The challenge continues:

I got it put back together. It started. It ran while I was getting the timing set. It started out way too retarded and sneezed a couple times. Nothing leaked so far. Then it made a clunk and quit. It wouldn't restart.

I found that there's no spark

Then I found that the reason that there was no spark is that the distributor is not turning.

Then I found that the reason that the distributor is not turning is that the camshaft is not turning.

Cranking the motor with a valve cover off, one valve just starts to lift and then it falls back down and then it starts to lift again. I think it might have sheered off the key on the crank gear.

I have a funeral to go to tomorrow where I'll be busy all day, but Friday I'll pull the front cover off and see if I can get it fixed. Then we'll have to head out to drag week without any test & tune.

For radiators, I just switched to a Griffin Thermal Universal Rad with 1.25 tubes.....What a difference over the BeCool that cost twice as much but had 1.0 tubes. I do run the 55gallon/hr Mezeire pump with a set of Custom fans and shroud...All of it helped.

This morning 2 questions come up about the Hemi. Why did it break? Could .005 off of the head have caused a piston to valve collision that broke the cam drive? Could cranking it with the cam not turning have caused an additional piston to valve collision?

Unfortunately, you already know the answers to those questions.
Hope it turns out favorably for you.

x2. Especially the 2nd question. I'm so sorry, this is heartbreaking!

I hope it's just the keyway sheared off and the valves aren't bent.

I'm going to dig into it tonight but I have a feeling it's going to be more of a post mortem than a repair.

My WAG is....... the cam bolt loosened up, the top gear was shucking around, and that movement allowed the key to shear off ....... especially if it’s an offset key.

Time to start loading up the GTX.

The key on the cam and the key on the crankshafter both sheared off. The borescope found no witness marks on the Pistons. I'm working on trying to get the crank gear off right now. I think the sheared off key is binding against the crankshaft and it's really stuck on there.
Perhaps when I reassembled the head, one of the spring locaters on the heads did not get seated properly and caused coil bind? Just a guess?

I have over half of the push rods out. What I need to do is turn the camshaft enough to get the rest of the pushrods out, then do a leak down test on each cylinder to see if I have any bent valves.

Wow....... that is a first for me.
Both keys sheared off.

Wow those threads look hammered

Well it turns out I was mistaken. The crankshaft key was not sheared. Only the camshaft key was broke. So I pulled the crank gear off for nothing. Some of the ugliness of those threads in the crank is residual loctite. I just got back from town, had to run for a woodruff key. Hopefully I'll know something pretty soon. Now I need to pull out my paperwork and figure out how I time this gear drive again.

Was the cam gear bolt still fully torqued?

When the cam gear is seated against the register on the cam, does the cam gear stand proud of the nose of cam?

Well, I'm out for Drag Week 2022.

The leak down test shows bent valves, plus the#1 intake adjuster is broke. I'm very disappointed.


This weekend I'll tear it apart, try to figure out what happened, and start getting it ready for next year.

I'm embarassed to say that there was no bolt holding the cam gear hub to the cam. Just a light press fit. I must have forgot to install it in 2020 when I put the gear drive in. Amazing that it worked. The hub had not moved on the cam, it was still flush.

Taking the GTX?

Probably not. The red FAST GTX needs a clutch and some other stuff, and I'm too tuckered out to spend all night tonight on it. Plus it's not at all dialed in for Drag Week.

I don't really want to bring the blue GTX convert again, I already made 2 parade laps of drag week with it in '15 and '16. I thought about going in the '57 Desoto, but even though it was fast in 1957, by todays drag week standards it is too slow. They don't want 16 second cars there.

Last year, I read a quote somewhere, "If you stay ready, you never have to get ready" I liked that and set about to get all my stuff ready so I could be ready and stay ready. But so many things went awry in the last 12 months, that I didn't get anything completely ready to my satisfaction despite a lot of effort. Hopefully by next year, all my stuff will be ready so I can stay ready.

Understood. Game has passed me by and I try and go for a few days. Last time was 2019. 2023 for you and the monkey LOL

Damn that sucks.....If you were closer, I would lend you my car...Its almost Drag Week ready.....Just needs the roll bar made intro a full cage, and she is legal for the ET it runs.

I guess the silver lining is it didn’t happen during drag week........... at a point when you were as far away from the trailer as you could be.