This installment of our maintenance series picks up from our previous video, where we replaced the defective cylinder head in our Northern Lights 12kW generator with a brand new one just shipped in from the US. In this video, we complete the job by adjusting the valves, replacing the coolant and bleeding the fuel system. Finally, we investigate whether anything in this installation can be improved for greater longevity.
Started right away and purred like a kitten. Great job!
It did start up surprisingly well and it’s done 180 hours since the rebuild and it’s running very well.
I was curious if you happened to measure how deep the bad valve had recessed into the head. It was a little had to tell in the video but it looked like at least 1/8″. Amazing the havoc a small amount of water, especially sea water, can create.
Happy 17th Spitfire!
It was definitly more than 1/8″. The worst I’ve seen on any valve seat failure that didn’t involve broken parts pounding around in the cylinder. Some of the comments on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXiOnmLAYpU&t=6s) seem pretty credible and knowledgeable and a few of them are not convinced that the problem was water intrusion related.