Under the barrels

[grubscrew]

 Sorry to rob you of the limelight Rusty on your mammoth thread, but here`s a question about a non standard engine. Under the barrels one puts a copper ring under each, but is that it ? No wafer thin gasket/ hermatite etc at all, like a standard set up? Michael

[Rusty's Uncle]

Michael rob all you want, Limelight is a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when an oxyhydrogen flame is directed at a cylinder of quicklime which can be heated to 2572 °C before melting. The light is produced by a combination of incandescence and candoluminescence. Although it has long since been replaced by electric lighting, the term has nonetheless survived, as someone in the public eye is still said to be “in the limelight.” The actual lights are called limes, a term which has been transferred to electrical equivalents.
Me I am sticking with lightbulbs and a few leds
Normal original set up was a very thin paper gasket just about 0.005" thick but you have got to take into account that the engine was designed over 40 years ago and before modern day sealents . If you consider that many of these engines have been run without even a head gasket then the bit at the bottom of the barrel is the least of your woes.
If you are talking about my 652 conversion on the 500 crankcase then you need 10mms spacers or spacer plate due to the 126 barrels being shorter . As this was my first try at this the tuning shop suggested a skim over the remaining upstand which seals on the barrels. I went with this but then found I had to use my copper gaskets to compensate. Anyway I should be finding out pretty soon if it all works out OK  

[grubscrew]

Yes I`ve got the spacer of which Im due to mill out to take the increased size presently, as its for a 750 I`m in the process of, cam is on its way back to me , crank regrind is early next wk then take the whole lot over to a balancers to do that.........All this requires deep pockets, but it is rather fun.
Mike.

[Rusty's Uncle]

Hi Mike that all sounds exciting I hope that you will keep us all up to speed with your progress. As you say the pennies keep adding up and at the moment balencing would be nice but an opening of the wallet too far 
I was a little worried about getting the seal at the bottom of the barrels as I had the 10mms spacer plus the copper gaskets. I thought that if I used instant gasket that by the time I got to the stage of torqueing down the head the instant gasket might have started to go off . So I Used loads of the gasket material when assembling the spacer , copper gasket & barrels then used spacers, insted of the head, over the studs to pull it all down with the head nuts. Left it for a few days then went round with a sharp blade to remove any excess instant gasket that had exuded out insde the crankcase and outside the barrel base.

[grubscrew]

I was going to do a dry run and equate the correct height of the pistons /top of barrels etc then decide on the best course of action, I do prefer the paper gasket type.
Having been to Garlenda back in the summer there were some great vehicles/engines (so I have a few bits to play with), there was even some guy with a Mini engine in a 500. Why?