Centaur Inlet Valve Dimensions

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

Work on my Centaur has met a snag. I've machined the cylinder head and associated valve gear and started trial assembly. The exhaust side of things seems OK, but not so the inlet valve.

The initial problem that I noticed was that the inlet valve housing is too long to allow the spring cotter to assemble to the valve stem, see attached image. Moving the cotter groove 3/64" along the stem would solve this but the whole assembly is still too long to fit properly under the valve rocker. It seems that the valve and housing both need to be shortened by at least 1/8" to allow proper valve & rocker geometry. If this is a drawing error then I'm surprised in such a well established ETW design. I'm fairly confident that my cylinder head and other componens are to drawing dimensions.

Can any other Centaur bulder advise please?

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

[MichaelRParticipant @michaelr]

It's some time ago since I built the Centaur but do remember having to reduce the valve housing height and make the valve to suit, I don't have the engine now so can't give you any sizes.

I also had to make the connecting rod to size from the job, as the size given on the drawing did not bring the piston flush to the end of the cylinder.(Head End)

MichaelR

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

Thanks Michael, that's given me some reassurance.

I was aware of the connecting rod error from an article in ME Nov. '75 describing a Centaur build which mentions it, but then goes on to say that this is the only drawing error apart from the cam timing. Hence I'm surprised that this seemingly serious valve error wasn't identified, making me think that I might be missing something.

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