Building this has been a blast. I have certainly learned a lot. Jake has been very patient and given me plenty of rope but, when I've started to wander he's tugged me back in line.

Deck Height has been a revelation. My first attempts were all over the place. After working on this for a total of 8 hours I really believe we've got a handle on it. I've learned a bunch.

First, these are very small dimensions. Jake wanted the deck within .004" on all 4 cylinders. We really struggled with this. Check this out a single sheet of paper is between .002 and .003.

i sure hope i can see this beauty when you are done. keep us posted; it is awesome to follow along!

When we put the cylinders and pistons on the first time, the pistons were proud of the cylinders a bunch so I couldn't torque the heads. We took some measurements but, they weren't good for anything but an approximation. So, I ordered some .140" shims from Rimco. It also was apparent that the cylinders would need to be clamped all the way around the mating surface so I got a big piece of channel iron and had it surfaced. When I used that I got the measurements with in .010. Still not good enough.

Big piece of steel.

You can see how nice and even the clamping presure is from the cylinders marking the tool.

We tried switching cylinders and that didn't help. So, we switched rods, wrist pins and pistons from 2 and 3. (Jake engraves numbers in all of the rods, wrist pins and cylinders so if you keep the same numbers together it is in balance) That got us to .006. Damn, just a little more than 2 sheets of scratch paper off but still, not good enough. I measured the shims. They were right on. I tried moving the cylinders, no good. I went to bed Thursday night really depressed. I was sure something was really wrong like the align bore was off.

I woke up Friday after a crappy night of sleep stewing over my problem. Before work I went out tp the garage and looked over the case. The cylinder registers on 2 and 3 looked kind of dirty. So I got out some carb cleaner and went to work. Sure enough they cleaned up. After work I retried everything. I'm now within .002

Here's the dial indicator zeroed at top dead center #3

Here's the deck of #3 .062 at the outside edge

Time to order some more shims. Jake said for me shoot for a .060 deck and a compression ratio of 9.8:1. I can't get both to the targets. Either the deck has to be tighter than .060 or the compression ratio hasto be lower than the target. I'm leaning towards .0134" shims and a deck of.056 with a CR of 9.7:1.

Jake's on vacation right now so I won't be making a final decision until he gets back.

Here's the whole rig on the left bank of cylinders

Dave

Welcome to the real world son. Gerry's doin the math to figure out compression ratio on a Saturday morning during summer vacation. Dad's a slave driver.

Dave

Gerry should be thankful you're letting him use a calculator -not long division

Here's the easy way to figure out the C.R.:

aircooled.net calculator

Demick

Must be really tough math! TWO Calculators!

You have to have back up

Ok Dave, I have no shame. What exactly is "deck height"? The distance between what and what?

You will have a bigger problem with detonation at a .060 deck than you will with an .040. What pistons are you running? What are you running for piston to wall clearence?

Dave, Give a call if you need a extra hand, dial indicator, bore gauge, caliper, deck mic. I will be in the harbor monday-wed. Lar