Guide-Liners
| A Useful Solution to Reconditioning Valve Guides and Race
Preparation |
Interrupted Spiral
Guide-Liners
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K-Line introduced Bronze
Guide-Liners to the market over 20 years ago and is the leader in bringing thin
wall bronze liner technology to today's ever changing market. Focusing on
quality, efficiency of installation and most of all durability, they have been
working for over 25 years to bring the most advanced technology to the demanding
users through their patented Guide-Liner system.
With in house R & D and dynamometer
facilities, K-Line has shown a great deal of commitment to designing and testing
its product to meet the ever changing needs of the engine rebuilding market.
Their certified manufacturing processes guarantee that you receive K-Line quality
for each and every application. K-Liners were originally popularised by
those in the trucking industries, where utter dependability and high mileages are
their bread and butter. Big rigs can be demanded to run for 250,000 miles and
more, time off the road is an expense that the owners cannot
afford.
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The Cylinder Head Shop was one of
the first engineers to use these for classic and racing engines. For many years,
smoothbore liners were used by a few specialist race tuning shops in America and
we used these until K-Liners brought out their remarkable interrupted scrolled
liners. Their
Guide-Liners are made of spring tempered phosphor bronze, which is an
anti-seizing, anti-wear, high strength-to-weight ratio material. It is more dense
than cast iron, has a higher rate of thermal conductivity, a lower coefficient of
friction and insures higher lubrication retention due to the interrupted spiral
feature of the product engraved on to the inside of the
liner.
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Utilising a patented geometric inner design, lubrication can now be held
in the guide, enhancing wear characteristics and reducing the possibility of
excessive oil pass through. This patented design feature provides superior
installation and fitting characteristics. There is no better system to combine
efficiency and durability than the K-Line Bronze Bullet Interrupted Spiral Bronze
Guide-Liner System. Combining the durability benefits of phosphor bronze with the
efficiency of thin wall installation, K-Line has made valve guide repair a very
simple and adaptable operation but does require specialist tooling beyond the
budget of repair shops. For kits and training, please contact The Cylinder Head
Shop. | 
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Continued advancements in the
tooling and installation process means that we can produce premium quality valve
guide repairs, and upgrades, in the most efficient manner.
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Since the early 1970's K-Line
has run numerous dynamometer tests in conjunction with major production engine
builders and O.E.M.'s. Repeatedly the Guide-Liners and has out performed cast
iron guides and has become the approved method for rebuilding. In fact, these
tests have found the Guide-Liners to be up to three times more durable than cast
iron. Further more, the minimisation of both guide lubrication and guide to stem
clearances have failed to induce either a seizure or cause metal
transfer. Ford,
G.M., Caterpillar, Cummins, White Engines, Detroit Diesel-Allison and others have
tested the product and confirmed K-Line's Guide-Liner system as an approved
product for use in rebuilding their engines. | Fitting and Fettling Liner Shown in
Red
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Our best result was with one
customer who, after 50,000 on his BSA A10, still had 2 and a half thou or less
clearances valve to guide. Less than they would have been when they left the
factory. Standard replacement such as those Norman Hyde sells, guides run at
clearances of 2 to 3 thou. Same as the the tolerances on the new 1999 model
Harley-Davidsons and others. The standards of early original factory parts can
sometimes even be as bad as the parts they are replacing, so it is worth checking
that your parts supplier knows what they are selling you.
Closer Tolerances Valve to Guide Offer a Number of Benefits to the Owners of
Classic, Vintage, High Mileage or Racing Vehicles
- As the rocker action on the
tip of the valve places lateral forces against the guide and wears it into an
oval, it also forces the head, or rim, of the valve to cut into the newly cut
cylinder head seats. Reducing tolerances minimises this making for a longest
lasting head,
- They also allows for a
greater transfer of heat from the valve to guide and away into the head and stops
oil and air being sucked down the side of the guide. With unleaded petrol running
at far higher temperatures, in hot climates or in racing conditions, this is good
news,
- Improved fuel economy and
cooler running,
- Quieter running, increased
responsiveness, some racers claim that their engines now tick over for the first
time. Greater vacuum created in the inlet port in engines improves all round
general performance to the point of requiring re-calibration of the
carburettors.
Anyone and Everyone can
Benefit from K-Liners. |
At low to mid range cam lift
there is a huge vacuum in the inlet port as the engine tries to pull the volume
of mixture in the inlet port through a tiny gap between valve and seat, a flow
that is improved by a 3 or 5 angle cut. On high revving modern engines, 10,000rpm
or more, this is also true of the exhaust port where exhaust gases are escaping
along the pipe draw by the gases of the last stroke.
The engine under these circumstances is
trying to draw air from any available source, including down the side of guide
with its inevitable oil mist included. Narrowing the gap reduces this and
requires the engine to take gases from where it should be taking them; through
the carburettor or out of the chamber. To avoid petrol wash, where too much petrol
is drawn through the engine washing away all the lubricant and causing premature
wear, it is necessary to lean out the mixture by always reducing the slide size
and sometimes the needle jet.
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With K-Line Guide-Liners
fitted, matched to quality new or refaced valves and freshly cut seats, we
guarantee owners to return 2 to 3 times the mileage one would expect. One racing
head we set up, a championship leader, did 3 seasons without need a head job and
still was still in better shape that it would have been straight from the factory
at the end of it season. Nothing more than a light lapping with Solvol Autosol
was necessary to send it out for its fourth year racing.
More recent tests have shown that K-Line's
Bronze-Bullet Interrupted Spiral phosphor-bronze Guide-Liners exhibited 41% less
wear than smooth wall liners, as used by other tuning shops, under harsh
durability testing environments even at similar tolerances. K-Line manufacture
and stock the only complete selection of Guide-Liners and Guide-Liner
installation tooling in the World. Due to our many years of successful adoption
of this technology, any problems in wear following the fitment of K-Liners or
Nucleus Sports Elite Valves can be traced to the lack of carburettor adjustment.
The penultimate combination would be to have Nucleus Power Guides fitted with
K-Line Guide-Liners. Bespoke fit, incredible heat transfer and many other
individual benefits for differing models. |  |
- Cast in Guides
or Delicate Vintage Head?
If guide durability is critical
to you, or you own one of many engines than have cast in guides where it is not
possible to replace them, K-liner are also the way to go for you. Likewise if you
have old, rare or delicate heads where one would wish to avoid knocking out
guides from the head casting.
Knocking out guides cause erosion in the
casting that lead to small oilways being created down between the guides and the
head. To avoid this, and it is good practice, fit Guide-Liners. As long as your
guides are tight in the head, liners can be fitted. They come in a variety of
different sizes. |
Phosphor
Bronze Interrupted Spiral Guide-Lining
Features
- Lower co-efficient of
friction,
- High lubrication
retention,
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- High
strength-to-weight ratio, more dense than cast iron,
- Higher rate of thermal
conductivity,
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- Precision
formed for a consistent fit,
- Patented spiral positions
the oil where it is needed.
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The Bronze Bullet Guide-Liner takes
K-Line Guide-Line technology to a new dimension by incorporating the proven
benefits of phosphor bronze. This design feature allows for efficient
installation without requiring any chamfering of the cylinder
head. K-Line's
patented process allows us to maintain consistent material thickness through the
length of the where it's needed. insert so that at final sizing the bullet
configuration disappears, providing a consistent internal diameter. finish
-throughout the length of the guide. Look closely at the spiral in the
illustrations. Notice that the spiralled grooves do not align at the seam. The
reason? Lubrication is now suspended in the guide, reducing any possibility Of
excessive oil pass through. Another benefit is;
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The Bronze Bullet
Guide-Liners Costs Less Than Fitting New Guides and Can be Replaced at a Later
Date.
DYNAMOMETER
TESTS REVEAL: Interrupted Spiral Guide-Liners Experience 41% Less Wear Than
Smooth Wall Bronze Liners.
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Type of Test: 200 hour durability test. 3%
margin of error allowed. Tests were conducted with both smooth wall
bronze liners and Interrupted Spiral Guide-Liners using K-Line's standard
installation, and finishing procedures. A Flex-Hone, was also used to finish both
parts.
| The Fitment
Process Installation is simplicity
itself using special tools and a power drill or preferably an air line.
- First the worn guide is bored
out using a powered diamond honer aligned by a bush held in the valve
seat.
- Next the new bore is
cleaned out and lubricated before the head is turned over and a liner is hammered
home using the installation driver. Excess liner material can then be removed
with ahand cutter, also part of the kit
- With the liner installed,
it can now be swaged out to size using either a series of ball broaches and a
hammer or an adjustable roller burnisher and a power
drill.
- The roller burnisher has
a series of needle rollerburnishers near its tip and can be adjusted in
increments of tenths of a thou. This tool is expensive but far more accurate and
less hassle than the simple, bash-through ball boaches.
- Once the stem-to-liner
clearance is correct, a touch of the topping tool at each end of the guide
finishes the job. When the liners are worn out, there is a tool for removing them
and new ones can be installed.
- K-Line Guide-Liners hold
infinitely better tolerances than the typical aftermarket valve guides and should
last 50,000 miles before they need replacing. We can fit them to tolerances of
less than .3 of a thou.
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