Happy New Year Rusty (and all others) I rebuilt my TE20-85 a while back, and also had the head completely redone - springs, valves, self-lubricating guides, inserts, skimmed, the lot - but did the valve lapping into the head myself. I thought I'd done a pretty good job (why is it that we engineers always convince ourselves we've done well???) and could still start the old girl on the handle. She ran on four instead of two, didn't overheat or die when hot, and all in all I was pleased. After a few months of road use, topping, and a bit of ploughing, the starter switch failed - so I thought I'd start it on the handle. HA HA! Was there some compression there or what! My guess is the valves had settled in nicely after a bit of running in and were now gas tight. Long story, but bottom line is don't panic yet, run the engine for a while, then check for compression again. Even hand lapped valves and inserts aren't smooth by a long shot, so they won't seal too well at first. James, UK
|