TroubleHead Part 3(ish)

Well, more starts and stops. Things have been happening down at Snow Cave Omega.
Prodigious things...And some Top Secret things I cant really show you just yet.

But here are some highlights of the non-classified happenings in last several weeks.

Crankpins on stroker motors will interfere with the right case webs and require clearance.

Bring in the rotary table fun!!!

After you have lapped your case split lines together, and done all the match machining to get the cylinder decks all squared away and clearanced the wheels, one must line lap the right case bearing to the left case to assure common centers between the two.
More special tooling.
The best way to do this is on a Sunnen horizontal honing machining- but I just happen to NOT have one of those (yet), so the hand lap method will have to do. In my pathological mind, as long as I have a .0001" resolution Dial Bore Gage and Vernier Mic, I can keep checking the bearing while lapping and make sure its not belling out. The result is that it is as consistent as a Sunnen would do. Just takes longer.

And then there was the tappets. I insist on solid tappets on performance engines. With the sharp cam ramp profile I spec'd out, a mega axle tappet was in order.But I dont want hydraulics... Ultimately, these "aftermarket" solid conversion kits all put undue side loading on a tappet since they just react against the upper 10% of the tappet body. They are a compromised design.
I fixed that. My little rigs basically react with the entire length of the tappet body, ensuring that the solid conversion pushrod cups don't wander or chatter.

They are a light press fit and are bolted together. These will NOT fail at speed. Ever.

With the tappets fully converted to soilds and the tappet blocks honed to exact specifications, I filled the tappet bores with platers stop-off wax and sent them off to get the full on fashionista treatment.

 Then came the cam cover bushings.  Straight forward for the do-it yourselfer but only if you have the correct reams to final size the bushings after installation.
Add the fact that they need to be pinned in, so a mill is needed too. I prefer to use setscrews in my bushings, less opportunity for the damn things to come loose.

Nevertheless, some tools just aren't available anymore, so you just have to make it yourself.
The design has been tweaked from what you see here to make it a bit more ergo and easier on the hands.

The gear train is starting to come together...

Stay tuned for more good readers.