Several months later and still finding gremlins.

Was not satisfied with the adapter plate. I had to redo my firewall and tranny tunnel to accomodate it. Looked into other options like custom flywheel and plug and redrill a bell. Nothing happened there. Drilled and tapped the twelve O'clock hole as the JW bell has it. Took the 3/8 to 1/4 reducers out at 11 and 1 O'clock and machined the adapter for 3/8 sockethead screws. Will leave the bolts out of those postions on the bell as I am using the 12 O'clock bolt. Drilled the hole out for the 7/16" on the PS which had previously been left small. Still looking for a better way to handle the 7/16" on the starter side. May just stay with Bob's design with the 5/16. The dowels to go into the bell were a shallow into the adapter to clear the dowels from the block. So I am drilling and countersinking 1/4" bolts to secure them from the engine side. That should really help the adapter.

Upon going through the engine noticed 1,3,5,&7 rod bearing wear. Upon looking further noticed .010" thrust clearance. For a new build with one pass this was not good. Found some rod bearings and Bob sent a brand new main bearing set to replace the thrust. HE GETS THE NICE GUY AWARD FOR THAT. He knew another guy running an identical tranny that burnt the thrust on a crank. So something was going on there.

Was really having trouble with the rocker arms and thought it was the longer valves. Later found that was not the case. Shimmed the stands and bought longer pushrods. And then found out that the rockers previously run were different lengths. Why T&D can not mark their rocker arms better is beyond me. The stands called for 1.850" rocker length and a few were 1.750". So after going through all the extra parts I ended up with 1.9 ratio intakes and 1.75 exhaust with the 1.850" length. Got quite a few rockers that are 1.75" long if anyone needs any. Then while switching things around stripped a hole in the head for the rocker stand. Guess what, the stand bolts were too short. T&D says torque to 65ft lbs. If I had, all the bolt hole would be stripped. I torqued to 45 during mock up and stripped one hole. Ole Helicoil fixed it right up. Got the proper bolts off a guy on Ebay and away we go.

I bought this engine over others for the heads and extras that Bob had come up with. I figured on some things I would want to change. Turns out they were things that had to be fixed. This is kind of normal for buying another guys stuff. Really looking forward to getting this thing in the car. Still looking for some different ratio rockers and a little shorter pushrod for the intake and a little longer for the exhaust. They are steadily showing up on Ebay. So that should come in time. Or if Ritter will call me back he problably has everything I need. T&D rockers have become scarce on Ebay for these engines.

All in all months down the road I would still have bought the engine. Maybe haggled a little but would have still bought it.

Hoping to get it running and make some noise. Would be nice if it has street maners enough for dragweek. Registration is coming soon.

Leon