Progress

The heads and jugs are now safely in the hands of someone who knows what he is doing. Gary from IronHead Cycles has been working with these beasties for something like 30 years, and his shop is a testament to his experience. Check out his site for all of his builds, services, and the part where he built a full stock Ironhead from bits and pieces he had laying around the place. Currently he is going to be doing a valve job and taking care of the jugs for me.

Per Gary's instructions I tested the play on the rods and pulled the cam cover off to check for metal bits. The front rod had a bit of play, but the telltale rubbing on the back of the neck was non-existent. Both were in great shape and looked to be well within tolerance.

Taking of the cam cover I examined the oil collection grate and found it to be completely metal free. I ran a magnet over some of the oil just to see what I could find and was pleased to not have attracted any loose metal fragments.

The case itself looked solid and crack free.

All together, it looks like I can probably get away with not doing a bottom end re-build. Great news since that pretty much saves me a ton of money.