Workshop

The workshop covers an area over 2,400 sq.ft and consists of various departments, identified by the type of work carried out in each area. The machinery is kept in pristine condition as is the workshop itself. We regularly update and replace machinery to the latest in technology in our particular industry.

The cylinder head department is capable of coping with any cylinder head, from a pre-war motor bike to be converted to unleaded petrol, a latest 16V cylinder head wanting extensive repair after a cam belt breakage, up to a 24v cummins engines fitted in tractor units and other commercial applications.

A lot of work carried out at the moment is for converting cylinder heads to run on unleaded petrol. This is done on a serdi machine which finishes the seats back to (or in the case of older engines, better than) the original equipment finish using 3 angle cutters to improve gas flow. This also applies to the original valve seats being re-cut.

As stated above a lot of cylinder head work is due to cam belt breakage, apart from the obvious of bent valves, this can also result in broken valve guides. In the modern 16v engines it is essential to get the running clearance exact. To achieve this all our valve guides are honed to size, this leaves a better running surface and is more accurate than using reamers. The valve guide bore is then measured using pilots varying in dia. by as little as 0.001mm. We can also repair original valve guides (if worn, not broken) by using an American system which re-sleeves the guide by using a bronze liner, this is an excellent system when converting to unleaded petrol.

The other main activities in this department is pressure testing cylinder heads, this is the best way to discover if the cylinder head (or block etc.) has any flaws in the castings i.e. cracked or porous. Generally if the cylinder head is found to pass the pressure test the head face needs re-surfacing due to distortion. Depending on whether the cylinder head is cast iron or aluminium, and the surface finish required would depend on whether we would surface mill or surface grind the head face.

Once the journals are ground to size they are finished by linishing the journal surface; this gives the ideal finish for today's high revving engines. Also because the chucks are centre-less we can re-stroke crankshafts for racing purposes and grind crankshafts from castings, which is sometimes useful on one off jobs on renovation projects such as steam engines etc.

RE-BORING DEPARTMENT

The cylinder re-boring department is capable of re-boring cylinders from as little as a 50cc moped with a 40mm diameter piston. Up to cylinders as large as 30cm. Once the cylinder has been re-bored it is honed to size and on petrol engines plateau honed to give the perfect finish to match any application. A lot of today's work carried out on this machine is over boring on motorcycles and race engines, and where necessary re-sleeving to bigger liners. We also have the capability off fitting the latest Alusil type liners that require special honing when fitted. Apart from vertical boring of cylinder bores this department can also do horizontal boring. This operation is for re-claiming cylinder blocks which have had bad crankshaft failures, this results in the main housing becoming distorted and out of alignment. A similar operation is performed on con-rods to repair a distorted bearing housing.