the black art of tuning a sidevalve

[zeppelin builder]

View attachment 108676this is looking down the bore the heads dont remove i welded them up with pure nickel carefully and re shaped them to honda lawnmore profile it gives squish and raises compression all was carefully blended and polished, masking tape to prevent arc strikes

 

[zeppelin builder]

a dirty great unknown racing carb was fitted spent days hand filing a needle out of tig wire and mae an adjustable mainjet

 

[zeppelin builder]

more mods were camshaft to racing brough (old bill)spec 2 inch bore pipes by me and a stanless / brass fuel/oil tank a mix of rolls royce tulip inlet valves and chevvy inlets stellite faced by me and used as exhaust valves it pulls 75 mph easily with the chair and would rev till it explodes here she is in all her glory on a rare sunny day

 

[zeppelin builder]

if any one has one of these let me know

 

[ronan]

Great work Zeppelin. I have heard of people tuning old bsa m20/m21's, shortly after the war when nothing else was available. Many people have told me tuning sidevalves is a waste of time, but obviously it isn't.

 

[zeppelin builder]

Great work Zeppelin. I have heard of people tuning old bsa m20/m21's, shortly after the war when nothing else was available. Many people have told me tuning sidevalves is a waste of time, but obviously it isn't.

ronan 100 mph is easily obtainable with sidevalve twins valve lift can be big as valves can bounce with no harm,geting rid of heat is the trick so no high compression above about 7.5 to 1 or its methanol
the norton single speeders brs sold with a cert g teed to do 85 mph, it was later found out that the wooden paterns had warped in the foundry and were giving a better combustion chamber shape hence the power boost .look up Hartley ariel or the harley kr racers

 

[Morris]

Tuned sidevalves you say?
Here's mine.





Ported block, Newman cam, raised comp ratio, home made manifolds (in and out).

 

[slim_boy_fat]

^^ A work in progress? What's the finished article going to be?

 

[Morris]

It's this.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

^^ Armstrong Siddeley rad grille?

 

[ronan]

You'll have to do a project thread on that Morris.

 

[zeppelin builder]

nothing like passing a group of cyclists and giving them a lungfull of castrol r leaves a scent trail for miles

 

[ronan]

nothing like passing a group of cyclists and giving them a lungfull of castrol r leaves a scent trail for miles

Nah you don't want to pass them, there is always one cycle-nazi in the group that wants to slow down or stop all the motor traffic behind him, and pulls right out on the road. I used to tuck in right behind them and drop a gear on the old 500 triumph, they soon get tired of the noise i can tell you.

 

[ronan]

Is that a scintilla vertex on that engine Morris ?

 

[julianthegypsy]

Nah you don't want to pass them, there is always one cycle-nazi in the group that wants to slow down or stop all the motor traffic behind him, and pulls right out on the road. I used to tuck in right behind them and drop a gear on the old 500 triumph, they soon get tired of the noise i can tell you.

They don't like it behind 'em Mr Mainwaring!

 

[zeppelin builder]

or how about an old diesel landy with retarded pump timing ,soots you sir

 

[zeppelin builder]

Morris you could as Ronan asked fit a scintilla magneto from a coventry climax fire pump with a bit farting about ,well made but im sure the condensor is embedded in the windings on some would be a pain to fix

 

[Morris]

To answer the questions.

It's a Standard 12 grill.
It's not a scintilla mag on there, Lucas dizzy converted to electronic.
Project thread? Oooh, don't know. There is a project thread here http://www.nsra.org.uk/newforum/showthread.php?61149-My-comedy-RPU
Unfortunately my computer is really old and starting to struggle plus the photos are on Photobucket which is becoming a major pain in the ar5e to use. But if pressured I will have a go.
I'll butt out of Zeppelin builders thread now.

 

[zeppelin builder]

some latest mods on old vtwin picked up an ultrarare magneto UHmade in berlin real german quality had been rewound but had to sort out the cam ring ias 50 degree mags need carefull setting up the points are a work of art (face cam) Next mod another float bowl to cure fuel starvation on sharp lh bends made a custom clip mount out scrap stainless ,check that enfield a swede with same bottom end with speedway jawa tops mind that cam chain ,by the way a enfield set a world record on a frozen lake in sweden in 1927 a guy called magner flying kilometre at 115 mph with side car ,lastly made a wee aux footclutch if the cable ever breaks i still can ride home

 

[cardiffrob]

Just a little word of caution...I opened a link for Newton Cams, as mentioned on the site "Morris" linked to above. It connected me to NewtonCams.com which then immediately ate my files and offered to sell them back to me for $500US. I guess it is what they call ransonware? I'm new to this sort of thing but thought I ought to let peeps know, just in case it is a potential problem.

Sorry if I have got it wrong, but it is better to be safe than sorry.