I've just watched another rather delightful Panther Owners Club video on YouTube, in which a chap comes to an unplanned roadside stop with chunks of carbon occasionally holding his valves open.
He notes that Panther recommended decoking after 2-3000 miles, and his engine is certainly more than a bit sooty.
I see the W/NG owners handbook recommends a similar interval, with an initial decoke 1500 miles from new.
Does anyone do that? My own W/NG is 2100 miles past it's last rebuild and is showing no sign of ill-health, far from it.
I seem to remember being quite keen to follow all the 'tips' for servicing things - including de-cokes - when I started off with Ariels a very long time ago but I never really had any of the symptoms (pre-ignition, overheating, poor performance) and certainly never noticed any big improvements even after carefully cleaning and polishing everything in the combustion chamber.
I've come to the conclusion that with 'modern' fuels and oils it's not really necessary.
Maybe it's different if you're running a three-compression ring piston but there again the current piston in the VH is pretty knackered and running with old rings that I salvaged from somewhere else and that doesn't seem to be in need of a de-coke after several thousand miles (hopefully not 'famous last words'....)
'55 Huntmaster, '56 VH, ' 51 VH, '62 Arrow, '80 R100RT, '00 Sprint ST (now with a new Arrow project, and just now those 4-stroke Ariel parts can't even make one running bike...)
I've worn out two rear tyres and a chain without decoking my W/NG and it also has no oil ring. (3 comp rings) and doesn't blow smoke or leak oil .That must be about 15,000 miles and they were not easy miles, Untouched since 1997 in the motor. Ruined the speedo drive gear though in the front wheel. Needs checking more often and a bit of good grease applied.
I did once have a 50's Velo Venom and the handbook said decoke and valve reseating every 3.000 miles . You wouldn't be able to market a bike with that requirement today.. Nev
i would guess they dont need de-coking very often these days due to the fuel being unleaded and containing less carbon , plus has more alcohol in than a cider lolly. .
many old bikes ran as rich as the pub landlord back in the day and no one bothered much about fuel economy when petrol was dirt cheap , we just chucked it in one end and it came out the other , thats probably why they needed a decoke more often .
i used to drive my drag raced up chevy camaro to work 25 miles each way and it only did 8 or 9 to the gallon , and with the low vacuum centre squirter carb on it , it would black out the car behind me if i put my foot down and burned the tyres out , great fun but like holding on to a scolded cat .
these days everything is all on the lean side and youd probably burn the valves and piston out as opposed to blacken them up with a thick layer of carbon .
if you get more than a bit of oil burning you might end up with a ton of crud in the head and on piston though , but sometimes theres reasons for this that dont appear immediately , like on my AJS twin and my putting copper head gaskets on it which ended up being manufactured too thin for the job and not sealing the cylinders properly , i subsequently had a load of crud in the head and on top of pistons because of that , i changed to composite head gaskets which were thicker and job sorted .
i still have a bottle of old redex and will put a teaspoon or two of that in the tank once in a while .
my dad allways said it was good to have the odd backfire out the exhaust as it would clear the carb out on the bikes , maybe even blow the coke out a bit too , mind you i remember a mate of mine had an old simpson russian moped once and he had a big backfire one day which blew the silencer clean off the back of the bike , luckily not much traffic about in those days so he didnt end up with a flattened exhaust and managed to pick it up and slip it back on , doesnt say much for russian exhaust clamps though ..
i have flat tanker with a villiers mk6c engine from 1923 that has not had the head/ barrel off in nearly 40 years and it runs a treat on 16-1 2t mix , in fact what with all these 20mph speed limits being introduced i am thinking of riding it as everyday transport and even asking the local community speedwatch to see what my top speed is on the radar gun , because i wasnt able to break the speed limit before when it was 30mph but i reckon im in with a chance to get near the 20 .
right then its a sunny easter sunday and im off to stick some redex in my NH and give it a shakedown run , first of the year .
A fair bit of the deposit can be from dust as well. A decent aircleaner will help. Not something that only stops grasshoppers though. My W/NG has no aircleaner but I avoid dirt roads. They don't make them new any more. (The bikes not the roads). The head was NEW when I put it on so that helps to start from a good place . One day I may look in there but it hasn't lost power at all. I check the tappets every Blue moon The compression is fine.Nev
My Red Hunter has now done about 10,000 miles since I last looked in the engine. I have no plans to look in there in the near future. Equally, there is nothing to suggest that I ought to look in there.
Paul Jameson
35 LG (project), 37 RH500, 52 ex ISDT KHA, 54 KH(A), 75 Healey 1000/4.
Former Machine Registrar & Archivist, General Secretary and Single Spares Organiser (over a 25 year period).
Now Archivist (but not Machine Registrar), Gauges and Clocks Spares Organiser.
