On Jan 23, 9:29*am, "
wrote:

If all you want to do is move the port down to give more room for fins
why not just bore a 35/37mm hole straight to the valve and sleeve with
a steel tube insert - similar to the "tube port" intake modification
one of the VW tuners developed years ago?
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1. I'm building an aircraft engine, not a dragster.

2. I don't know how to weld cast aluminum to mild steel. (yean,
okay...3-axis xray welding in a vacuum tank... but I don't have any of
that stuff.
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Welding cast aluminum to cast aluminum, okay. And doing it just 3/4"
at a time, okay (because that leaves room to get my tools onto the new
weld and smooth it out). Then I get to weld FINS all over the place:
cast al. to cast al., which SHOULD allow me to increase the maximum
SUSTAINABLE output to about 50bhp or thereabouts.

In theory then, nothing stands in the way of producing a pair of Fat
Fin Heads (Modified), having their exhaust ports on the underside of
the engine WITHOUT turning the thing into a mare's nest of exhaust-
pipe plumbing. With one exception: At the moment, I'm unable to LIFT
my home-made foundry.

Since being diagnosed with cancer I have lost a considerable amount of
weight, not all of which was fat. Hauling a pair of VW heads (about
11 lbs each) from a storage shed up to the house left me unable to
mount the two steps when I got there. I had to put the heads down on
the top step then hoist MYSELF first to the one, then to the other,
and from there into a chair in the kitchen.

I know what you're thinking: Being unable to lift a total of 22
pounds sounds like the punch line of a bad joke but there it is. Even
worse is the fact I can not presently move my 'foundry' (a steel drum
lined with refractory material and fitted with a vented lid of the
same stuff. In use, chunks of aluminum are stuffed into a home-made
crucible that is placed atop a bed of charcoal in the heart of the
furnace. More charcoal is stacked around the sides of the crucible
and the whole thing set afire. Draft is provided by a 2" dia pipe. I
can plug the business-end of a propane burner into the 2" pipe and
have everything glowing cherry red in a matter of minutes. Or I can
depend entirely on the charcoal to do the same, albeit in a longer
period of time. Once the contents of the crucible are melted, the lid
is removed and the crucible lifted out using tongs of a suitable
design. If the flasks are near at hand,, as they are supposed to be,
tipping the contents of the crucible down the filler of the flask,
with lots of hissing & steam.

The only problem with all of that is that I can't LIFT the damn
thing! Seriously! Twenty pounds feels like a hundred and the Doc has
warned me I'm liable to give myself another compression fracture.

So what's the cure? Time. And exercise (!!)

Their version of 'exercise' is a pair of 5 pound cast-iron bar-bells,
pumped overhead for 25 reps... once a day. So I do that. And they
gauge my progress by the strength of my grip. Indeed, I am now
allowed to do the exercise TWICE a day.

As silly as it sounds, despite the small amount of stress (ie, #5),
the exercise appears to be working... I've noticed I can get a gallon
of milk from the refrigerator with much less effort. But hauling a
pair of VW heads up from the shed felt like climbing Mt. Whitney.(*)
I can't imagine what it would feel like to try moving the furnace.

I'll post a picture of it on the blog.

-Bob

(*) -- Despite being a 'Fourteener" (ie, over 14,000' elevation
[indeed, it's the highest peak in the lower 48] ) Mt. Whitney is a
'walk-up.' No real 'mountain climbing' required. Climbing it is an
interesting way to spend a week-end.