Queston about kits

[fabricator]

I have been spending a lot of time reading here and over at utterpower, and have a question, is there really a good chance that if you buy a complete engine it could have serious damage from the test run? Is this a wide spread problem?

[Doug]

This is casting sand on a cam....

http://www.putfile.com/pic/4694387

This is more ground and scraped out of many places

http://www.putfile.com/pic/4684723

This picture shows scoring in the main front bearing carrier.

http://www.putfile.com/pic/4482325

Now if you buy a kit you are the guy that cleans it so you know there will be no sand.
Kit engines have the potential to be much better built and the PS kits look like they have some better parts and fabrication practices.
You still need to strip clean and set up the engine.
Odds are you still need to vissit the machine shop.
But you won't have a scored crank and you won't need to buy a set of bearings

[cschuerm]

Fab,
Having torn a couple of these critters down now, I'd have to say the greatest damage is done during assembly.   You shouldn't be surprised to find a little scoring on the crank from some debris in the oil, but then it'll probably be less than the machining marks.  I havn't found anything on either of my engines that suffered terribly from the brief test runs that were done.  The worst damage was all from poor assembly.  One of my engines had about a 1/4" of wobble in the cam from having the taper pins beat into place.  The reality is that it would probably have run that way just fine for a very very long time.  There's not much load on any parts of that engine and they clearly tolerate terrible conditions.  I assume that in their native habitat that they're run right out of the box and must provide reasonable service or they wouldn't still be around.  Consider that some engines that make many hundreds of horsepower have cranks that are no bigger than a listeroid.  The criticality of fit and finish is entirely different if you're spinning 5000 rpm.
Having done a very precision tear-down and rebuild of a couple Roids now, I wouldn't be afraid to just flush one out, check all the assembly, then run one pretty much out of the crate.  If you want it to last forever, some additional attention will certainly pay off though.
cheers,
Chris

[fabricator]

Good points, I keep seeing the PS kits mentioned but cant find a site, is it in plaint sight and I am just to blind to see it?

[atimperson]

sawyer 335   e-bay  not connected in any way, but have done bussinesss with him . Very nice person to do bussiness with.

Tim

[fabricator]

Thanks.

[Doug]

Just remember to be very nice to George and Joel, and patient. THey probably get 30 tyre kickers a day asking questions.

[Reno Speedster]

My Ashwamegh came with a broken wrist-pin circlip that scored the cylinder wall during the break-in.  It also had more than a cup of casting sand behind the paint; there was paint on the cam lobes; the surface of the cam lifters were incredably rough and woud have eaten the cam; the valve guides were loose enough to rattle the valves from side to side.  Personally, I would not run an engine without a complete tear down and inspection.  Its not that much time and it should provide a much longer running life.

[cschuerm]

Darn good pointer about the wristpin clips.  I'd forgotten about those.  Both of my engines had poor quality, poor fitting clips that would surely have failed eventually.  Neither of my engines had significant sand in them though.  They were not exactly "clean" inside, but nothing that was just terrible.  I do believe that polishing the cam followers and removing the rough machining marks is a good thing to do, but.... I've seen a number of engines where the owners just ran them and they seemed to have "worn-in" reasonably successfully.
As others have pointed out, these engines are very easy to tear down, resolve problems, and re-assemble.  For me, the biggest headache was acquiring parts that I wanted to replace.  Hopefully, I'll be  receiving a shipment containing a bunch of spare parts  directly from India next week so I should be set for a long time.

chris

[sailawayrb]

I went with the PS 6/1 kit from George and Joel, and I have been very happy with all three.  However, they prefer to work with sensible folks and don't tolerate BS very well...which is how it should be with these engines.

[hotater]

Fabricator---

The kit engines are just great.   Remember to be very creative about looking for problems because the Indians aren't and seem to make some mistakes just because it's the dumb thing to do.

A kit is all the nearly perfect parts you need to build a nearly perfect engine of a perfectly beautiful design.

[xyzer]

The PS kit was my 2nd Listeroid.....It was nice not needing or having to build a flywheel gib key puller! Plenty of spares...My kit had included my first offical set of whitworth wrenches!...
Dave

[horsefly76]

Well I'm sitting here after having just had a root canal feeling like I was kicked in the head. And drooling down one side of my face

Fabricator I was very fortunate that my Metro was very clean upon inspection much to my surprise First start lifters rotated freely. I.P. primed easily and fired first compression stroke.

Need to check compression and make sure it's up to snuff. My dad has been a self employed machinist for 33 years so I have some one I trust to do the machining if need be

[lowspeedlife]

Ahhh those 32nd of an inch spanners, anybody I ask about Whitworth just looks at me stupidly. Not sure if it's the question or just thier natural thinking face.

[fabricator]

Ahhh those 32nd of an inch spanners, anybody I ask about Whitworth just looks at me stupidly. Not sure if it's the question or just thier natural thinking face.

You can be sure that is my natural thinking face.