Schwany
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- Apr 22, 2020
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How many have a FBS ported head on their P11s?
I have a Fred Barlow Spares ported head on my old turd. Works pretty good.
The story: I gave my head to Phil at Fair Spares America and he either sent it to Fred Barlow in England, or took it with him when he went on a parts buying vacation over there. Well, that's what I remember anyway. It was in 1988. Receipt says Remodeled Cyl head $225. So it's remodeled. Ole Fred went through the side of the left cylinder intake port a little. I had to epoxy fill the hole and hand sand it down. He did not touch the exhaust ports. Before I put it back on the cylinders, I remodeled the exhaust ports a little to match the diameter of my exhaust headers and do some general casting clean up. Doing that was suggested by Bob Raber.
I think I drove those two guy nuts buying nickel and dime stuff. I did show up at Phil's garage unannounced frequently. They had a tendency to passively but humorously bad mouth one another, and I'd catch Phil in Raber's buying stuff now and again when Raber opened up. Kinda funny thinking back on it.
That aluminum block on the exhaust spindle was for a oil pressure gauge I had on the motor for a while. I took the oil pressure gauge off. Having a skinny tube exposed there and hooked to my oiling system never made me feel that comfortable. No tach on this bike either. Never had clue how hard I was ringing its neck when I was a young buck. It stayed together, so I must not have been hurting it.
The FBS remodeled head works a lot better than a stock head. I tested it in the 1990's, by putting a new stock head on the motor while I put some inserts in the FBS head, and was considering retiring it. The stock head felt very pedestrian by comparison, so I installed inserts, lightened up the rocker arms, put bronze valve guides and Black Diamond valves in the FBS head and put it back on. Much better.
I have a Fred Barlow Spares ported head on my old turd. Works pretty good.
The story: I gave my head to Phil at Fair Spares America and he either sent it to Fred Barlow in England, or took it with him when he went on a parts buying vacation over there. Well, that's what I remember anyway. It was in 1988. Receipt says Remodeled Cyl head $225. So it's remodeled. Ole Fred went through the side of the left cylinder intake port a little. I had to epoxy fill the hole and hand sand it down. He did not touch the exhaust ports. Before I put it back on the cylinders, I remodeled the exhaust ports a little to match the diameter of my exhaust headers and do some general casting clean up. Doing that was suggested by Bob Raber.
I think I drove those two guy nuts buying nickel and dime stuff. I did show up at Phil's garage unannounced frequently. They had a tendency to passively but humorously bad mouth one another, and I'd catch Phil in Raber's buying stuff now and again when Raber opened up. Kinda funny thinking back on it.
That aluminum block on the exhaust spindle was for a oil pressure gauge I had on the motor for a while. I took the oil pressure gauge off. Having a skinny tube exposed there and hooked to my oiling system never made me feel that comfortable. No tach on this bike either. Never had clue how hard I was ringing its neck when I was a young buck. It stayed together, so I must not have been hurting it.
The FBS remodeled head works a lot better than a stock head. I tested it in the 1990's, by putting a new stock head on the motor while I put some inserts in the FBS head, and was considering retiring it. The stock head felt very pedestrian by comparison, so I installed inserts, lightened up the rocker arms, put bronze valve guides and Black Diamond valves in the FBS head and put it back on. Much better.
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