Ian's TSS Rebuild

[ianashdown]

The Paint on the Cylinder, Head and Rocker Covers of this engine was not very pretty. It had flaked off in areas and was generally just not good, so as part of the top end rebuild I decided it would get repainted. I took all these parts to a new Vapor Blast shop in Anaheim, but it appears that Vapor Blasting is so gentle that it doesn't even remove paint! Well it will, but it takes a very long time and if you're paying for it it would get very expensive! He did show me the effect in one small area and the result is very nice indeed. I think this is a good process for non-painted castings etc.

So; Plan B. I ordered two differend grades of Walnut Shells to use in the blast cabinet. I tried the larger ones (size 12-20) on the Rocker Covers last night and the results are quite good.







Given that I'm repainting these I don't have to get 100% of the paint off, and these larger pieces of shell didn't get in to some of the tight areas very well, but they take the paint off very nicely and leave the casting vertually changed. They are very gentle. I think the smaller grade might get in to tighter areas a little better. Overall a great success I'd say. It's not fast, and I have alocated all of Sunday to clean the Head and Cylinder. We'll see how I do!

I also tried using the walnut shells to strip paint of some fiberglass. You have to turn the pressure down to about 40 psi (ask me how I know), but it worked so well you can almost strip it coat by coat. Very cool!

35 Days to go!

 

[CarlS]

Those look really good. Nice work.

 

[mikechev]

Hi Ian, i had a look for the can of paint i used for the head etc. but could not find it. from what i recall it was a 3M hight temp engine paint and it was a gloss finish but after a few heat cycles it became more a semi-gloss which looked more authentic.

hope this helps.

Cheers

Mike

 

[mikechev]

Hi Bryce, All is good thank you, i'm somewhat self-employed these days and toy time is rare. Ian's project has inspired me to get things happening again though, just got a new Tacho drive and battery in the post Just need time to fit them and the weather to cool down a bit.


Cheers

Mike

 

[Sea Dog]

Hi Mike,

My taco drive died last weekend. The cover (non threaded) for the driven gear for the taco cable fell off and the gears disengaged. Will have to make up a new cover. Apart from that the TSS is running very well and surprised many on the ride at how quick it is in the twisties. The mid range torque delivers the goods without pushing the revs.

Hope you can get your TSS out and about soon.

 

[ianashdown]

It looks like not much has been done round here, but in truth a great deal of prep-work has been completed.

The head was cleaned in the blast cabinet with Walnut Shells as previously described and I'm very happy with the results. In preperation for re-fitting the valve guides I took out the guides to inspect them.

The one on the left is one of the new ones, and the one on the right is one of the original ones. You'll notice the old one has a wire retaining ring to stop them when being installed and the new one has a shoulder.



I was happy with this change as I think its a better solution anyway. I measured the O/D of the shoulder at 0.550".




I also measured the counterbore in the head where it fits at 0.550". Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Some of them are not exactly concentric with the guide hole either which can't be good! Upon closer inspection I could see some small burrs that had been made pushing the guides in to the head originally. The O/D of the wire retaining ring is only 0.546"/0.548" and had caused this so I was worried that this condition might prevent me seating the guides all the way home. When that head is hot and the guides are cold everything has to go without a hitch or you are up the proverbial creek!

So what to do? My solution is to buy a 9/16" (0.5625") piloted counterbore, with a 0.500" pilot (guide diameter).



I don't have access to a sine plate or anything to set the head accurately at an angle so this will have to be done by hand. All I need to remove is about 0.012" in diameter by about 0.050" deep until the counterbore just touches the buttom. This should provide about 0.005" clearance all round the shoulder of the guide and help make installation seamless - I hope!

Check back later for the results . .

30 Days to go!!

Ian

 

[CarlS]

Good progress.

 

[grandpaul]

1. I like the old style better because you can remove the clip then press the old guides out toward the combustion chamber. That means the relatively clean shoulder will push through the bore, not the crusty, worn tip end (which can damage the bore).

2. I would simply shave a thousandth or two off the shoulders of the new guides, rather than disturb the counterbores.

 

[ianashdown]

Hi,

I take your point about the old style guides Vs the shouldered ones however, I tried to remove one wire ring and couldn't because it was down in the counterbore. I didn't try too hard but it seemed like that was the design intention so I didn't persist. I did make sure to clean the other end of the guides very well, in the blast cabinet, for just the reason you mentioned.

i had thought about turning down the shoulder, but it would be difficult to hold the guide by the top end and I didn't want to put the end that is pressed in to the head in to the chuck for fear it might mark it and ruin the guide. Also I felt that the more shoulder the better.

On a slightly different subject, I recall a piece written by a gentleman named Ben who was on the design team for the TSS and took responsibility for making a mistake with the dimensioning of the chamfer in the cylinder under the shoulder of the liners. I can confirm that the chamfer is much larger than it need to be for the radius on the liner. Having said that, there is no evidence that the liners have dropped at all.

Ian

 

[grandpaul]

On a slightly different subject, I recall a piece written by a gentleman named Ben who was on the design team for the TSS and took responsibility for making a mistake with the dimensioning of the chamfer in the cylinder under the shoulder of the liners. I can confirm that the chamfer is much larger than it need to be for the radius on the liner. Having said that, there is no evidence that the liners have dropped at all.

There's an interesting tidbit that would be nice to have backup verification for "just for the record"...

 

[ianashdown]

It has been requested that I post the source for the information about the dimensioning of the chamfer in the Cylinder Head for verification. I have no reason to believe it is not genuine information, but similarly I have no way to know that it is. Here is my source:

http://www.lpmcc.net/motor/bike_tss.htm

This appears to be a Motorcycle Club based in Leicester, England.

It's an interesting read!

Ian

 

[grandpaul]

Thanx. Great read on some very interesting modifications (some of which I disagree with, like isolating the swingarm which is unnecessary)

 

[Sea Dog]

There's an interesting tidbit that would be nice to have backup verification for "just for the record"...

Hello GP. I can verify that Ben Crosley is very much the real deal. Some years ago I was in email contact with him and he expanded on his work at the Meriden factory and the TSS in particular.

 

[ianashdown]

Hi Bryce,
Would you care to share what gems Ben 'expanded' upon?

Ian

 

[Sea Dog]

Hi Bryce,
Would you care to share what gems Ben 'expanded' upon?

Ian

Nothing really earth shattering, more insights into the work practices and how the workforce would rotate through different sections of the factory sometimes resulting in varying levels of quality. Some heads ended up with incorrect rockers in the exhaust and inlet positions and the valve adjuster screw would be well offset the valve stems. Ben's time would be divided between the design department and the engine assembly line. The out sourcing of the head and barrel casting to the most cost effective supplier did nothing to maintain quality compared to the engine casings done in house.

If the money hadn't dried up, the potential of the TSS engine would have continued, as really what we have is only one step away from the prototype. It's a mighty fine engine and with a few modifications and quality parts, they are reliable and surprisingly fast. It's smooth and delivers the power perfectly to effortlessly rip through the twisties. I'm sure you will really enjoy yours Ian when you get it on the road. Not long now

 

[ianashdown]

Today had been a good day! There was not much visible progress in the last few days despite all the work going on, but tonight finally saw some real progress!

As I described earlier I did re-spotface the pockets that the shoulder of the guides sit in and this went really well.



I just touched the bottom to clean it up, it all looks great. Much easier than I feared, all together it only took about 15 minutes!

So tonight I came home armed with 10Lbs of dry ice, I set the liners and the guides in the cooler with the ice and set the head and cylinder in the oven at 350F. After waiting about an hour for everything to get to temperature, both high and low, and getting things ready - silicone grease, lead mallet, gloves etc the time arrived. I sat the head on a towel, took a guide and tried to apply some grease to the body - big fail as the grease went solid immediately! - set the guide on the insertion tool and set it at the opening of the hole in the head. One swift whack and it slipped in there like . . . . well you get the picture! A few minutes later and all 8 were safely in the appropriate holes. Fantastic! Despite worrying about this for days as I'd never done it before, it was really so easy. I really recommend using heat (350F) and cold (-190F) as it make this a sure thing.





So full of confidence was I now that I went straight in to fitting the liners. After setting the cylinder up on blocks the liners litterally dropped in! There was a bit of sizzleing as the frost boiled away, but it was stunningly easy! In a few minutes, however, the liners had lifted a little. I think this was probably due to some of the gasses tring to get out and pushing up the liner. A quick tap with the mallet and they set right back down - no problem.





All in all a great night, and all this before SWMBO gets home from work!

Honeing the cylinders tomorrow, hopefully, and we are really off to the races!

24 days to go . . . the insurance policy arrives tomorrow too!

More to come.

Ian

 

[devo]

All in all a great night, and all this before SWMBO gets home from work

Ian

Mmmmm
So thats how you get away with assembling your motor on the kithen bench.

 

[grandpaul]

Fantastic!

That's how it ought to be.

 

[CarlS]

Good report and great work. Nice job!

 

[Sea Dog]

Good work Ian. Will it be necessary to surface grind the tops of the liners?