Woody, @wkubacki
You have done an incredible job with your Ki-44. It looks very impressive. Thank you for building up another one for our Empire of Japan group. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing your new build journals. Good luck at the show. You should do very well there.
Years ago I worked as an automotive machinist. I rebuilt / machined a lot of car and various engine parts, but what I did the most of was rebuilding cylinder heads. That was my "specialty".
Occasionally we would get a Toyota 22R cylinder head in the shop. Most of the time they had a lot of miles on them, and they needed all new valve guides, valves, and springs, followed up with a fresh valve seat cutting.
Most of the ones that came in only for a resurfacing had been ran while overheating. They would then warp, allowing the head gasket to blow out. One of the things I checked in every cylinder head that was equipped with an overhead camshaft was I checked the head for straightness. This was especially important with aluminum heads.
Sometimes the head would warp and twist so badly, I had to straighten them back out by placing shims of varying thickness under the ends of the head at the gasket surface, and then bolt the head down to the holding fixture using the center head bolt holes. The thickness of the shim I used depended on just how badly the head was bowed.
The head would then be placed into an industrial gas fired oven and baked for several hours. This would usually remove the bend, and it straightened them out considerably. It made a big difference, because otherwise the camshaft would wear out the journals it rode on, if this was not tended to during the rebuild. If the head was not straight, then neither were the camshaft journals.
When I got done with them they were like new and very straight. After straightening, I would resurface them so the head gasket would properly seal. These little 22 R's are virtually indestructible and great engines.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.
