Inside the KZ Engine Continued....
The clutch basics laid out....from the left, a Barnett
high-perf plate, a stock plate, a burnt and glazed
stock steel plate, and a glass-blasted stock plate. We
often use a "50-50" clutch in our engines....
alternating Barnett and stock plates. This gives a clutch
that grabs better than stock, and retains
the smooth operation of the stock clutch. Glass-blasting
steel plates removes the glaze and in addition to grabbing better, they
also retain oil better. We also often use a ball-bearing clutch pusher
(at top left) instead of the stock pusher...This smooths out the clutch
operation, and prevents the pushrod welding itself to the pusher bearing
under stress. The springs are stock....they work fine. On the street, heavy
springs are not necessary and just make the clutch lever harder to pull
in.
The quality of the seal at the valve and its seat is
one of the most critical elements in an engine's
ability to make power. A basic "three angle valve job"
consists of a 45 degree cut at the valve's
face (contact surface) matched to a 45 degree cut on
the valve seat in the head.....this mating
surface at the seat isolated by a 60 degree cut on the
inside, and a 30 degree cut on the outside.
Hand cutting of these surfaces is time consuming, but
allows the engine builder to adjust every
dimension exactly. A stock engine
with a good valve job will outperform many "high performance"
engines with poor attention
to the basics. This engine will not be stock....and will benefit even
more from attention to details.
