thanks for the tip on the predator…
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I popped off the valve cover the other to inspect for grease accumulation. I thought for sure there would be a big glob of grease sitting in there. Nope looks all normal, it probably just melts away into the oil. As long as its not excesive should be ok and if your making that much tar oil needs frequent changing anyways.
So I did the grease fitting install on the Predator twin, turned out very nice here are few pics Ill follow up tomorrow with the rest of the install. Been pretty busy the last week and half writing code for the next gen system. Ive learned a great deal with I2C communication in a very short time. Its really cool how it works and has freed up a lot of inputs as this only requires two wires.
!
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Hello Matt.
—Just a couple of thoughts:
Regarding the greasing of the intake valve:
Two guys who rebuilt blacksmith power hammers for many years, used to argue about oil vs grease in a bearing surface (think babbitted bearings)… One guy put grease fillting everywhere, replacing the oil fillers on these machines. The other guy argued: “when grease gets pushed out of a bearing (or whatever) it’s gone for good, but when oil is pushed out, it can flow back in.” Could the grease be interrupting the flow of oil into the valve seat?
Regarding !2C: I don’t know how time sensitive your arduino/Rasppi code is, but I do know for sure that the I2C buss really slows the loop down a LOT!
Pete Stanaitis
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My thoughts as well, I am going to experiment with different grease. When I was in service for Campbell Grinder, they went to this blue Modile grease, Its very thin and oil just dripped out of it. This is the kind of stuff you get on you like anti seize and you cant get it off you haha. But I also dont see why we couldnt just use the same oil thats in the engine. Its just to loosen up tar at the valve side. I bet it would work just as well. If we are getting that much tar in there I would suspect it also holding oil lubrication in the valve guide just as if the grease would. But also the heat I think melts this out along with valve working it out.
Yes the I2C is a bit laggy; however, we are just using for mode input. So it dont really need to act fast. When the sensors are determining a condition it seems fast as these are direct inputs. Then on the other side we sent bytes back for the main controller re interpret and display a message. There will be video of this coming soon too many irons in my fire 
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Yeah I actually was planning to pop the head back off for inspection. I gave her a kerosene oil treatment before oil change and Im now running a Seafoam gas wash. Just going to run gasoline for the night and pull it apart tomorrow if I can get some time to do it. So yeah Im just as curious as Im sure are many others. But I think the answer will be to use oil like Pete is suggesting. Just a skirt before shut down should do it or if you hear the valve train in some trouble it might save the day.
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The question in my mind, Are we just lubricating the valve so the the tar cant stick it, or are we displacing or flushing out the tar to a place it can not do harm?
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I think the answer to your question is both. However, the lubrication part is only temporary as Pete was saying once it works its way out its gone. Thats probably what we want anyways. The idea is to apply a very small amount just prior to shut down while the engine is still running an hot. If there are tars they are in a state at this point where the grease can dissolve and mix with it. So it is providing a coating to keep things free and from sticking. In this environment the grease should melt and carry away these these tars into combustion process.
However this is not intended to be used all the time. Only for new users or when trying out new fuels. Once a user has a fuel that is working with out tar production then this is not needed.
I still need to investigate this farther, if we use oil instead of grease then there maybe a possibility of using this as preventive measures and full time use. Might be able to add some additives to help clean and keep that valve wet as this is an issue with any gaseous fuel.
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So here are the other pics of this completed. pretty straight forward.
I had a thought; I wonder if veggy oil will work for this? Its renewable and already in use on diesels, seems it would burn clean vs oil.
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How about the SeaFoam ? A squirt a day keeps the grease monkey away ! !
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Yup I use it all the time and recommend running a tank every 40 to 80 hours.
So injecting some SeaFoam into the valves, instead of grease, seems to work well?
Cool stuff ! !
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No what I meant was using it as directed, Ive only experimented with grease to this point.
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Hi Jeff, There is spray sea foam, I have a small access hole in the air intake, before I shut the truck down from running on wood I give it a couple of squirts.
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Just a note on this “seafoam”, or similar products. They do work great! But, the fact is, they are nothing but plain aromatised/colourised diesel fuel. Yes, plain diesel does the same job. Prooven. Freed my tared piston rings right away. Diesel does decarbonise a engine! In fact, a periodical internal engine bath with diesel was advised in early Mercedes and Man trucks manuals. Run the engine with diesel instead of oil in the crankcase for a short period of time, drain, fill new oil in.
I think a squirt of diesel wuld do a good job in rinsing a tarry intake valve in case neaded, and wuldnt hurt the engines lubrication sistem.
Anyway, be it grease, oil or whatever, l think the valve lubrication system is genious!
Edit: forgot to mention. There is a expresion in my language that says something is a hoax, a fraud or has no value at all. It literaly translates as “sea foam” 
coincidence?
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Whoo- up. Don’t you be bad talk’n meye Rislone. I been us’n that stuff ev’r since Tige was jes a pup. My '46 Ford flat head six would stick a valve ever so offen and a can ( back in the day it came in a can) of Rislone and 25 clattering miles and eve’er thing was sweet agin. Since then I have thought if a quart will unstick valves in an old engine, if I put it in a good engine, things will stay good longer. TomC"
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I can’t help myself even when I know better. I want to believe that there is magic in a bottle. I love reading the propaganda and watching the dishonest demos. There is something in the human DNA that predisposes us to buy stuff in a small container with outrageous claims on the label. The latest magic phrase appearing on the snake oil bottle is “nano-particles.”
Kristijan, please don’t ruin this insanity for me. I’m a rich American who loves to take chances on the impossible. It is a good thing that gambling is against my religion or I would be a gonner. There is a reason that we have the phrase “big pharma.” From Jack’s magic beans to cholesterol drugs, we are suckers. Don’t take away my fun. My shop shelves and my medicine cabinet are filled with these amazing products. BTW, I have a new product that will remove carbon from inside combustion cylinders by spraying it into the intake manifold–dihydrogen oxide is the active ingredient.
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LOL…Bruce, that reminds me of a saying I heard recently which referred to the lottery as “a tax on poor people who are bad at math.” Around here the latest miracle-in-a-bottle is something called “Lifevantage”. Some MLM miracle pill that does everything good that can be done. Which reminds me, I promised someone I would look into it…Glad I’m not as gullible as you claim to be… or am I 
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Similarly, I have heard the lottery called, “A state subsidy for the intelligent.”
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I generally drain out 50% and refill with diesel and run for 15 to 20 minutes and drain. I dont do it every time but its prolly a good idea on a woodgas rig. When I was a GM tech this is what we did with some treatment product from GM; yeah for some reason it was special for GM cars lol. They also had some sort of other line of products, but I dont think it was GM brands but still something GM used. This stuff would take the chrome off a bumper if you were not careful with it.
I got to thinking I dont think these small engines have an oil passage into the valve guides. They have seals on top and nothing inside the bore so if anything I think adding any lubricant is a good thing. Otherwise I think they run dry until the oil seals give a little. The gasoline maybe what is intended for lubrication there. Otherwise the engine is going to burn oil. Might be why my JD was so tolerant it had its own oil valve injection system via worn out seals.
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Maybe just remove the valve seals.
Is there any advantage to the flat head engine, where the valves are upside down? This is in regards to sticky valve stems.
Edit: spelling correction. Or I should say “spell check” correction. In the old days of computing the spell check fix more mistakes than it made… 
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