I love making special tools!  Nice work!

Funny how we can spend an hour or so building a tool that we will use only once or twice.  On YouTube I saw several guys that just used a hand drill and bench grinder to back cut their valves.......I just wasn't willing to be that primitive about the work on the valves.  I really do love having nice tools and a warm, well lit shop.  For years and years I worked with just hand tools in a dark, cold garage - when we built this house 14 years ago I was able to get the garage I always wanted!  My hours in the garage is my therapy time!

I am at a little bit of a standstill right now on the work on the chassis, as all the nuts/bolts and axles for the bike are at the plating shop getting a new shiny coating.  That is why I have been doing engine work for a chassis that is not yet ready for an engine.

Since all of the nuts/bolts and other hardware to work on the chassis are at the plater - I can't work on the chassis as I have nothing to hold it together!

So....the work on the head continues.

Yesterday I assembled the Wiseco piston, the head, the DR650 cam, the rockers and cylinder head so I could check clearances.  Even with the 0.030" shaved off the head the valves were a long way from the piston.  I could rotate the crankshaft and watch the valves open and see the piston coming up and going down while the valves opened and closed.  On the intake stroke the valve is open while the piston is coming up, and you can see when the valve starts pulling away faster than when the piston is rising - so I pushed down on the rocker shaft against my "test" springs and I found so much clearance I didn't even bother setting up a way to measure it.  Same thing with the exhaust valve.....as the piston was coming up on the exhaust stroke you could see the rising piston coming toward the valve - but as the piston neared the top of the stroke the valve started to close and move away from the piston.......and there was plenty of clearance.

I measured the ring end gap on the rings supplied by Wiseco, and both the top and 2nd ring measure 0.012".   I need to file the top one to provide 0.015" and the 2nd ring to provide 0.019" of gap.

I called Lani at Copper Gaskets Unlimited and I am getting a 0.042" thick copper head gasket and a 0.32" base gasket for the cylinder.  This will get me right back to the cylinder height that would have existed prior to taking off 0.030" from the head, and a compression ration of around 9.5:1.....that will be just fine for the long distance touring that I hope to use this bike for.  

I installed the new Viton valve seals.

Here is what it looks like when being used.

Smart!

It does look good, even if its only until you button up the motor.  I am going to be at this stage in a matter of weeks now.  I confirmed my engine builder has started on the head and cylinder.

Dave, What are you going to do about the cam chain tensioner? Stock, Versy, or pawl free/with spacer?
A new chain and follower would go a long way without the pawl. You would get to see how much the chain really "wears" rather than how fast the stock set-up destroys the follower.