Fullauto delivers!

Hi

Never did understand how other peoples good fortune gave rise to people venting their spleen in this way.

Fullauto, well done. Doug I look forward to the write up.

Like most of us, some parts are in the "one day" category I hope we all live long enough to get everything we want

Trouble is I keep finding more things I want.

Chris

I bought mine from CNW and hemmed and hawed a bit. Matt said dont worry, if you are unhappy send it back Ill pay.
Gee compared to m RH10 head it was amazing. It is on the bike now and honestly I have already forgotten what I paid for it.
Not impossible to see me ordering a alloy block if they become available.

Reading these negitive remarks regarding a slight blemish ...is so sad....do the commenters think these are easy to produce? Pouring or injecting molton alloy into a mould as many issues...I guess these heads are fine sand cast..involving a few sand cores , slight mis-alignment will produce a Flash .

Original heads where very poor ,with sand trapped in the alloy,to give the machinest a nasty hidden surprise! Seen lots of castings ,they all vairy ,pouring temp...speed etc all produce a differant result.. Perhaps Ken should re-invest in lost wax castings...might double the price, but no little marks to winge about.
Keep up the good work

Fullauto said:

You know, it"s quite funny. Giving this head to Doug has caused a number of not so positive comments. I just don't get it.No offence taken but I did have to correct you.

Click to expand...

Envy, perhaps?
One of the seven deadly sins.
A human characteristic that gets thrown out there on the cuff before thinking and writing to a thread.
CNN

The projection and wagon circling around here is getting ridiculous. Learn how to deal with a little criticism if you're gonna run with the big dogs.

Looks like a clamping indentation?

Mark said:

I really didn't expect to see this:

however....... sure can't argue about the price.

Click to expand...

Dkt26 said:

Mine has a little mark like that but different location. It add character and individualises them.
I don't see it as a flaw, just a bespoke indication that a man and his tools, toiled over my head with his hands. It's AWESOME.
Picked mine up this morning, each time I look at it I just go faaaark.

The inlet cobra head ports are art.

Click to expand...

I just want to clarify, I'm as happy as a pig in its own shit with my head. I couldn't care less if there is a mark on it or not. I saw it before I purchased it. To me it just looks like a bit of excess casting that has been cleaned up.

Snorton74 said:

The projection and wagon circling around here is getting ridiculous. Learn how to deal with a little criticism if you're gonna run with the big dogs.

Click to expand...

I don't believe Chris actually critiscized me. He made an assumption that was incorrect. I corrected the error. I can deal with HONEST critiscism.

john robert bould said:

Looks like a clamping indentation?

Mark said:

I really didn't expect to see this:

however....... sure can't argue about the price.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

No, it's not a clamping indentatiion. It's where the hole is drilled for the head bolts. Because of the nature of sand casting, you do get slight variations in the casting. You've got to remember that this is the most complex casting that Harrop Engineering had ever done up until that time. My engineer told me that they only took on some other work because of what they had learned from making my heads.

There are seventeen parts to the core box which have to be assembled before the alloy is poured. You cannot diecast them because of the design. I looked at investment casting but the engineer told me that the tree would be impossible to make. Hence, sandcasting.

The various Triumphs, BSAs and Hardly Believables have their heads cast without rockerboxes. These are bolted on later. The Norton design has integral rocker boxes with internal finning at three different angles.

You could make Norton heads the same way,BUT, then it wouldn't be a NORTON head now would it?

The interest in this little line is quite amazing to me, but then I spend a lot of time around Vincents which have castings that are rough as guts. Compared to the original Vincents, especially the early number machines, the stock Nortons look very tidy and a Full auto is sublime.
None of which seems to affect the performance of any of the above.
The early number Vincents with the very rough castings are thought to be the fastest ones ever built, according to multiple Bonneville record holder Marty Dickerson and others.

Glen

A little insight on my post:
Having never seen a fullauto head in person, all I really had to base my expectations on were the glowing comments posted here on the forum "That head is a piece of fine art", etc....
I guess i was just surprised to see that cut in the casting on such an expensive part.

My son was born with small cataract spots and I assumed them to be "flaws" in his eyes. His Pediatric Ophthalmologist assured me that they weren't flaws, but "personality spots" that would never affect his vision. My wife is an artist who, by intent, creats small "flaws" on purpose to lend a measure of personality and uniqueness to her work. The same can be said of this "personality spot" on this head. It is unique...it will be (and has been) immortalized...I would be proud to own it. Thank you, Fullauto...you are a prince among men!!!

I just got back from a weekend of racing at the Vintage Festival at Mosport, by far the biggest vintage race meeting in Canada at a serious, world class race track; big grids and lots of stiff competition. I had the Fullauto head there, Herb was so impressed with it that he showed it around to every British bike expert and enthusiast in the paddock; even vintage head flow expert Tim Speigelberg had a careful inspection of it. Everyone was extremely impressed immediately by the quality and finish of the sand casting and by the gorgeous machining work. Probably 40 people inspected the head and not a single person noticed this minute blemish that I believe you can only notice when you blast a powerful flash at it from a specific angle. I certainly never noticed it, you can barely see it in real life. Everyone who has a tiny blemish on their motor you an only see with a 1000 watt flash can mail me their motor, it is obviously no good.

The race weekend went well- the borrowed 890cc race motor that was built by Herb 20 years ago and was basically in a 'museum' bike ran great and held together for the whole weekend; in fact, after 12 years of trying I finally won the Period 2 Heavyweight class which is generally a real dogfight. Peter Hurst was second on his Rickman Triumph triple with Karsten Illg in 3rd on the Framecrafters Triumph triple and a CR750 Honda in 4th. That motor is now permanently retired. The video from this weekend's race should be a good one when I get around to editing it; there is some good passing and I got in mixed in with a superbike guy from another class who actually collided with me mid-corner in a kamikaze pass attempt. I haven't looked at any footage yet, should be good though.

The Fullauto head is now in Herb's hands where he will be assembling a new race motor around it.

Thanks Fullauto !

Thanks Doug for your efforts and successes in upholding the proud Norton heritage of winning on the track.

It never even occured to me to think my FullAuto head was 'flawed'......and it looks to me that I got more metal than Doug.....

Take a look at some original heads and you will see similar machining marks.......



Now, I do have an RH4 that is pretty bad to look at.....to get it to a usable state for my race bike, the effort of which may of course identify cracks etc., would end up with a total cost to me that would really upset me.....