The motor was supposedly "a runner", but hopefully not ridden too far, as there was no oil in the gearbox! We've had a quick look while stripping the bike down, and things don't look that bad - at least not for something nearly sixty years old. However good it might look, it'll still get stripped down completely, as you never know what evils might be lurking inside!

We've had the cylinder heads vapour blasted clean, but not before one of them had a broken fin repaired - we just cut a piece of 1/8" ally sheet oversize, and got our local friendly engine machine shop to weld it on. We cut, ground, and filed the new piece to shape, then stuck the heads in with some other parts that were on their way to the blasters'.

There was another broken fin, but that wasn't really accessible to replace - at least it isn't on the outside, so isn't too obvious. Can you see it? Something we have noticed is that the spark plug insert is brass or bronze on the front head, but steel on the rear one. We'll have to find out if there is a reason for this - presumably one is a replacement, but the question is, which one? They are both stamped 119-39, with F or R for front and rear, respectively. Both have a number '5' on the side to signify medium-compression heads - this fact coming from our 'How To Be Anally-Retentive When Restoring Your Harley-Davidson' book. It doesn't mention different spark-plug insert materials, though.

We have also splashed out on a rather expensive present for the engine - an early magneto for a nice big fat spark!
And super cool looks!