I asked Tim about the very comprehensive reconditioning capability of EJ. Payne and the oldest engine that the company had worked on. Tim described the engine of a 1903 De Dion Bouton 'which wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding'. The inlet valve seat was barely in contact, a thin line around a seat that was 'all pitted and nasty'. "With the valve seat replaced and the valve cleaned up we turned our attention to the bl**dy great single piston which was running in a bore that had upwards of 30° of taper. It was amazing that the engine had run at all! We rebored it, fitted an aluminium piston - ex Volvo making a stepped gudgeon pin to suit." The sum total was a smoother running veteran engine with a new lease of life and a satisfied customer.

This level of expertise is applied to damaged modern engines via vintage power units and the recognised classics... Jaguars, Aston Martins, Mercedes MG, etc., etc.. Head work includes thorough and searching cleaning techniques, head pressure testing, valve seat refacing, reprofiling of rockers, head planing and facing, new guides or K line bronze sleeve replacing the existing ones.

"We put valve seat inserts into aluminium heads as well as cast iron heads and engine blocks where they are side valve." F.J. Payne use a valve seat insert "of the very hardest insert material, harder than the devil's toenails", quotes Tim Payne. The four valve per cylinder, inclined valves, 41/2 litre W.O. Bentleys with their head and block in one have been receiving this F.J. Payne treatment for a number of decades. Irrespective of our latter day and impending leaded fuel problems F.J. Payne have used these high quality valve seats throughout. "In essence, we've been doing unleaded conversions for years". Naturally, every facet of line boring is within the Payne scope of capability.

Two crankshaft grinding machines of differing types allow the company to deal with cranks from the smallest of rotavators up to 'meaty' cranks - heavy commercial cranks 8 ft long. A worn out crank, costly in the case of some of the larger or rarer engines, can be recovered by welding up the journals on a rotary welding machine and regrinding.

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