Righty, taken a few days to meditate on information. Nearly made it through the big book of vizard now, i also watched the minifilms engine building DVD (dunno if anyone over there has seen it? Basicly a taped engine build) and for once everything clicked in my brain. So i think i've nearly got my head around engines properly.
The article by Graham Russel was also very good, i'll be using alot of his advice for my build i think.
I've been struggling to understand how compression works, but i think i understand it now.
So if the standard compression (i think, my memory may be wrong) is 8.3:1, and i wanted to raise it to Grahams 10.5:1, with a +30 (for example) piston, how would i do the maths to figure out compression? Can it even be done before assembling the engine?
Also, would anyone be able to comment on the pros/cons of flat-topped pistons? If i was to go the flat top route, it would certainly be using modified 998cc pistons. So if anyone happens to have tried it, it would be great to hear how it went
In regards to Carbs, i've found ebay over here often has 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" twin carbs on ebay for cheapish ($50 Aus Dollars) in need of light rebuilds, so they are within my budget. Seeing as i'd need to buy and refurb a carb anyway if i was going for a single, i might as well pay a little more for twins. I really need to read up on manifolds for twin SU's though, as all i've found so far are the Log type ones, which performed poorley if i remember rightly? In the GR article it seems a 1 3/4" carb came out on top, that RE 7 inlet manifold certainly looks like a good bit of kit.
Though, seeing as the only reason for me to fit twin carbs is to eliminate cylinder 1+4 running lean, can anyone give a rough idea on how badly they are effected? I'm just thinking ahead that getting both carbs to flow equally and setup correctly, which including fitting the custom "leaning device", it might be a huge hassle to get both carbs runing equally. If the leaning problem is only a negligable amount then it probly isnt worth me running twins.
And back to work being done to the head. After doing an aweful lot of reading, so far the modifcations to be made to the head are: re-shaped (unshrouded) chambers and bigger valves (chrome). I've been reading into "gas flowing" the head, but i'm not sure how much i would benifit from it. In theory it sounds great, the engine will flow better and thus increase power/economy, but i'm wondering if its super expensive and/or makes the head unreliable?
Those videos were great to watch, nippy little bugger
Righty then, thats my brain-dump for now, i think i went of on a bit of a rant with it, but hopefully i covered everything i needed to... for now
Thanks again to everyone, its been a big help
