The majority of the 74 engines I have built are done with good used AM cases. There is nothing wrong with the new cases but we try to keep our Things as close to original as possible. This pic is when I’m laying in the Engle 110 cam and counter-weighted crank.
The opposite case half with the lifters and crank as well as the cam is ready to button up. You can see the cam lube (red) generously applied to the lifter feet. The case edge has been coated with Yamabond #4 which has proven to be the best product for sealing case halves. Zero leaks and it sets up in the absence of oxygen.
This is where I torque the case halves together.
Some used cases have stains on them and don’t clean up as well. Some of these I ‘sandblast’ with sugar. This cleans the cases and you can get it all out of the case by running it thru a dishwasher. Can’t do that with sand……it never get completely out of the case.
Setting the deck height prior to setting the shims for the compression ratio. This is going to come out at 6.88 to 1. Great for the ethanol contaminated fuel we have here in Idaho.
Torquing the heads.
.Installing the Cool-Tin before installing the heads. I put large orientation numbers on the pistons to make it easy to see which goes where.
After torquing the heads with the final values we brake for lunch. After letting the engine ‘rest awhile’ we re-torque the heads.
Kai and his dad Andrew with me on the engine. Kai has his own Thing and knows a lot about the assembly process of engine building. We have built quite few engines together. Andrew has a son who will KNOW about air-cooled. Super family!
– Mike
