I need to get some advice from you folks more knowledgeable about flatheads than I am. I have done searches and didn't see anything that covered this.
I had an 8BA motor built by a person who builds race engines for a living. He supposedly knows flatheads but I have noticed a couple of things that have caused me concern. I got the motor back completely assembled and in theory ready to be installed and fired up. While checking the motor over I happened to look down the fuel pump stand hole and noticed there was no bushing for the fuel pump rod. While checking into that I also noticed there were no splash shields installed either. Ok, no biggie. Pull the intake, take a fuel rod bushing out of my scrap engine, fit it with a plug as I am using an electric fuel pump, and then install it. Also installed the missing splash shields. Ok, one last look at things before I reinstall the manifold and carb and I notice there isn't one single retainer on any of the valve guides. All of the crows feet weren't installed! Now I admit I don't know everything about a flathead but shouldn't they be there to prevent the guide from being pushed up to far? In checking the guides I can see some pressed in too far, a couple not enough, and some approximately where they should be had they had the retainer installed.
So my question is what is the correct way to fix this? Do I need to pull the heads off, disassemble the valve assembly, then tap the guides back down until I can install the retainers? Once they are in then push the guides up until the retainers are captured? Then reassemble the valve assemblies and reinstall the heads? Or is there some way to do this without tearing apart half of the work I paid him to do?
Advice appreciated as always.
