Likamobile valve timing

Hi all Lika owners and Steve,

Not having had any instructions with my kits 16 -18A I presume I missed out on the instructions on valve timing. I set mine up as per Rick (USA) from his website. The engine is running well but I am not convinced I have the best valve settings.

If Steve or any Lika owner can give me the best settings please post a reply.

What a brilliant idea the John O Groats to Lands End run in a Lika is. Well done and best wishes,

AUGUSTROCK.

You will never get perfect valve events with any valve gear but especially not with Modified Hackworth (if you get the valves opening at the correct position you will not get equal valve opening at each end of the valve travel, and vice versa). If you get near perfect timing in forward you will find that reverse is not so good,(and vice versa)
With the reversing lever in neutral, the operating arms (LK0913) 'should' be vertical, but I found that slightly backward of vertical produced the best results. Then with the reverser in full forward, put the left piston at top dead centre and adjust the valve so that it is just "cracking" the top inlet port. Put the L/H piston at bottom dead centre and do the same with the valve just beginning to open the bottom port. Do the same for the right hand cylinder/piston, then repeat the whole exercise with the reversing lever in reverse and this is where you will find that Hackworths is a very "compromise" valve gear. Get it as good as you can in forward, (which is the direction, hopefully, you will normally be travellig). Adjust each valve by moving the nuts locating it on the valve rod, and I found that lock-nutting them wasn't secure enough, so I locked them with a grub screw into a hole tapped into the side of the end nuts. Fine tuning can be done by adjusting the length of the down rod between the reversing lever shaft and the engine.
Hope this helps.
TB.

Thank you TB for your settings. Less backward lean than Rick's but otherwise similar.

Am slightly loath to open up the valve chests yet again but will do so when something else demands it or Winter comes!

Augustrock

Before I buttoned up my valve chests, I used a dial caliper as a depth gauge to measure the dimmension from the top of the brass steam inlet fitting to the top of the valve rod, and noted the value when the valve just started opening the upper and lower ports.
I can now check or adjust valve timing by removing the steam inlet manifold and getting out the dial calipers. No need to break the seal on the valve chest!
I adjusted mine so it was symmetric at at the crankshaft at about 1mm opening. If this is confusing please speak up and I will explain further.
Bill Wayman

Anyone with access to an air compressor, at 30 psi or less, feed into your empty boiler ( via a drain cock for instance ). Now, being very careful not to put fingers where they might become amputated, rotate the engine by hand ( no chain on or rear axle jacked up ). You can hear when the valve opens, as the air flowing sounds different to the air leaking from all those joints you thought were tight !
Fingers are precious ! So be very careful if you do use this trick. Too much air and the engine runs of course.
I like this method as it allows you to experiment with different timings without having to dismantle anything.
Dave Granger