Dale and Boone took forever to return from their shakedown trip, and I sent Boone over to help Dad, while I cornered Dale. "How'd it go?"
"I like it", he nodded, "Definitely revs better now!"
"Sound's more docile, I think", I added.
"Yeah, 110 lobe center, still pings a bit on pump gas though, I can't figure that out, must be right on the edge."
"Speaking of that, why are you putting the Dakota on E-85?"
"Big compression race engine, we didn't really have a choice if he wants to drive it on the street".
"What was the cranking compression?"
"Don't know, never checked it".
"So you talked Darren into 1400 bucks worth of E-85 carbs, and never even checked it?"
Dale laughed, "Well...he wanted new carbs, and the guy he bought it from said it was like 13 to 1, so that's what we are doing."
"You've never ran anything on E-85 before have you?"
"Nope, I guess we'll all learn on the fly!"

I walked away muttering to myself, speaking of learning on the fly, I decided perhaps it was time for the 428 small block's maiden street voyage. I jumped in the Valiant, and fired it up, then eased out of the back yard and onto the street in front of Dale's house. It had been nearly 2 years, and you forget what a ladder bar, spool, bias tire car drives like on the open road. "This is not a street car", I spoke to myself, "This is an overgrown go-cart!"
It was roughly 4 1/2 miles and 3 4-way stops to the closest gas station, and by the time I arrived there she was already sitting at 210 degrees water temp. The return trip, after filling the cell, saw the gauge just off 250 by the time I was safely in the back yard.
Boone was the first to my door, "How was it?"
"Not worth a darn, can't control the water temp!"
"What's different?"
"Well, I have a bypass hose on this one...that's it, but I had problems keeping the other one cool also."
"How did it run?" Dale chimed in.
"Spongy at the bottom of each gear, and off idle, great once it gets in the rpm."
"That thing was a pain to set the idle, that timing curve sucks! We should just lock it out, that might help the cooling problem as well", he surmised.
"We've got to do something", I ran my fingers through my hair, "before I burn down a brand new engine!"