4, and power wire to the AGR. I ended up using screws/nuts through the ring lugs until I think of something better.

Now off to find a parts store that is open and buy a set of plug wires, and it's ready to hit the start button.

-JW

I am real curious to see how this turns out. I rarely see iron heads in good shape. Most are pretty ratty, but that is not the case here. Isn't this the bike that you recently put the CV carb on?

Yes. It went from S&S E, to CV-40, to S&S B, now back to CV-40. After curing the off idle cough and getting the jetting close with the AFR, it was running quite nice. And then started smoking. Since I had to pull the top end off, well, you know...


-JW

Quote from: JW113 on April 19, 2020, 08:32:59 AM

I could of used bullet connectors for the two coil trigger wires, but the problem is the +12V wire. I need 5 connections at that point. The coil wire, the run/kill wire, the ignition wire, the power wire to the Hi-4, and power wire to the AGR. I ended up using screws/nuts through the ring lugs until I think of something better.

-JW

I was just thinking of the trigger wires.  But if you do have the pigtail as I showed in my snip is it correct showing a separate wire crimped in with the power to got to your HI-4?
If so that's one out of the loop. And FWIW I've "daisychained" in situations like that. Have 2 crimped in one to branch out. Just a thought, throwing some ideas out.
And is "AGR" a typo? Assuming AFR?

Quote from: turboprop on April 19, 2020, 08:43:01 AM
I am real curious to see how this turns out. I rarely see iron heads in good shape. Most are pretty ratty, but that is not the case here.

No doubt. Original owner 79 I believe was the year, was on the local Craigslist. Appeared in ad showroom new, unmolested. Started out at $6K'ish.
Sat a year or so, was last on there for $2700. Thought man that's a decent deal if anyone wanted one not ratted out.

Picture of the smoothest IronHead I ever rode on the street..
Belongs to Eldest...
Not Fastest, quickest, most comfortable... Noooo Smoothest engine and Shifting, and easy clutch even!!

Correct, AFR. I hit that pesky key next to the F by accident.

Beware the '79 XL. Not saying they are bad bikes, but they have a lot of one year only stuff. Exhaust choices are VERY limited. Rear brake set up is Rube Goldberg.

Not the way I had intended to spend a Sunday morning. I had to hit up 5 auto parts stores until I found one that had a universal spark plug wire set. Finally at O'Rileys they had an Accel set, but even that only came with right angle coil terminals and caps. What ever, will work OK for now.

-JW

Success! It fired right up, no smoke, no scary noises. I ran it for about 4 minutes at 2K, until the heads started to feel warm. Will let it cool down a little, then do 2 or 3 more heat cycles before taking it around the block. Just for the sake of doing it, I had peeked into the oil tank. It was about 3/4 empty! Pulled the case drain, got a couple quarts out. I figured it might wet sump a bit, it's been sitting for 5 months. Evidently more than 'a bit'. Going to have to look into that I guess. One of the charms of an Ironhead, the oil pump comes off real easy. Save that for an other time, too many other fish to fry first.

-JW

 

Well it has been a fun day. Ironhead all back together and running. And now the agonizing phase of breaking the damn thing in. I went around the block a few times, with the damn thing BEGGING to be flogged like a read headed stepchild. Like all Ironheads do. I resisted. You know how it is, give it some throttle, and once it gets past 3K starts picking up speed on it's own, then you're forced to back off. I'm thinking April is going to be even more difficult to weather through than it already will be given this pandemic stuff. Can't help it, I'm not a patient dude.



 

-JW

OK, here it is.

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That big honkin' coil tucked up under the tank:

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-JW

That is a great looking machine! I bet it sounds fantastic. Have fun!

That is a clean ironhead. Very cool.

JW did you get it in that state? Or build into that? Looks nice.
Coil looks factory from my perspective.
BTW, what little riding you did do, how the tune look on the AFR gauge after all the changes?