I've been laid up for 6 weeks, recovering from a serious back injury, but I'm finally up and around and starting to work on the Hemi Coupe. It's going to be a mad thrash to be ready. I had found a LOT of problems with the Hemi. The heads had cracks, and a couple of valve guides were falling out of their cracked bores. The valves were making contact with the pistons around the perimeter of the valve reliefs in the pistons. Why? I'm not sure. The pistons rock about .030 in the bores. How much were the valve stems flexing?

So it has 8 new intake valves and 2 new exhaust. I am in the process of opening up the valve reliefs. I'm doing it on the assembled block, in the car. Because I don't have time to take it apart. It looks like a surgery patient, all covered up except a little hole where the cutting is taking place. I can work for about 2 hours, then I need to lay down and rest it for an hour or 2. I'm limited to lifting about 25 pounds now, but I was able to lift the aluminum heads if I got positioned right. So I could check the clearance with clay.
Hopefully, I'll have it all back together by the end of the day sunday and see how it runs. It's winter, so I won't be able to test drive it. Planning to go to Immokalee in southern Florida and make some test hits friday night before Sick Week, then do some street driving..