Swapping out my duff cylinder head

What a quality day, first a ride out the Army Air Corps museum to empty the fuel tank, then home to remove my dodgy old RH4 head and fit my new Fullauto head. What a doddle of a job, the head came off dead easy after being last removed 17 years ago. I am not going for anything special as the idea was to remove my head with knackered exhaust ports and a dodgy spark plug thread along with a broken fin, this will be refurbished in due course. Once the head is fitted I will hopefully fit new metallic black ceramic coated exhausts and silencers, I say hopefully, they are roadster unbalanced and not MK3, I did a test fit on another MK3 so hopefully they will fit. Up and running for next weekend is the idea, pics to follow.

Is your camera broken?

No, just lack of time to upload them bit by bit. I'll do a start to finish run of phots when done. Hopefully it will give me the desired finish without any problems, I like to try things, like the exhausts coated by Zircotec, next will be tyres, Avon roadriders are good but Continental now do zero degree radial rubber for our Commandos, Avon also do a new tyre called the Cobra which is the same technology but not in the Commando size. Reports of these tyres on other old bikes seem encouraging.

The head will go on Wednesday, build up on Thursday and on the road for the weekend, if the pipes don't fit then I'm stuffed as my old right hand pipe has no flared portion which goes against the exhaust port and balanced pipes are like hens teeth.

Here's the photos (hopefully)







[imghttp://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn187/madnorton1/DSCF3577_zpsc8r5k8os.jpg?t=1461956745][/img]




The photo of the silencer does not do the coating justice, it sparkles like hell in the sun. Despite this having seen the matt black it looks better, the other option would have been the nice gold colour, but that did no come in the Zircotec endurance range which is designed to withstand stone chips in exposed positions.

The fitting of the head was the easy bit, even the pushrods - the pita bit was the sleeve nuts and the fitting o f the tank over the wiring as the new head steady sits right next to the connectors.

The difference is like night and day even with my old carbs, coupled with the head steady the rear wheel is also connected to the bike - surprising what a difference it makes!!

When I get off my bike after a ride, the word I mutter under my breathe is "perfect".
There are many things that contribute to that feeling and one of the most important ones is that headsteady. I get to 2700 and then the switch flips and it's calm waters from there on.

Nice work there.

Many thanks for that, I'm in that ball park as well so confirms it is doing its job, lower speeds and I just needed to change gear to get sort the revs out. I notice that the 'drift' in the corners has gone as I found my turn tightening up today whereas in the past it would run out wide as the bend progressed and the drive chain settled. It also made one hell of a difference on our badly patched and worn out excuse for roads here in the UK, the imperfections which I felt in the past were not even noticeable.

Madnorton said:

Many thanks for that, I'm in that ball park as well so confirms it is doing its job, lower speeds and I just needed to change gear to get sort the revs out. I notice that the 'drift' in the corners has gone as I found my turn tightening up today whereas in the past it would run out wide as the bend progressed and the drive chain settled. It also made one hell of a difference on our badly patched and worn out excuse for roads here in the UK, the imperfections which I felt in the past were not even noticeable.

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Yeah, but what about the head?

Madnorton said:

...lower speeds and I just needed to change gear to get sort the revs out. I notice that the 'drift' in the corners has gone as I found my turn tightening up today whereas in the past it would run out wide as the bend progressed and the drive chain settled. It also made one hell of a difference on our badly patched and worn out excuse for roads here in the UK, the imperfections which I felt in the past were not even noticeable.

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You just knocked me off the dime. It's time for a new head steady.

Nathan

Brilliant, 'sadly' I can get to licence losing speeds far quicker than in the past, there is also a distinct change in noise from the exhausts at a certain point in the rev range - i'll have to take note when. In the past it seemed that the engine spun up and had to wait for the heavy old crank to catch up - not any more. Going from a standard RH 4 head the difference is not just noticeable, it's a major leap which highlights some changes maybe needed in future, ie 5 speed box.

I was going to fit a PW3 cam, but I won't bother, I'll just check the performance when out riding with an owner who has a PW3 fitted. I know I have a 19T sprocket fitted so this will be changed out to 20T to give me longer in the gears and to make better use of the quicker speed at which the engines spins up. If my old casing fails I will replace it with a new tougher case from AN.

I know the airflow tests were done which showed a nice increase in the airflow through the head, which was hailed as a good thing, but how this airflow affects the engine has surprised me as I was expecting it at the higher the revs and having to work it hard to get there - not so, it seems to rev quicker to get to the higher revs when allowed, but is equally at home in the traffic where a PW3 maybe lumpy.

I know there is a large difference in price between a cam and a Fullauto head, I intend to have a nice to ride road bike and certainly glad the Fullauto head is going to be part of that package. There's heaps loads of info on tuning for racers, but I would like a nice smooth road bike - would Norton done that if they could have in the past with the modern bits we now have, of course.

Quality product and big thanks to you and those who supported you in enabling to be designed and manufactured.

Aw, gee. Thanks!