Honda-SOHC

Here is the camshaft alignment vs points alignment.

There are two lines against the F mark.
I am matched against the first one.
Moving the engine a few degrees brings up the second ..

Is this correct ?

I cannot seem to be able to release any tension on the camchain to walk a link around the sprocket to see what effect that has.... no amount of fiddling on the adjuster does anything. The chain is really tight.
It took me hours to get the sprocket off/on the other week.

Ok.

I done the strip enough to get a good look inside:

http://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php/topic,4615.15.html

I could not find where that piece has come from. It's conceivable that the damage was already fixed as it looks like some bits have been apart before.
I changed the camchain, re-ringed (the rings were about .4/.45mm) and honed the bores as they were ok.
All the valves came out for grinding and non-bent ones went back where required.
I found an OEM gasket kit at an autoumble for a tenner. In it's original sealed bag.

Took a while to fire up but immediately the head gasket was blowing everywhere and then settled down to a very small blow at the front only (and I mean tiny). I torqued it all down in the order, and to the numbers, in the book and even waited 48 hours and did it again. I am thinking a 20 year old head gaskets might not have been the best idea.
More worrying is that the engine however sounds sick. Really sick. I guess the blow is upsetting compression but I can check that with my tester at some point.
It has the original exhaust (4-1) and it's now leaking badly where it joins the silencer, in one rusty lump, which isn't helping. Not sure this fixable as it's tough to get in there with sealant or the welder.
It will hold an idle but it won't rev at all.
On the plus side, I cannot hear the camchain now 

I am thinking that I could lift the rocker and re-torque or am I kidding myself and I need to take it all apart AGAIN and do the whole top end AGAIN.
I am also thinking that it could be a misfire or carb synch causing the lumpy running  ...

For the amount of time and money, so far, I could have completely built three old british bikes from scratch.

Got the collet; A tense hour with rebuild visions in my head.
Bought a magnet on extendy thing; but no joy from above.
Glued rare earth magnet to bendy copper wire and fished around underneath (above primary); eventual success.

Here is the bit that was in an otherwse very clean sump (and I own british and russian bikes and am used to sludge).
It's sat next to a 5p piece.

It's snapped off something and is steel (i.e. magnetic).
Might be a tooth off a gear ?

It doesn't smoke on startup; takes a few moments.
Unfortunately, it does smell like OIL 
I get a really oily plug on cylinder 1 while idling (but not if I shut down at speed and pull it out).

I found this on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_9Y8Y2vEXw

and I also found a man that had used the same method on his car (different tool though - some sort of lever through the rockers)

The tool used in the youtube video is not available over here, while this looks to be similar:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sykes-Pickavant-03920000-VALVE-COLLET-INSTALLER-/170817861754?pt=UK_Measuring_Tools_Levels&hash=item27c589b87a

Has anyone here tried this job ?
Is there a better spring compressor (than these hammer types ones shown in the video) as all I have are the clamp ones for OHV and scissor ones for sidevalves (both of which involve having the head on the bench).

If I take the head off, then I may as well lift the barrel as the base gasket will be disturbed. If I lift the barrel, then I may as well be checking and maybe changing rings and maybe the camchain (just because I am there). Voila.. hundreds of pounds and most of a weekend...

Or I just leave it alone until something serious goes wrong.

The forks are ok; it's the image.
A "proper"sidestand didn't sort it out; it still leans too far for my liking. Oh well.

It's now MOT'd.
Charging sorted by a new reg/rectifier and a few wiring bodges sorted with proper connectors and the soldering iron.
Valve clearances fine. Timing sorted,  oil changed, new oil/air filter, carbs balanced and cam chain tensioner duly, er, tensioned.

Just a new seat needed .... old base is broken ...

It is an import of some kind, I think, as the logbook stub says it was registered in 1990.. sorry just thought to check that

Here is the stand:



Are there differences between import/UK model seats or just between K and F