A very minor update today.
I decided to take the pistons off the rods to see what the small ends were like and just give the pistons a bit of a clean because I wanted something to do. The small ends are good but the pistons...
Well it turned out that someone had obviously broken a ring so purchased a set of 72mm rings with the correct thicknesses and just thrown it together because the oil sealing rings were completely different and one side had a stepped top compression ring.
I’ve never seen ones with a coiled spring forcing the seal ring out before so it was a new one for me.
The pistons cleaned up pretty well after a quick application of some Scotchbrite pads in the Dremel and another oddity was that they’re both AE pistons but one is a B and the other a C. We used to use A, B,C & D pistons in race engines but I’ve never seen them matched to bores for road use before. I’m getting it rebored so it doesn’t matter going forward.
I’ve degreased the cylinder head and cheated by using fine medium in a small shot blaster to clean the combustion chamber and valve faces while the valves are seated but once they’re out I’ll give it a polish and have a check on the capacity of each port then polish them and match them because I’m stupid like that
I wasted an hour looking for service kits for the brakes and now I’m in a bit of a quandary because I can get fully refurbished calipers for a cost of about £40/side over the cost of new pistons and seals but a) have they just been cleaned and new seals fitted or b) have the bores been honed to remove my scratches and corrosion? I know which I’d expect for £40.