New Commando engines

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It looks like I can see a number at the bottom of the right cylinder. ??

Jaydee
 
jaydee75 said:
It looks like I can see a number at the bottom of the right cylinder. ??
Click to expand...

That's where the cylinder barrel casting number (not the actual part number) would normally be (look at your own cylinder barrels).

An engine number wouldn't be stamped on what is a replaceable part, for obvious reasons.
 
I would still rather buy the parts (including an actual new cylinder head and crankshaft!) and build it myself.

Is it an optical illusion, or are those inlet manifold bolt holes out of line?
 
grandpaul said:
Since they also sell new frames (unstamped), I wonder how one might scratch build an entire new Norton and title it?
Click to expand...


Les Emery's Norvil have built entire entire new Nortons from scratch.

I think I remember stories about buyers not being 200% delighted with what they got. I bet there are people here who know more about it than me.
 
Well, far be it from me......

They are not "new" bikes. His collection of "new" heads are all the rubbish left over from the factory. They were not used for various reasons, being, wrongly machined, badly machined, or tooling broken off in them. I have it on good authority that these heads are finished off for the said man by an un-named local (UK) machinist and that no two are the same. I saw one locally (Australia) that a bloke had paid big money for and it was astonishingly crap! The valve seats were so far into the head that they would have been 1/8th of an inch recessed. It must have flowed like crap.

So, you could call them "new" if your definition of new was "very old factory rejects".

Forgive me. I'm in a bad mood.
 
SteveA said:
Is it an optical illusion, or are those inlet manifold bolt holes out of line?
Click to expand...
From the previous replies, maybe it's not an illusion...
 
I wonder how much it would cost to purchase new parts & get an engine built?
 
:D Thought somebody else might have got the calculator out.

At a quick glance at the AN site I can account for approx. 4500K without crank & crankcases. So at a guess 5.5K for parts. Disclaimer!! I just glanced through the engine parts & kept a running total in my head, so no calculator or spreadsheets were used!!

I think you could purchase all the 'bits' and get a person to build an engine for around the same money as the Norvil engine, just another option if you had this type of money to blow on an engine!
 
click said:
:D Thought somebody else might have got the calculator out.

At a quick glance at the AN site I can account for approx. 4500K without crank & crankcases. So at a guess 5.5K for parts. Disclaimer!! I just glanced through the engine parts & kept a running total in my head, so no calculator or spreadsheets were used!!

I think you could purchase all the 'bits' and get a person to build an engine for around the same money as the Norvil engine, just another option if you had this type of money to blow on an engine!
Click to expand...

Have you accounted for all the shafts, spindles, gaskets, seals, bearings, fasteners and myriad of small stuff that's easy to forget but all adds up?

Plus, if you really want an all new engine, and don't want a scrap cylinder head casting, you'll need a FA head.

So, realistically, I think you'd be looking at north of £8k by the time you'd done.
 
Repairing an existing engine in almost any condition must make better sense than spending top dollar on every dodgy pattern part that "some people" sell.
 
Fast Eddie said:
click said:
:D Thought somebody else might have got the calculator out.

At a quick glance at the AN site I can account for approx. 4500K without crank & crankcases. So at a guess 5.5K for parts. Disclaimer!! I just glanced through the engine parts & kept a running total in my head, so no calculator or spreadsheets were used!!

I think you could purchase all the 'bits' and get a person to build an engine for around the same money as the Norvil engine, just another option if you had this type of money to blow on an engine!
Click to expand...

Have you accounted for all the shafts, spindles, gaskets, seals, bearings, fasteners and myriad of small stuff that's easy to forget but all adds up?

Plus, if you really want an all new engine, and don't want a scrap cylinder head casting, you'll need a FA head.

So, realistically, I think you'd be looking at north of £8k by the time you'd done.
Click to expand...

A decent race motor won't give you change from £10K, ask me how I know! And that would be if you are building it yourself (and why wouldn't you?), and is possibly outdated since the build in question was finished in early 2015, and it can go up from there pretty quickly, particularly if you want some really fancy parts. Talk to SBR about billet cases.

But that is a different target to the off the shelf road motor, which if based on AN cases and iron barrels, but with say a 3 piece 89mm Steve Maney crank, (no more NREs likely to be made) and Fullauto head (there is no other new head available), but probably with standard rods, you ought to be able to scrape in between £8K and £9K.

So really, ask yourself what is going into a motor commercially built and for sale including profits at under £6K?
 
Fair enough points, as I said I only skimmed through the prices :roll:

From the comments made from guys experienced in building engines it does make you think how Norvil are building complete engines for a relatively low price?

If I had 10K+ to put into a road engine I wouldn't get it built to standard spec. Too many parts have been developed which are better than original parts which, IMHO, you would be mad not to use!!

Ah sure, a man can dream :D
 
Perhaps if we gave all the bits to the Indians, they might do a similar re-manufacture to the one they did with the Enfield ? Even if the metallurgy was a bit sus, it might not be all bad.
 
click said:
Fair enough points, as I said I only skimmed through the prices :roll:

From the comments made from guys experienced in building engines it does make you think how Norvil are building complete engines for a relatively low price?

If I had 10K+ to put into a road engine I wouldn't get it built to standard spec. Too many parts have been developed which are better than original parts which, IMHO, you would be mad not to use!!

Ah sure, a man can dream :D
Click to expand...

I built a completely not-standard high-spec spec road motor, and it was built up by two of the best: Jim Comstock did my FA head work, and Tony Stanwell did the rest (also built the SBR motor currently cleaning up in the UK races).

I didnt get any change from 10k. And, I also kept a lot of the original parts: cases, barrels, crank, rods, push rods, rockers, etc.

I think part of the reason Norvil can do it cheap is that the get wholesale standard parts prices, and dont use the best builders. That would cut the price in half at least I would guess.
 
gortnipper said:
click said:
Fair enough points, as I said I only skimmed through the prices :roll:

From the comments made from guys experienced in building engines it does make you think how Norvil are building complete engines for a relatively low price?

If I had 10K+ to put into a road engine I wouldn't get it built to standard spec. Too many parts have been developed which are better than original parts which, IMHO, you would be mad not to use!!

Ah sure, a man can dream :D
Click to expand...

I built a completely not-standard high-spec spec road motor, and it was built up by two of the best: Jim Comstock did my FA head work, and Tony Stanwell did the rest (also built the SBR motor currently cleaning up in the UK races).

I didnt get any change from 10k. And, I also kept a lot of the original parts: cases, barrels, crank, rods, push rods, rockers, etc.

I think part of the reason Norvil can do it cheap is that the get wholesale standard parts prices, and dont use the best builders. That would cut the price in half at least I would guess.
Click to expand...
If the parts in these motors are the same a norvil sells and I assume they are? good luck to anyone buying one!!!!
 
Luck - Just like a 'new' commando he sold to someone in Australia - it could have killed it's owner, thankfully the cup full of gearbox oil drained was spotted, queried and the problem identified before it did.
 
I've built bikes and have had fair success riding them to work and on pleasure trips.

That doesn't mean I could successfully build bikes to sell as new, to people who expect reliable, carefree motorised transport.

And people buying things sold as new have every right to expect that!
 
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