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12/26/05 - Skip and Barbara attended the BMRT Christmas Party at the Chatterbox Lounge. 
   

12/25/05 - Merry Christmas From Skip & Barbara Holbert! 
I purchased 8 new exhaust valves and only needed two intake valves, which I am waiting to come in.  The heads will be ready later this coming week, I hope. 
This past week, I spent a lot of time watching TV and cleaning my office.  I have so much SBC information tucked away that I don't have room for the new library of BBC information.  I and see the need for more shelf space in my office in the near future.  I almost filled a whole garbage can with Summit and Jegs catalogs, along with all the other mail order periodicals that are send to me.  Old computer programs that are no longer used or have been replaced by a new version, filled a lot of garbage space.  I also found out I need to stop printing a lot of things I see on the internet.  I should make use of bookmarks and favorites to keep up with information I want to keep, or save it to disk.  Most of the stuff I printed, I never read again, until it was time to trash it!
The engine has taken a back seat to everything, for the time being.  I will get back to it early this coming year.  Holidays and "Honey Do's" are taking a lot of my time.  I think the whole world knows when I am about to start work on the engine.  That's the time when everyone can find things for me to do.
Little Barbara got her unrestricted drivers license last week. She was 17 years old on December 11, 2005. Of course I had to take her for the driving test.  I spent a total of 8 hours, spread over two days, to get her license.  Now she wants to, and I will be happy let her, drive "Mr. Skip"!  I think I will slow the car down, maybe to around 12 -13 seconds, and let her make some passes this coming year.  Hopefully, by the end of the year, she will be ready to get her NHRA Comp. Drivers License, then I can retire from driving.  She only weighs around 120 lbs., that's worth about four-tenths off the ET, over me driving.

12/19/05 - Busy taking measurements, after cleaning the block and spraying down everything with WD-40.  I purchased a dial bore gauge which did not come with any instructions.  I purchased a dial bore gauge to take the uncertainty out of using snap gauges.  The inexpensive ($99) dial bore gauge that I purchased is just as hard to use as a snap gauge and micrometer. I sent it back.  I guess I have to get the $299 piece to have what I want. I think I will pass.

My Lemons Headers arrived today!  What workmanship!  They are 2-3/16", stepped, 4 into 1, with 4" detachable collectors and evacuation fittings. They also have the temp. bungs for dyno testing to get EGT readings. Now all I have to do is assemble the engine, with no mistakes, put it in the body and see if they fit. 

The heads are not back from the welding repairs yet, and I still don't know how many valves I must purchase.  At this time of year, with Christmas holidays, and some of the things that have happened in the past few months, it is hard to concentrate on building the engine and racing.

During the past few weeks I have been busy getting rid of junk, cleaning out my workshop and the two storage houses where I keep my spare parts and other things.  I also inventoried all my tools and cleaned and sorted all of them.  Took everything out of my rolling tool boxes and the tool box that I take to the track and got most of the things in good order.  Mr. Van Johnson is the inspiration for that.  All of his tools and equipment are in "Perfect Order", all the time!  When I grow up, I want to be just like Mr. Johnson :>)  Anyway, now that I have everything in something close to order, I am going to label all the drawers and try to keep the stuff like that.  My only problem is, I don't know where anything is anymore!!

12/4/05 - This may be the longest I have ever failed to make an entry on my page.  Barbara and I spent 5 days in Houston over Thanksgiving and attended the Bayou Classic.  We had a really great time.  Grambling won the game, but we had fun anyway.  Barbara pulls for Grambling. 
I have all of my lower end parts back.  This was a very $$$$ expensive mistake.  Everything is balanced, the pistons have been notched for more P-T-V clearance (I can use a .790 lift exhaust lift and still have .120" clearance).  I also had them relieve the sparkplugs so it is not so critical to have them indexed just right.  I found a new Comp Cams grind that should give me an additional 40 HP over the old cam.  The lift is only .748" on the new cam, so I should have plenty of clearance.
I plan to start cleaning parts and taking measurements tomorrow.  The heads are still being worked.  I saw some photos of how the welding is coming, and it will not be long before Alvin has them back to blend in the chambers.  I hope to be ready by mid-January, when our tracks reopen.

11/8/05 -  I just purchased and received the two volume set of books on Upper and Lower Engine Assembly from Reher-Morrison Racing Engines.  What a vault of information, especially for someone like myself that has a lot of SBC knowledge, but very little BBC knowledge.  The books cost $100 delivered, but are worth every penny.  I have completed the Lower Engine Assembly book already and have read over half to the Upper Assembly book.  I have violated so many things that they talk about in the book, I wish I could start over with a fresh block and heads.  Until I hit the lottery, or some other windfall comes along, I will have to make do with what I have.  One of the best things I learned from the book, I hope, is how to stop all of those oil leaks from the front and rear of the engine. 

I had some bad news about my block, two more sleeves (One of the first cautions in the Reher-Morrison book, "Don't race a sleeved block").  I also had to have one new rod.  The rod that Eagle sent would not balance with the other seven, so it had to be sent back.  The pistons have been fly cut, spark plugs un-shrouded, and now I can handle up to a .790" lift cam on the exhaust side and still have .120" clearance (min. in accordance with the book). I should have lots of clearance this time, my total lift is only .748", at this point.  We don't know what the future may bring! 

The heads have not been started yet.  They had two sets of heads in front of mine, so I guess it will be another couple of weeks before I get them back (actually got them back on March 15, 2006), if they don't have to go back to Dart.  (For future reference, send them back to Dart.  They have the knowledge and equipment to get the job done right, quicker and less expensive!).

I disassembled the oil pan, removed the windage screen and the cover over the pump sump and cleaned everything.  All the screws were installed with Threadlocker Loctite.  I have purchased all my gaskets, new oil pump with welded pickup, new cam gear and timing chain that will accept the locking tab and hex head bolts.  I cannot purchase any valves yet, they have not checked out the old ones yet. 

11/2/05 - Getting back into the swing of things, I went to check on my heads and block.  Remi has just pulled the block from the hot tank and nothing else has been done.  The heads are at Louisiana Engine Exchange and nothing has been done on them either.  I took all my push rods down there and asked them to check them for straightness.  I have asked Remi to fly cut the tops of the  pistons to give me room to use a max of a .790" lift cam in the engine.  He is also going to un-shroud the spark plugs so I don't have to worry about getting them exactly indexed correct.  Of course if the timing had not changed, I would not have had that problem.  This gives extra insurance but slightly less compression.

I have been doing a lot of Desktop Dyno simulations to fine the right cam for my engine.  I had taken the cam to Cam Motion to have it checked for twist and to replace the dowel pin in the front.  Everything checked out fine, and they only charged me $15.00 for the service.  This will be the least expensive thing that I have done during this whole rebuild!  

Anyway, the Desktop Dyno is telling me that the cam I took out of the 540 is more powerful, by a few HP, that the new, longer duration and higher lift cam that I purchased.  I have also found a few more cams that are even better, at least on the computer.   There are several areas that I can help myself.  One notable area is the headers that I have on the car, which are 2" straight tube into a collector.  If I get a set of larger diameter stepped headers, my power curve increases dramatically, about 50 HP with the same (small, .748 lift) cam.  If I change to a slightly different, cam, I get an additional 40 HP (total 925 HP).  The computer is also telling me that with the new port and polish job, I don't have enough carb CFM. 

Yesterday, 10/20/05 was my 20th Anniversary and my 67th birthday!  Barbara and I really enjoyed the day.  Lots of gifts, cards and we went out to dinner last night. 
I removed the engine from the car and put it straight on the back of the truck and took it to the Womack's Block & Head in Denham Springs, after I had removed the pistons.  Looks like another sleeve, this time in #3 cylinder and two new pistons.  I had the new cam dowel pin inserted at Cam Motion, in Baton Rouge.  They also checked it for straightness. 
I went over the instructions for installing the Hex-A-Just cam gear.  They recommend Loctite Threadlocker #271 and 25 ft-lbs of torque on those three Allen head bolts. If I had followed those instructions, I would be in good shape right now.
Marcus Bowie called and graciously offered to allow me to use his new 565 engine while mine is being repaired.  I would do it, but after getting use to all that power, I would not want to drop back to my 555.  Thanks again Marcus!

October 19, 2005 - I had lots of help today after the timing cover was removed from the front of the engine.   Leroy Rogers, Alvin & Devin Calhoun and Houston Hawkins were all over to analyze what happen to my engine.  The bolts in the cam gear backed out and caused the cam to become retarded.  What you cannot see in the photos is, the dowel pin in the cam is broken off. This put the valves in contact with the pistons and was the cause of the destruction. 
The real cause of the problem was, the cam gear bolts were not torqued tight enough and I did not use the correct type threadlocking compound on the threads.  I have solved the problem for the rebuild, I ordered a 9 slot crank sprocket with non-adjustable cam gear that I can use the regular hex bolts and locking plate for the next motor. 
I suggest to anyone using the Hex-A-Just timing set that you apply Loctite Threadlocker Red, and use a impact to tighten the Allen head bolts that come with this set (recommended torque is 25ft-lbs).  The design of the Hex-A-Just is such that you cannot use the regular hex bolts and locking plate that I normally use on all of my cam gears (lockwire may be a good choice for these three bolts). 

October 17, 2005 - Removed left side head to determine the extent of damage.  There is a hole in #3 chamber and the head of the valve is missing.  Number 7 valve head is also missing.  See Photos
All eight exhaust valves show indication of hitting the pistons.  This would seem to point to incorrect piston-to-valve clearance.  Since I was the engine builder, there is nobody to blame but me!
Houston came over and looked at the engine.  He feels that the heads can be fixed.  It looks like I need at least two new pistons, either a new head or repair of the busted head, eight new exhaust valves and some new pushrods.  The #7 cylinder has a scratch in the wall and may require another sleeve (or a new block).  Since none of the pistons have been removed yet, there may be more damage that we don't see. 
Alvin suggests that I check the cam degreeing before disassembly.  He thinks the adjustable timing gear may have changed and caused the loss of P-T-V clearance. 
Looks like I will be down for another extended period, since I stressed out all of my cards to get this engine running. 
I was telling Houston today, I just read on the R-M website about checking P-T-V clearance.  They do not like the clay method, that I used, or the checking spring method, that Houston likes.  I have used the clay method, with no problem, for many years, and I had just over one-hundred thousandths clearance on the exhaust valves.
Tomorrow morning I am taking the heads to Alvin for him to look them over.  He will determine if they can be repaired locally or if they have to be sent back to Dart.  The heads are Dart Pro-1-345's.  
Anyone remember the hit song from the movie, "The Color Purple"? ("Maybe God Is Trying To Tell You Something").

October 14, 2005 - Looks like 2005 is just not my year for racing.  Back to back hurricanes and now two engine failures in the same year.  During the day Friday, I had changed the jets in the Holley 1150 to 92/94, from 96 square after running at NPRP Wed. night and determining that we were too rich. I changed the oil and filter and lowered the gas pressure at the pump to 20 PSI and 8.5 PSI at the inlet to the carb. We went to State Capitol Dragway Friday night Test and Tune.  My initial run was 9.51 @ 142 MPH making a "easy" pass. Everything felt and sounded very good.  The car came up on the wheelie-bars, and I let up a little.  It went straight as an arrow and had a 1.380 sixty-foot time, with a 6.08 sec. eighth-mile time.  We had 7.8 PSI air pressure in the M/T 14 X 32s tires.  I noticed the fuel pressure was at zero while slowing down at the end of the track.  The pressure picked back up as soon as I got on the return road.  The engine temp. on the return road was 180 degrees F.  I left the line with 140 degrees F.  I came back and Houston and I pulled several plugs to determine how everything was burning.  All of the plugs we pulled from both sides looked very good. 

After cooling down and filling the tank with VP C-14 fuel, we went back out to make an all out pass.  After driving through the water and just starting the burnout, the engine stopped and was very hard to re-fire. This is where I should have gone back to the pits, but like most of us would do, I got it running again and for some unexplained reason, the line-lock would not hold to get the BO started again (This had to be my host of Angels watching over me. I have more than one, I get into so many things, one Angel would be stressed-out!).  I did a tire spinning burn-out up to the line and the whole sound of the engine had changed.  I staged and left the line, and I could tell the power was down when I left.  It did not get on the wheelie-bars this time.  At around the 1/8 mile I felt the same sudden loss of power that I had experienced at NPRP on Wed. night and the engine started to miss. I let up, and at about the 1000 foot mark I slowed and pulled over just across the finish line.    The engine was still running when I pulled over, but very slow, maybe 3-400 RPM, and I still had oil pressure of around 20 PSI.  I got out and looked. There was a trail of water behind the car and a puddle next to the guard rail at the side of the car (I did not have any anti-freeze), but there was no oil. We determined that the water was coming from the left header. 

After returning to the pits, Houston pulled #5 plug and it was wet, but when he tried to remove #3 plug, it would not come out. Number one plug looked good, but it was also wet.  The other side plugs looked good.  We carefully bumped the engine, using the starter, and we had no compression on #5 cylinder, but we had good compression on #1 cylinder.  We put the car in the trailer and watched the rest of the racing.  "Young Blood" beat "The Mighty Carlo" for the money in Super-Pro.

After I get the car out of the trailer, I will pull the left side head to see what the damage is.  We will make our determination after that.  I anticipate pulling the engine, removing the pan and checking the lower end and the block.  We may have to O-ring the block to control the compression and change the thickness of the head gaskets to provide some room inside the chambers.

October 13, 2005 - Houston woke me up this morning wanting to know how the car ran.  Two hours later he was over here at the house helping me determine what was wrong.  Glend McDonald was here before Houston.  We found a number of things wrong: The pickup for the MSD was laying on the starter cable; some of the spark plugs were fouled to the point of not firing; a few of the spark plugs had hit the pistons and were not firing; the lash caps and my roller lifters are not compatible and had to be removed (this was not true), we reset all the valve lashes.  We were getting an excessive amount of fuel into the cylinders.  Michael Jackson called and suggested we look at the fuel pressure out of the pump and into the carb.  The fuel pressure was too high at 25 psi.  I normally run around 17 psi from the pump to the regulator.  The pressure into the carb indicated 9 psi, which is what I normally run.  We switched the ignition pickup from the MSD distributor back to the crank trigger.  Houston has a good procedure for setting this device that should be a part of the instructions, but is not available from MSD.  MSD tells you how to install it, but not how to set the timing. 

I did not switch to NGK plugs, but we cleaned up the Autolite plugs and used them.  We also switched back to the Holley 1150 CFM carb.  We also rejetted the carb to lean it out some.  I had changed two of the plugs and had not bothered to index them.  When we started the engine, it sounded much better than it did earlier, but still not as good as I wanted.  We pulled the two plugs that I had put in earlier and they had both been hit by the pistons.  These two plugs were the only ones that were not indexed.  We indexed those two plugs and everything sounds excellent!  The engine is very crisp and responsive.  We have decided to put index washers on all 8 plugs to give them a little room in the combustion chamber.  I will change the oil tomorrow from the brake-in oil, Quaker State 30HD, to Havoline 10W-40 Synthetic.  

I hope to go to State Capitol Dragway tomorrow night to try to get some seat time.  When I ran at NPRP, I had not driven in so long, that I forgot where my line-loc switch was to do my burn-out.  I did have a .004 green light on my first pass!  Some things you never forget!

First time out since April 30, 2005

October 12, 2005 - Went to NPRP today.  The results were not good.  Something is not letting the engine rev up above about 5500 rpm without losing power.  I made two passes and each time the car sputtered and acted up just after leaving the line.  The engine did not sound good in the burnout either, and it wants to die as it comes out of the burnout and at the end of the track. 

On the way home from the track, I decided I will remove the new sparkplugs and go back to my old NGK-8 plugs.  I have used these plugs for about 7-8 years with great success.  The last time I tried to switch to another brand, I seem to remember having the same problem that I am having now.  Houston has experienced this same type problem and traced it to the plugs. At the time, we were both using the same brand plug.

While at the track, I removed 7 of 8 plugs and 5 of them appear to be very rich while two, # 5  and #8, appear to be lean.  I cannot check #7 plug without taking the steering apart.  I have jetted the carb rich, on purpose, for this testing session.  I even changed back to my old standby, BG-1090 carb.  The timing was checked at 35 degrees and everything else seems to be OK.  Tomorrow I will do a leak-down check and compression check (which I never did, this would have helped locate the problem).  I put 5 gal of VP C-16 gas in the tank just before this testing session. That should have taken care of any detonation. 

October 11, 2005 - The UPS man showed up with my seal kit for the BG 400 Fuel pump.  Let me say that the seal kit for the 280 pump and the 400 pump are not the same.  Sonny, a Pro-Fab, had a 280 seal kit that I could have used, but the large O-Ring is not the same size. 

I have installed the seal and tested the pump.  Everything works very well and there are no leaks from the fuel pump.  The car is finally off the jack stands for the first time since May of this year. I should be able to make it to NPRP for Weds. night test and tune.  I will make tow or three easy passes.  I want to take it to Pro-Fab either Thurs. or Fri. to have the alignment and corner weights checked.  Then I want to take it to State Capitol Dragway Friday night.  We hope to make it to the Battle on the Bayou on Sat. at Louisiana Raceway. This is a very aggressive schedule, but FUN!

October 9, 2005 - Washed and polished the car today.  I had some Eagle Aluminum Wheel Polish in a small black bottle that I used for the first time on my aluminum wheels.  This stuff is awesome!  I normally use Mother's, but I was out, and did not feel like going to the store.  I have no idea where I got the bottle of Eagle polish, but it works great.  The wheels had not been done since around Mardi Gras time early this year and were in bad shape.  I did all four wheels, by hand, in about an hour.

I removed the fuel pump to get ready to overhaul it.  There are 5 bolts on the bottom of a BG 400, and one of them takes a special tool to remove it.  I went to Lowe's and Sear's, but no luck.  The head of the bolt has three vertical slots, spaced about 120 degrees apart, and the top of the bolt is tapered.  I tried everything that I could think of, with no luck.  Then I came up with the idea of using a small Die, from a tap & die set, to remove the bolt.  Some of the smaller dies have three cutters in the center spaced 120 degrees apart .  The larger dies have four cutters.  The three prongs of the die are a perfect fit and I was able to remove the bolt with no harm being done to it at all.  I also mounted my transmission cooler to the front of the radiator and installed the K&N Filter Charger on the Holley 1150 carb.  The BG and Holley have different center hole heights, so a special cut all-thread rod had to be cut to put the filter on the Holley (actually what comes with the filter will fit a Holley out of the box.  I had modified that to fit a BG Demon carb). 

Oct. 8, 2005 - Houston got on the phone and found a BG 400 Repair Kit at Product Engineering in Long Beach, California.  We ordered the kit and it should be here on Tuesday.  I will remove the fuel pump and get ready to install the seals.  I am continuing to work on stopping the last oil leak from the back of the pan.  I have a lot of cleaning to do on the car, the rims, and the inside, to get back to looking the way I want it.  The car could stand a paint job, but I have to recover from rebuilding the engine before that can happen.

I may be able to get to the track on Weds. evening for some test and tune at No Problem Raceway Park.  That would give me time to fix anything I find before this coming weekend, Oct. 15th, for "The Battle On The Bayou" at Louisiana Raceway .  They also have a regular bracket race on Sunday at Louisiana Raceway.

October 7, 2005 - I tried real hard to make it to the track, but failed.  The first order of business was to check the trans fluid after warming up the engine.  I also checked for leaks into the water system while the engine was running.  I purchased 4 belts, each one-half inch different, for the alternator and had to modify the alignment, after Glend pointed out that the alternator was not straight.  I installed one of the belts and tested the alternator.  Reggie and Glend helped me bleed the brakes.  I changed the oil and filter.  I captured some of the oil to be sent to a testing lab for analysis.  I had three significant oil leaks on the front, rear and passenger side of the oil pan.  Using "The Right Stuff" sealant, I stopped two of the leaks and reduced the rear  leak to a drop about every 2 hours.  I should be able to totally stop that leak with another application of the sealant.  The back-breaker was a fuel pump leak.  The leak was from the junction of the pump and the motor on my BG 400 Fuel Pump.  Another component that did not like the long layoff.  We took everything apart and reassembled it, only to have the leak get worse.  We gave up on trying to go to the track.  I still have some things that I need to do, but the fuel leak is the big problem now.  I will have a new or rebuilt fuel pump by Wed. of this coming week. 

October 6, 2005 - Completed the check list and started the engine.  Something is wrong! It was very hard to start and then ran as though it was really retarded.  Changed the timing on the crank trigger IAW the instructions and ran out of room to advance the timing using the crank trigger.  (3/23/06 - The real problem was the cam bolts were loose and allowed the cam to go to full retard.) Reconnected to the distributor and got the timing set on 34 degrees, but it still will not respond correct.  Very unresponsive and hard to idle.  Frustration has set in and I am quitting until tomorrow.  I will inspect the springs and set the valves again. 

Later:  After sitting and thinking what the problem could be, I changed the distributor cap.  I had installed one with a large hole in the top so that I could phase the rotor.  This helped a little, but not much.  Me being a carburetor man, I just knew it could not be the carb, but I changed it anyway.  That was the problem!  I must have done something wrong when I overhauled my BG 1090 during the long layoff.  Anyway, the engine sounds very good with a Holley 1150 CFM Dominator on it.  Not as strong as I had thought, but we will have to see what it does on the track.  With any luck, I should be testing at State Capitol Dragway tomorrow!

Much Later 10/6/05: I warmed the engine and reset all the valves.  Checked the timing at 35 degrees.  This perked it up a bit.  Still not as strong as I thought it would be. The oil pressure is 60 PSI at 160 degrees.  That is as high as the temp would get after 20 min of running at 2000 RPM.    Tomorrow I will change the oil.  I have two oil leaks.  One from the front of the engine and one from the rear.  I hope they seal themselves, but you know that never happens.  I will have to try to seal them, somehow.  The transmission is not leaking at all. 

My alternator project is becoming a real headache.  The mounting bracket for the radiator is too close to the hot terminal of the alternator.  I had to cut a notch in the radiator bracket.  I also had to purchase two, longer screws for the alternator to align the pulleys.  The next thing is to trial fit belts to make it work.  This will be an adventure to figure out what length belt to use.

October 5, 2005 - Spent most of the day connecting everything.  I had to remove the transmission pan and put a new gasket on the pan, along with sealant on the threads of all the pan bolts to stop some small leaks.  I charged the batteries and cleaned all the connections.  The starter is installed and the headers are in place on the left hand side.  Because I installed the disk brakes while the engine was out, the header on the drivers side interferes with the brake line for that wheel.  I had to move the line and wrap it with heat shield bandage to protect it. 

I have a long check list with about 20 items to be done.  I should be ready to start the engine sometime after Noon tomorrow. 

October 4, 2005 - While I had the pan off, which has no provision for a dip stick or a sight glass, I poured in 7 qts of oil to see where that would come in relation to where the crank is spinning.  That will get the oil almost to the bottom of the crank.  Next time the pan is off, I will get a plug installed at that level so I can tell where the oil level is.

  555 CID BBC ready to be installed. 

Rolled the engine out of the workshop and dropped it into "Mr Skip".
      

October 3, 2005 - I won't be taking the car to Pro-Fab on Weds.  When I dropped the distributor to line it up, I noticed the oil pump shaft was hard to turn.  The steel sleeve on the shaft that connects the oil pump to the bottom of the distributor was binding.  I removed the pan and found the pin in that sleeve was out of the two little holes.  I cleaned everything up, purchased a new ARP steel shaft and put the pan back on.  I also gapped (.045") and indexed all the plugs.

October 1, 2005 - The past few weeks have been very stressful to all of us.  Tomorrow I have people coming in to stay with us as a staging point while they go down to New Orleans to survey their property and get belongings.  The city has twice as many people as we had in the past and the traffic, always congested, is now twice as bad.  I purchased trailer insurance Friday from my State Farm agent for my enclosed trailer.  It will cost $60 every 6 months.  I think that is a good deal.  I purchased 10 gal of racing fuel Thursday for $77.50 (a bargain). 

State Capitol Dragway is also experiencing a resurgence.  With No Problem Raceway Park closed until mid-October, there are many cars at the SCD weekly Friday races.  Last night was a packed house.  If you are coming to race at SCD, please bring your own gas.  They may not have any at the track.  Bracket Masters Racing Team would like to sponsor a Sat. race at State Capitol.  We have to convince Ronnie that having a Sat. race will be good for the track.  We will continue to try to get him to see things our way and allow us to have the race.  We would like to do it in early 2006, maybe in Feb. or March. 

During the past few days I have worked on my engine to get it ready to go back into the car.  I checked all of the rocker studs and torqued them to 50 ft-lbs.  The stud girdle was installed and the valve covers and intake was installed.  We mounted the water pump with the front motor plate, installed the electric motor for the water pump and put the crank trigger in place. 

I had my old single wire alternator checked out by P&R Alternator and Starter Repair.  These guys do good quality work and they have rebuilt my two mini-starters in the past with great success.  I had to fabricate a mounting bracket that puts the alternator on the frame of the car.  It is adjustable and will face the engine on the drivers side and be driven off a pulley on the damper in front of the crank trigger wheel. 

 I have a few small jobs to complete before installing the engine.  After I get the engine installed, I will measure for a new set of headers.  After I get them, I will let everyone know what they are and how I like them.  I made an appointment with Sonny at Pro-Fab to get the front end aligned and to have the car scaled on Wed. of this coming week.  I expect to test this coming Friday night at State Capitol Dragway to get ready for the Battle on the Bayou at Louisiana Raceway.

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