Inside the KZ Engine Continued....
The clutch basics laid out....from the left, a Barnett
high-perf plate, a stock plate, a burnt and glazed
stock steel plate, and a glass-blasted stock plate. We
often use a 50-50 clutch
in our engines....
alternating peeformance and stock plates. This gives
a clutch that grabs better than stock, and retains
the smooth operation of the stock clutch. Glass-blasting
steel plates removes the glaze and in addition to grabbing better, they
also retain oil better. We also often use a ball-bearing
clutch pusher (at top left) instead of the
stock pusher...This smooths out the clutch operation, and prevents the
pushrod welding itself to the pusher bearing under stress. The springs
are stock....they work fine. On the street, heavy springs are not necessary
and just make the clutch lever harder to pull in.
As seen below.......In addition to the clutch plates,
a reinforced outer hub
can also be installed....
These hubs have had the shock-absorbing springs replaced
with stiffer parts, and the rivets are welded...
No street engine can challenge this unit....The undercut
2nd / 5th gearset can also be seen on the
countershaft in this picture.... A new sprocket
shaft spacer keeps the seal from leaking.....
The quality of the seal at the valve and its seat is
one of the most critical elements in an engine's
ability to make power. A basic "three angle valve job"
consists of a 45 degree cut at the valve's
face (contact surface) matched to a 45 degree cut on
the valve seat in the head.....this mating
surface at the seat isolated by a 60 degree cut on the
inside, and a 30 degree cut on the outside.
Hand cutting of these surfaces is time consuming, but
allows the engine builder to adjust every
dimension exactly. A stock engine
with a good valve job will outperform many "high performance"
engines with poor attention
to the basics. This engine will not be stock....and will benefit even
more from attention to details.
