This thread is doing me no good at all ................... 
Every time I look at that engine, it just makes me wish I had ANY of my Connies back !
Last year there was a basket case Connie at the Stafford Classic Bike show .. stupid money as far as I was concerned, but the guy also had a spare engine which was "only" £250. Yes kicking myself even more after following your build ! I've even got a spare BMW Airhead frame kicking around somewhere.
Re: phoshpor bronze guides - they're the ones you could buy "undrsize" and reamer them to your valve stem size. I wouldn't mind a little side bet that Bullet guides wouldn't be far off. Even stock size guides needed to be reamered after installation [ simple hand reamer ].
We used to have some ace ref: catalogues in the UK before computers and such - pages and pages of "stuff" to compare as alternates.
Pistons, bearings, valves, guides, [ Tranco ? ]. springs. etc. In the 50's and 60's most of the major manufacturers simply trawled the part manufacturers for suitable parts, rather than make their own.
In the 60's I got a bit of a name for being a Connie specialist and built many road engines - and a few race engines too. There's nothing on the Connie you can't tackle yourself or with the help of a tame machine shop. Once you go to a "specialist" is when the cost goes up dramatically.
Don't be frightened to check the Indian / Chinese sources - a great deal of the parts sold in the UK / EU now come from there, even though they are sold off as specialist parts.
BTW - 37 3/4" from the ex. valve head to the end of the exhaust system is the optimum - looks right too.
Every time I look at that engine, it just makes me wish I had ANY of my Connies back !Last year there was a basket case Connie at the Stafford Classic Bike show .. stupid money as far as I was concerned, but the guy also had a spare engine which was "only" £250. Yes kicking myself even more after following your build ! I've even got a spare BMW Airhead frame kicking around somewhere.
Re: phoshpor bronze guides - they're the ones you could buy "undrsize" and reamer them to your valve stem size. I wouldn't mind a little side bet that Bullet guides wouldn't be far off. Even stock size guides needed to be reamered after installation [ simple hand reamer ].
We used to have some ace ref: catalogues in the UK before computers and such - pages and pages of "stuff" to compare as alternates.
Pistons, bearings, valves, guides, [ Tranco ? ]. springs. etc. In the 50's and 60's most of the major manufacturers simply trawled the part manufacturers for suitable parts, rather than make their own.
In the 60's I got a bit of a name for being a Connie specialist and built many road engines - and a few race engines too. There's nothing on the Connie you can't tackle yourself or with the help of a tame machine shop. Once you go to a "specialist" is when the cost goes up dramatically.
Don't be frightened to check the Indian / Chinese sources - a great deal of the parts sold in the UK / EU now come from there, even though they are sold off as specialist parts.
BTW - 37 3/4" from the ex. valve head to the end of the exhaust system is the optimum - looks right too.
