Topic: Oil jets & cleaning vinegar

[disco]

Rebuilding a K1 engine at moment and just went thru my parts organiser looking for those early type oil jets. I know I had put them away safely (or so I thought) because they are “un-obtanium”. Couldn’t find them anywhere then remembered I put them in the ultrasonic cleaner with some cleaning vinegar and promptly forgot about them. That was prob 2 months ago. This was all that was left of them. One & half metal screens was all that was left. The steel that was holding the screens had been entirely eaten.

So just a word of warning, be careful about leaving parts in vinegar and forgetting them.

If anyone can help with early type oil jets I’d appreciate it. Even dimensions would be great. My other option is to modify late type jets to fit.

2nd pic is how early jet fitted into the head.

[MRieck]

I think I have a used one......I'll check

[disco]

Thanks Mike! Hopefully a pair!

[ekpent]

  I tried vinegar once to clean some old engine cover screws. I set the plastic coffee container off to the side for a good long soak. Well of course I forgot about it and after a very very long time I opened the container to find a blob of junk. The were all ruined what was left of them. Was really surprised how that stuff had attacked the steel. Needless to say that engine now has nice new stainless cap head screws 

[calj737]

I guess you missed the day in school when they taught the effect of acids on steel  you’re lucky there was anything left resembling the jet instead of wad of deformed metal in the bottom of the cleaner.

[ekpent]

My vinegar now is just used to clean the coffee pot !!

[disco]

I guess you missed the day in school when they taught the effect of acids on steel  you’re lucky there was anything left resembling the jet instead of wad of deformed metal in the bottom of the cleaner.

Science was never my best subject  The cleaning vinegar had turned orange! No deformed metal. The steel was consumed completely.

[PeWe]

Caustic soda eats aluminum so never forget that combination. Really useful for a few minutes.

[BomberMann650]

This is why I do chemical baths in 15 minute intervals.

[MRieck]

I guess you missed the day in school when they taught the effect of acids on steel  you’re lucky there was anything left resembling the jet instead of wad of deformed metal in the bottom of the cleaner.

Science was never my best subject  The cleaning vinegar had turned orange! No deformed metal. The steel was consumed completely.

.....and they were using sulfuric acid in "Breaking Bad". Could have just gone to grocery store.
 Have you located another jet? If somebody has a junk head you can get them out (though it can be a real PITA).

[disco]

Hi Mike. Thanks for the offer. Hopefully I won't need to take you up on it. Those old jets are like trying to find Hen's teeth or Rocking Horse Doo-Doo, it seems!

My machinist unfortunately had a bad accident on weekend, on his vintage Husqvarna in a VMX event. Airlifted to hospital. He's gonna be OK, but he is out of action for prob 2 months. His son who is very capable engineer himself, is 'holding the fort', but is now inundated with jobs. Anyhow, Ben is on the case, and will modify the head to accept a custom bush, so I can utilise the later type oil jets (which I already have spares of). I'll post up some pics when done, as may help someone else in the future.

[disco]

Thought I would post up the solution that I have used, so that it might help others who find themselves in the same predicament of the 'rare as hens teeth' K0 oil restrictors.

I had my machinist make a tiny bush from aluminium to hold the newer type oil restrictors. The bush OD fits the existing ID of recess in the head, with about 0.005" clearance. The recess had to be made deeper by about 1/4" to clear the restrictor stem. The restrictor is a press fit into the bush. Loctite 638 was used as well to ensure restrictor stays put in bush. An o-ring was added to top outside of bush and sits slightly proud giving a good seal.

Btw Picked up a mini lathe for future machining jobs!

[RAFster122s]

I hope the tolerances on the mini lathe are tight and she runs true.  Nice workaround.

[disco]

OK I’m having issues with this K1 engine. I’ve got leaks near bottom head fin between cylinders 1 & 2. It also starts blowing smoke but only after running for a few minutes.

I started it up today & removed the tappet cover near No 4 exhaust. It all appeared normal. I had a reasonable amount of oil flow. The rocker was flipping a bit of oil thru the open cover. Then tried same thing with No 1 tappet cover. Wow I got oil! Bloody hell thats quite a lot! Geez the oil level is still rising! I had to shut it down or it was gonna overflow out the tappet opening! After shutting down the oil level slowly subsided. I’m not sure if my problem is my oil jets are supplying too much oil to LH of motor or I have restricted drainage on that side?

The engine is running stock oil jets, albeit in a custom holder (see previous posts) I’m also running APE HD studs which are larger diameter than the Honda OEM studs.

So I kinda know where the smoking is coming from now. The cylinder head is likely “going under” in oil (at least on the LH side). This K1 head doesn’t have valve guide seals on the exhaust valves either, which if oil level is getting that high, they won’t cope.

Anyone ever experienced anything like this previously? I guess I’ll be fitting my weldless frame kit sooner rather than later now & going in there to figure out what’s caused this.

[FridgeRaider]

Hey Disco, I don't have a solution or advice for you but I would like to know when you do find what is causing the issue. I've been trying to source a set of old style oil jets myself and will probably have to make an adapter just like yours.

[disco]

Hi FR, no problem. When I sort out the issue, I will definitely post it up.

I was hoping that Mike Rieck might offer his opinion. He’s got a ton of experience and may have seen this before.

When I open it up, unless I see evidence of one of the o-ring seals blown out, i’ll probably be leaning toward a blocked oil drain. Don’t quite know how that could occur though? I made certain all the gaskets were correctly oriented.

[Terry in Australia]

I got nothing in the old experience bank Disco, but I'm gonna subscribe so I can see the (eventual) solution. The APE studs are great, but I can understand your thoughts, because they do take up more space in the oil return tunnels. By comparison, Russ Collins was a little more conservative and he used slimmed down studs for use in the oil return tunnels. Of course, in the usual RC fashion, he didn't specify different torque settings for those two studs.......... Like you've wondered, maybe one of the O rings did pop out and is now squished around the stud? I guess we'll see when you rip that head off again! Cheers, Terry.

[BPellerine]

maybe a stupid question ,but was it on the sidestand?bill

[disco]

Not a stupid question, but no it’s on centrestand