The silver lining of the pandemic is that I finally have more time with the Comet, which was otherwise neglected in favor of a well-sorted (and faster...) Norton 750. I apologize.
I noticed it was smoking a fair amount from the exhaust at the end of the summer and made a note to check the plug and piston. Bottom of my list. It shouldn’t have been.
See the pictures below—fouled spark plug and sludge/carbon on the piston. (Using a cheap endoscope from Amazon.) Will need to keep going and have a look at the valves. The piston seems to have been enjoying an oil deluge. I expect I’m also running too rich but I’m focused on the oil for the moment.
I can’t tell if the cylinder wall scoring is exaggerated by the LEDs and the focal length of the scope. Will have to have a look at that too. My understanding is that there should be some intersected scoring, diagonally, on the cylinder wall as a result of the honing process, but I’m by no means an expert. Will try to get a few more pictures.
As a note, I never once had an issue starting (first or second kick) and the bike ran beautifully this summer, but for the smoke and some leaks from the Burman and primary (which I’m also addressing)... My error was not to check more regularly the spark plug, among others. I’m amazed a spark was coming through all that mess.
Anyway thought I would share. The downside is I have a lot of work to do; upside is I get to keep taking apart this lovely machine. Would welcome any thoughts.
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