The Ageing Engine

Well April has come and gone, along with the wind, rain and snow, I've aged a bit more and the engine has progressed a little more. I have turned all of the valve towers, counterbored the valve spring recesses and enjoyed endured the job of cutting the grooves to generate the cooling fins, all 198 of them! Only one near disaster along the way ( 2nd head ) when I forgot to open the flood coolant tap and the swarf jammed and broke the grooving tool tip, so that head has one of it's fins thinner than normal. Vertical learning curve!! Perhaps I've been a bit too​ ambitious attempting this as my first multi cylinder engine especially as it is drawn in imperial measures and I've an old metric lathe with well worn feedscrews, no DRO, and more backlash than should be seen in polite company. Next task is to make a split collet to fit the tower fins so that I can drill the valve guides and bore the recesses for the valve seats . On second thoughts, maybe sort out the machinery first!

13 Harvards, that would be worth seeing. When I was at school we would cycle over to Aldridge in the West Midlands to watch the Harvards coming in for service/repair. Happy Days.