Christmas is now over and gone and although I've not done much updating I have still been keeping things ticking along.
The search for a place to check the head face actually fell into place, a guy not 5 miles from my door who usually builds Zetec's and Pinto's for the F2 stock car guys was able to fit it in for me despite it being the off-season for racing so by far his busiest time. He actually did it for me over the Xmas break and lucky that I did get it done, was very slightly warped but nothing drastic.
The laborious task of cleaning, lapping in the valves, more cleaning, more cleaning etc takes hours.
I've been spending money like water too now it's come to buying parts rather than just welding bits of metal together, well over £1k now on parts just on the engine rebuild even though nothing more than a refresh has been done. Things like gaskets & oil seals came it at over £200, clutch kit over £220, the you ad in all the bearings, shells, rings, belts etc it's all added up. Still more spending to come too..
To set up the tappet shims requires a special tool. I'd done the Dedra turbo valves at Guy Crofts' place last time I did one as tools were impossible to find, I did manage to find a tool though out in Germany, another £50 or so spent!
Handy tool though.
First you wind the cam to open the valve fully then insert the tool which sits on the edges of the cam bucket,
You then turn the cam releasing the valve but the tool hooks under the camshaft and holds the valve open enough so that there is a gap o allow the shim to be removed and the correct size fitted.
This is the tool, expensive for what it is but the alternative would be to remove the whole cambox and hope that when clamped down again the new gasket would seal and the caps remain the same....