Well, the machine is back together and sounds great! no more smokey engine, no more bad compression on start, now starts 1st time every time again.
I have found a good mixture for removing excess carbon from valves.. commercial grade oven cleaner! works a treat! turns the carbon to slime when i left the valves to soak in it.
As to the valve lapping, the IN valve was easy, started with fine compound and looked good with about 2 dozen turns, the EX valve (in particular, the seat) was a bit more of a pain, there seemed to be some kind of scratch on the seat and i had to use the coarse grain and then revert to the fine grain compound but it all worked out well!
I also went and bought myself one of those small spring type hones, for 20 dollars i was happy! ill try post the photos of the honed cylinder now, only thing is, i was scared to keep honing because the bore was past the service limit already, so there are still 1-2 spots where i saw the honing tool did not kick in.
the only problem with the mower now is that the blades on the base plate seem to be loose even though they are assembled correctly and tightened fully, does this mean its time for a new base plate (this is usually the case with victa so im just guessing), can i do anything about this? it just makes a clunking sound on stopping as the blade hits the plate thats all.
