Full Auto Head owners, please share your experiences

Jonez69

Jonez69

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I'm servicing a 72' Commando for a friend and noticed that it is equipped with a Full Auto Technologies head. My friend only told me he has receipts from work done by CNW but I have not seen said receipts. I think he bought the bike only because he wanted a Norton and it was offered at a very good price. It does need a bit of TLC, which I am giving it now. I would like to hear from Full Auto owners what exactly makes these heads worthy of the investment. I have no experience with them and this is the first one I have seen...
IMG_8575.jpeg
 
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Not sure of the exhaustive list (pardon the pun) but the cast alloy has less porosity (as in none that I am aware) than OEM. The exhaust ports have flat floors ("D" shaped)
Mine has been trouble free - now 6 years old and 17,000 miles. It has standard compression and 22 tooth sprocket and will redline (7500rpm) in top gear, so I'm happy.
I have heard some complain the "alloy is softer" but I don't believe there is any credible science behind these claims.
Cheers
 
What serial number?

Mine is Australian made and I have had it for around 12 years. I bought through Mick Hemmings in the UK when he was the UK agent. I certainly thought it a thing of beauty when I bought it and it saved me waiting 12 months for Steve Maney to get an original item one prepped for me, which alongside the cylinder barrel and rocker arms would have been the only used parts in the engine. The porting on inlet and exhaust was developed by Jim Comstock and it is very effective

It is on a 750 short stroke in a race bike, but has standard valve angles and sizes, skimmed 20 thou.. It works very well coupled with a PW3 profile (Now a JSM version) and a bit of compression (around 10.5:1).

I am guessing that is what you have. A more recent product will have been made in the US.

Some say the alloy used in the Australian one was soft, but in fact they were made by different foundries in small batches during the production life, so I believe that varies. I can see some signs of softer material, but I still think it is 100% better than an original Norton casting. If you pull it off see if the main 3/8" bolts have sunk into the head at all, that seemed to be the symptom that was mentioned.

I have had to put inserts in for the studs. But, of course, it has been on and off more times than would be the case with a road bike.

Definitely money well spent. I'm happy with it.

If I was flush with cash I might be interested in a US made one, which by most assessments is better quality both at the casting and machining execution, I particularly like that it has inserts for the studs as standard. The design itself is the same and was developed in Australia with access to original drawings owned at that time by Mick Hemmings.
 
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I have one of the later cylinder heads from Australia.
I have had problems with the four 3/8" bolt holes collapsing inwardly. What I found was that these four bolts were not tight after a European trip
(head was fitted just before commencing the trip) and then that I had problems getting the bolts out of the head as the walls of the holes had collapsed inwardly very slightly onto the bolts. The bolts had to be tapped out lightly with a drift. I'm surprised that the head gasket didn't blow.
To overcome this problem, Seager Engineering suggested fitting four "top hat" inserts into these bolt holes, but am still finding that the two bolts
nearest to the exhaust are either settling very slightly or very slowly sinking, maybe 0.002" per 1000 miles, but the side walls are being kept open by the inserts. I also had colisbro threaded inserts put into the three stud holes under the head for additional safety.
Apart from this nothing else detrimental, and of course mods as described by SteveA.
 
I have an early Aus made FA head and also had problems with the alloy crushing under the bolts. Combination of top hats and cNw (ARP) waisted bolts seems to have done the trick.
 
Mine is an Australian made head - as I said above, 6 years old and 17,000 miles
This afternoon I removed and cleaned and checked gap on the plugs. Might say something about how the bike is running mixture wise, but...
A light thump on 3/8 drive ratchet (say 45 degrees) and the plugs spun easily out all the way with two fingers - cold!!
After the job on the plugs I check for sand/dirt/etc in the pockets outside the plugs and also, with a rag wetted with brake cleaner, clean the tops of the threads in the head as best I can, then...
Spin the plugs with fingers until they stop, then put a torque wrench on them - less than 30 degrees sees both at my target of 20Nm.

The reason I'm posting this is that you would not be able to do that on a "soft alloy", substandard head.
I'm a fan!
Cheers
 
robs ss said:
Spin the plugs with fingers until they stop, then put a torque wrench on them - less than 30 degrees sees both at my target of 20Nm.

The reason I'm posting this is that you would not be able to do that on a "soft alloy", substandard head.
I'm a fan!
Cheers
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Hi Rob, I hear what you say, and it sounds as if you've got a good head that isn't soft as you've had zero issues, so congratulations to you.

I'd be cock-a-hoop if my FullAuto head had not had problems, and you can only speak of your own experiences as I have, but regarding the spark plugs spinning out by hand, my spark plugs will also do the same, but my FullAuto has got issues that manifest themselves on the 4 x 3/8" bolt hole area.
 
As does mine. Performance wise they are great but the alloy was either wrong or the heat treating incorrect.
 
Reggie said:
Hi Rob, I hear what you say, and it sounds as if you've got a good head that isn't soft as you've had zero issues, so congratulations to you.

I'd be cock-a-hoop if my FullAuto head had not had problems, and you can only speak of your own experiences as I have, but regarding the spark plugs spinning out by hand, my spark plugs will also do the same, but my FullAuto has got issues that manifest themselves on the 4 x 3/8" bolt hole area.
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Serial number? Mine was supplied in the UK #101.
 
Onder said:
As does mine. Performance wise they are great but the alloy was either wrong or the heat treating incorrect.
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The machinist who worked on mine suggested heat treatment was the issue, fixable but would need valve guides removed (if i remember correctly?)
Serial No - mine is stamped on top of the head in front of the inlet rocker cover.
 
ntst8 said:
Serial No - mine is stamped on top of the head in front of the inlet rocker cover.
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Thanks - I'll have look and advise next time I have the tank off. 👍
Edit - will that be covered up by the head steady? I have the cNw/Dave Taylor type.
 
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robs ss said:
Thanks - I'll have look and advise next time I have the tank off. 👍
Edit - will that be covered up by the head steady? I have the cNw/Dave Taylor type.
Click to expand...
I've had a look at some old pics - turns out Fullauto Technologies is stamped and visible in front of the inlet rocker cover but the head number is (on mine at least) stamped in front of the drilling for the centre headsteady bolt location. So that will be nicely covered by a DT headsteady sadly (i have one too).
 
ntst8 said:
I've had a look at some old pics - turns out Fullauto Technologies is stamped and visible in front of the inlet rocker cover but the head number is (on mine at least) stamped in front of the drilling for the centre headsteady bolt location. So that will be nicely covered by a DT headsteady sadly (i have one too).
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Ahh - thanks!
Well, I'm not going to pull the head steady off just to find the number, so we won't know.
It was fitted to the bike late 2018 to early 2019 in USA.
Cheers
 
robs ss said:
Ahh - thanks!
Well, I'm not going to pull the head steady off just to find the number, so we won't know.
It was fitted to the bike late 2018 to early 2019 in USA.
Cheers
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Mine is earlier than that, supplied to me in 2014.

As I said, I think it was a batch issue, Fullauto had them cast in small batches, but for commercial reasons (Cost) I understood he used different foundries.
 
vidar hjelm johansen said:
How are the new STS heads from Matt?
I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I've only had good experiences with it..

Vidar
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All reports suggest you won't be able to fault it.

I'm sure Fullauto would have loved to get to the same standards and quality control, and I think he was only prevented by the the need to farm work out. He started a great project.

STS does the work in house as a larger business.
 

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