HarleyTechTalk

"He put a 30/45/60 degree 3-angle grind on all valves and seats."
Now your cooking. 

"Dang Panheads"
I said the same thing about Shovelheads. Ugliest, rough, rocker covers ever to grace a Harley motor. 

Work has been crazy so my progress has been slow on this project. I got everything put back together on Saturday. The motor fired up on the third kick, so that was encouraging. But compression on the front cylinder is really low.    I let it idle for about 10min and the compression didn't improve. It didn't run really well but it would idle. I checked the pushrods and they are not too tight.  I went as far as pulling out the pushrods. Kicking it over, I can still tell the compression is super low on the front. So... Off comes the front head again.  I'm very doubtful that it's the piston/rings. I was getting no smoke when I ran it. I'll update again when I get to the bottom of the issue. I've never had so many issues when doing a topend before. 

-Craig

That stinks. Front head was the one that had some interference. I wonder if a valve was slightly bent, and it slipped past the guy when he worked on the head to fix the interference?

Yes, the front head was the one that had some valve interference initially.  The guy who did the valve job said he put the valves in a lathe to look for a bent valve and they were all ok.  But sometimes mistakes are made.  We'll get to the bottom of it.  I figure this is pay back for so many years of smooth sailing.   

-Craig

Ok! Got to the bottom of the problem. When the valve seat was pressed into the head it was not pressed square with the valve guide. I pulled the head off the motor and filled the combustion chamber with water. It was leaking fast into the exhaust port. So the guy who did the valve job recut the seat and lapped the valves again. He felt bad that he had missed that issue and fixed it up while I waited. Now back to reassembly... Again. 

-Craig

 

Did a little work between meetings this morning. 

... There is something to be said for working from home.  Most days I put in 10-12 hours, but when I have a break I can get in the garage and tinker a little.  ...

Anyway, the motor is all back together and I have good compression in both cylinders now.  I installed the intake and used this handy homemade tool to pressure test for leaks.  I make sure both intake valves are closed, then put 20psi of pressure on the intake and spray around the intake o-rings with some soapy water.  I first learned about this method of testing for intake leaks the HydraGlide forum from a guy named Tom Cotton.  He had a wealth of information to share.

-Craig

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Getting close to the finale     

Ok! She fired right up on the first kick with ignition on. Got a nice smooth (as far as panheads go) idle. Took it for a short ride. I'll let it cool down overnight, then I'll re-torque the head bolts and base cylinder nuts.  Feels good to have it running again.

-Craig

Yeah baby! Congrats

Feels good to hear it running again!

-Craig

Nice Going!  I can almost smell the exhaust.  Good Luck with it.

Great to see you have it all worked out. Congrats   

Is that a CV carb on that pan?

Yeah. I've run a CV40 on this panhead since 2003. It's a really good carb for this engine.

-Craig

I have no doubt it is. Have converted a couple shovels to CV and they ran really well with the new carb. I think this is the first pan I have seen with a CV. Very cool.