Hitchcocks Forum

My repaired cylinder head is now ready to go back onto my bike which has sat it a garage for a couple of months. Would I be wise to give the exposed piston head and barrel a clean, I was thinking petrol. Is there anything I should avoid using. Any other rebuild tips gratefully accepted - it'd been a while since I messed with engines.

I don’t know if REs are anything different, but if it has been exposed to air, there maybe some light rusting. Clean this off. Nothing too abrasive. Then afterwards personally I would give the bore a light wipe round with some fresh engine oil. This will burn off very quickly at start up. Don’t go too mad with the oil, just a film.

Can’t edit above! Whatever you clean it with, keep the medium moist, you don’t want to encourage little bits of whatever to fall down the barrel.

Thanks for the information, should I give the new head gasket and the two smaller ones a light oil also? The head gasket is the newer type rather than the older copper type.

That I cannot answer with authority, I am new to my Bullet and Royal Enfield.

I can tell you from BMW Airheads, some Japanese bikes, I have never oiled a head gasket and haven't heard of anyone doing it.

Sorry

John

If you oil the head gasket you will show the engine oil an escape route .....

I have always fitted them clean and dry. Some recommend a slight smear of something like "Wellseal" but I've never done so.

thanks for information, the top of piston was black with oil coke but has cleaned up fine. I just need to find all the bits now!
I have managed to mix up the order of push rods long = left or other way around?

I usually clean stuff with paraffin. I would also oil the bore before assembly.

Inlet pushrod is usually the shorter one.

If you remove the tappet cover on the right side of the engine you'll notice that the inlet cam follower guide sits higher than the exhaust one does. So it has the shorter pushrod.

I would have oiled the bore before leaving it and also would have covered with a clean cloth to prevent spiders crapping in it.
But then that is me, other folks will have other ideas