Mounting engine

finished up the 2nd engine today, went to mount it on the chasse this afternoon, the new Lunati crank has a large counter weight on the back where the clutch bolts on. Want to know how you tell if you have a "large" counter weight on your crank? The hole in the center of your block saver plate will not clear it! So monday's project starts with enlarging the hole.
Next will be washing the block that just came back from the machine shop. It was a new block with only a half dozen runs on it when the crank broke last year, as a result it had to be line bored and a "saddle" put in one bore. The block was double bagged and taped. My first thinking was that they had washed it and that was why they had bagged it up so well and taped it. When I finally got the bags open, I was wrong. They must have bagged it so well because they did not want to have any of the metal filings fall out on their floor. I have never seen so much machined metal in a block when i got it back. Looks like a major wash job on it tomorrow also.

Engine & parts status

I have all the pistons in the 3rd motor for the 2nd time, I put new rods in and they are a little different shape, the edge of the rod next to the bolt head hit the block. It happened on the last rod I put in Saturday, so they all had to come back out, grind the block and wash it again.

Rod caps are not lining up with the rod as good as I think they should, so I will call the manufacturer in tomorrow and see what he says about it.

Had to put new rings in that motor, tried a different set of rings in that motor last year and they all lost their tension, guess we run them a little harder than the manufacturer thought we did.

Should have this motor together tomorrow, that will give me 2 of my regular motors together. I am going to run the back up motor I ran half of last year as the third motor. That one needs to have the bearings checked.

I have another new spare motor on a Big M block that I completed. So I will have a spare motor it just will not be the same configuration as the other 4. I had the parts, from a bowtie block that would not stand the power so I sold that block.

I get a combined order of spark plugs for several guys, which gives us a good price. Every year it seems like a challenge, this year it was on the wholesalers end. Our order was so big he had to special order them in for us. Then he had some other issues, but I finally got confirmation today they were shipped. Now if the dragster guys can hold off for a week we will be all set.

Matt has the week off from school; I am hoping he will have time to get a combined schedule together of where we are going this summer. It looks like 40 hooks here in NY. He is also going to try to get some more video cuts from some DVD’s to put on the site.

April 8, 2006

Received my new crankshaft last week for my 4th motor. When I inspected the rings a second time before starting assembly I saw some things I did not with the rings during the first inspection so I ordered new rings, they should be here the beginning of this week.
Machine shop called they have the parts for my front axle done, but that project is being set on the back burner until the tractor and tractor trailer are ready to go. I still have to "fit" the knuckle for the king pin to the end of the axle pipe.