Finned covers current progress

[richard]

Last week the neighbor and I decided to ride our bikes to Sequoia I took the 71XS and he took his road king. It was a pretty nice trip because it hadn't yet started to get hot here. It normally runs around 100 degrees in the summer time anywhere in the interior of California. It short it’s either hot or stunningly hot most of the time, because of that I have always worried about overheating the top end of my bike on trips like the one last weekend. Almost all of my bikes have had oil coolers on them which did a pretty good job most of the time. On the trip I started thinking about cooling options on the XS and how I was going to make changes to my 82 to see it I could improve on it. I decided I would make finned valve covers to increase the dissipation surface area. I figure every little bit might help, aside from the usual oil cooler which the 82 will get eventually. So I decided to rough out a set but, then I thought I would start out with the simplest cover on the bike to see how adding fins would look on the bhead. I decide to do the points covers first and fit them to me 71 XS because I figure if they fit the 71 they would certainly fit the 82 and anything else I came up with in the mean time. Since setup takes longer than the actual milling I decided to make several covers at once and this is what I came up with.

Next will be the front valve covers since there seems to be room for fins on them. The point covers are for the most part cosmetic because of their proximity to any oil but the valve covers might make a little difference if I slope the counter bore back into the head and any oil flows on them. Anyway this is what the point covers look like.


A two hole round pattern is always easier than a three hole eccentric pattern like the valve covers, that’s why I started with the points. They were quicker and visually the similar.

This might seem like a lot of work for very little return but the thought crossed my mind to someday make a water jacketed cylinder for it too. I would have the only one?.........Nah!

These pictures are of the 71 because I wanted to make sure they fit and quite frankly the 82 hasn’t been touched so looks kind of bad with new stuff on it. This stuff is going to be for the 82 when I get to it.

Oh! and here's what the back looks like.




So here is the valve cover progress so far. I have decide to round the corners on everything. I figure it might look better that way. These still are far from finished but they are getting close to what I had in mind.






This looks like a lot of parts but really it is just enough for four bikes and I am working on two right now. Next up in the left front valve cover which should take a lot less time. plus I only have to make four. Usually set up takes longer than making the parts but, in this case all those fins took a long time to cut even doing them three at once. T-6 is hard stuff so it's slow going.

And a fit test on the Special.

[XS Rod]

I think they look really cool and that your machine work is freaking off the hook

Let's see a pic of one upside down to see the inner cup and edge.

[richard]

OK Rod
Here's the back side it kind of hard to see because the camear can't deal with shiny. I had to make the center .560 thousands deep to clear the ATU rod on the one end of the 71 and the offset for the plug cut out just barely clears. they are pretty much the same as the stock cover only a little thicker in spots. Most of this was made on the mill

[XS Rod]

Richard... you do this in your garage?

[richard]

Yep
With the bad economy I pick up the equipment cheap and take it up again.
Making stuff like this is how I put myself through college the first time. I used to restore old motorcycles and make parts on credit card money and then sell them and use the profit to pay for school.

[headcase]

That's some yummy looking stuff, Richard. Ain't it fun spin-whittling aluminum?

[richard]

Thanks
Yes aluminum is fun, it cuts like butter. It’s nowhere near and messy steel or cast iron, and it looks purdy like stainless only not as hard on cutting tools.