When we returned to the house, Dale was out in back working on a 68 Coronet. This was the car I had been hearing about. Darren had sold the body to this kid named Hunter, then Dale had sold him an engine, brakes, converter, etc. They had bought a trans from Wade Metzinger, and basically spent the last month putting it together for the guy.
"It's Drag Week time Dale, why are you still working on this thing?" I scolded.
"This thing", he gestured with a dead level stare, "is partially financing Darren and I's Drag Week."
"OK, fine...what do we have to do to get it out of here?"
"I just sent him after plugs, it fouled these NGK 7s last night, but O'reilly's doesn't seem to have anything that will work..."
I've got some NGK 5s, should be perfect for a low compression, oil burning, cammed up motor home motor", I offered.
"Cool...I'll call him and tell him to get back here".
"In the meantime, why don't you install this showerhead", I teased as I placed the package in his hand.
"That's not the problem, it's in the pipe..."
"BS! Get in there and put it on!"

I started loading up the coolers while Boone re-assembled the jack. Dale came out a few minutes later with his Wife in tow. She thanked me for getting her husband to actually fix something around the house. Dale just shrugged, "It works great now..."

With that out of the way, I questioned Boone about where he was on the Barnyard Viper.
"Still cleaning the intake, the new cam is installed, I just need to button it all up."
Last year, the 508 in the Barnyard, and the 440 in the Gremlin, both ran the same Howards solid, flat tappet cam. It was a 300 advertised, 272@ .050, .639 lift cam, on a 108 lobe center. Dale had rushed to get the two together, and hadn't bothered with a degree wheel. He decided to advance the one in the 508 4 degrees, and the one in the 440 6 degrees. Not a bad decision, but Howards already have 4 degrees advance in the grind! Oops! Both motors have some serious grunt but seem to fall off quickly up top, and the extra cyl. pressure was wreaking havoc on the Barnyard's ability to run down the road on pump gas! By the time the mistake was discovered, Boone couldn't be convinced that backing that cam off would give him what he wanted, which was less cylinder pressure and more top end. The new choice? A Comp Cams solid, flat tappet grind. 305/320 advertised, 279/287 @ .050, 652/630 lift, straight up on a 110 lobe center.