I also don't get the barrel lapping, it makes little sense to me, though I've seen Rob Parry checking with 4 dobs of blue.
The idea behind it was to ensure a good barrel to case seal, if it's not necessary, fair enough! I want to do my best to ensure the motor is built well and lasts, thinking barrel lapping would help.
I'm not saying its correct or not but my thinking is you can't lap two unsquare faces together and end up with two square faces ... Engineers blue is your friend .... When I did my valves I recut the seats so they were bang on 30 and 45 deg and I reground a couple of old valves and used those for 90% of the valve lapping then the last bit was with my new valves .. If your heads and barbells are new just measure the barell lengths to make sure they are bang on otherwise the head has no chance of sitting square
Engineers blue it is then We can measure the barrel heights very easily, we have one of those old cast iron surface/marking plates which will work well and we have one of those tall height gauges.. Sound job, that's that sorted!!
You'll need to measure the case where the barrels sit as well, to be sure they've been machined to the same heights.
Just noticed you've built it up. All you need do is measure the deck heights and you'll know if your all square. Then just blue the heads to the barrels to be safe. I expect a lot of people don't bother to much about it, but it sounds like you have the tools to do it, so might as well. Could show up any probs before you get to far along.
They are only mocked up matey, I was mating barrels to the respective locations in the case and at the opposite end, the heads..they are back asleep under my office desk for the time being! The whole lot needs a damn good clean down, they still have some transportation oil on them
Got a little bit more done this week; again work got in the way but we did manage to check the end float on the camshaft! Fit' the bearings..check they pop in okay, they did as the book said, needed a slight amount of pressure to get them in! Cam tried in right hand case half in lightly oiled bearings, rotated freely..happy with that! The picture of the left hand case half only shows the dial gauge against the cam gear end of the cam to demonstrate how we measured the end float - we clamped the left hand case half down on a steel bed plate to hold it down. The magnetic base on the dial gauge held that tight. The cam, when placed in the bearings had no free movement at all, nether rotational or end float wise. The thrust bearing fits in the left hand case half only and has between 0.04mm to 0.13mm of end float, maximum. Cause of the problem, the new thrust bearing had one face a bit thicker than the old bearing (0.1mm) - gentle rubbing on fine emery and the white metal was down to size. Carefully checking every so often and jobs a good un - 0.05mm end float and the cam rotates perfectly well! Sorted!
Also make sure your area bench etc is totally clean , (clinical) as debris can cause havock . I'm watching and planning a rebuild
Indeed, cleanliness is key!! Luckily the Lab is quite a clean grime free environment & no metal shavings, grit or dirt close by!
