Honing cam bushings

Has anyone heard of honing cam bushings to align cam bearing caps that came from a different head?

Caps cannot be honed or linebored to match the cap to the head as this only enlarges the saddle for the upper shell bearing and will cause distortion of the shell bearings..
You can however use caps from other heads but you need a good selection and arm yourself with a bore gauge or similar to check concentricity.
Also caps numbered 2 and 4 can only be used in either position 2 or 4 ( positions 1 and 3 must use caps numbered 1 or 3 because they control cam end float ).
Caps numbered 1 and 3 ( which control cam end float ) can also be used in positions 2 and 4 ..

I've done it but they must be close. Two I had to use backwards for them to fit. I used Plastigauge to verify fitment. The tolerance is .001-.006. It's been two years and they work great. Being a junk head I tried my hand at porting. Nothing major just cleaning up the chaff and the shelves around the valve seats. With the 33's the bike came ALIVE. Added a 1075 kit and the clutch slipped in 2nd gear. Never had that happen. Extra plate and it's all good. 

What happened to Your original head?? Provided you're talking about the bike 1973 shown? All the heads 72-76 will fit BUT there are subtle differences if you're keeping it original. Of course same goes for the 77 and 78 but 8mm exhaust studs.

Melted pistons a couple of times over boosting on pump gas. Two combustion chambers got beat up. Ran the head for many years after with no issues. Had APE do a valve job, they said it was the last valve job before having to replace the valve seats. They said not to worry about the combustion chamber damage. The also found hairline cracks between the edge of a couple valve seats and the spark plug holes. They said it was common on turbo bikes due to the high cylinder pressure, Once again they said not to worry about it, just turn up the boost.

As the bike is far from stock have you considered a conversion to a "J" head ?

And that's exactly what You did, readjust that wastegate, ha. So..it is a running state as shown? Your initial photo didn't revel all the period coolness! By the numbers on dyno, bet it's a blast to ride!! The last turbo Z i did was an APE gorilla block 1428cc. The former builder used a pedestrian 15tooth center crankshaft, he too turned-up the boost, crankshaft broke in half at that 15tooth centerpin. Replaced, after exhaustive other work with a 79-80 16tooth crankshaft assy. Fudged-up the cylinder liners so sent that Eric, JJHooper right in Your Florida neighborhood. He re-sleeved the block because the breakage knocked off the lower liners. Did that about 3yrs ago. Haven't heard back from him so i'm assuming it's still running OK? Getting the turbo rebuilt was a pain, hard pressed in my area someone that would be knowledgeable about such things. Still have the 79-80 head that came off it originally.   

I did, but was advised that it wouldn't be that effective at my displacement. Was told it would be appropriate on a big bore motor.

Its currently running. Going to get  another head put together and replace the existing. I put a set of mild turbo profile cams in it after that dyno run. It ended up picking up about 11 hp. I swapped the trans out with a J model years ago. Higher 5th gear ratio. It was a simple mod, I believe it was changing out two bearings and the front sprocket. Pitstop / Joe Hooper is still in business. I had my turbo re built at turbokits.com, they were very helpful, reasonably priced. Is it a blast to ride? HELL YAH

sflaZ1T wrote:

I did, but was advised that it wouldn't be that effective at my displacement. Was told it would be appropriate on a big bore motor.

Zed1015 can advise how to recover the lost compression and reap the benefit of the bigger valves/ports etc

How do I reach out to ZED1015 concerning j model head configuration you speak of?

Absolutely Wookie!! But i've known wheelwrights/ transmission specialists/head porting gurus that will Never expose their "trade secrets". I understand while that makes their business, comes a time in everyone's life to let that stuff out, collineate that info into a resource for others to use. That's my thought on it and why i freely share my failures and successes here, can't take it with-ya.