There will come a time when traction is the key to going faster, not making more power

Minor update, still waiting on pistons, they're supposed to be here April 5th. Hoping to drop off the engine parts a week or two later with Jim for machining and assembly! In the meantime I checked spring heights, looks like the retainers Dwayne sourced for me will be perfect with removal of the shim under the spring bucket, but I murdered a valve seal trying to get the first one off so a new set is on the way. Pic attached of my cylinder head build area.

Also dropped the seats off to get recovered by a local upholstery shop, will see those in 6-8 weeks. Going to toss fresh carpet in it as well.

everyone needs a "clean room" for engine assembly.

The decor of your assembly room is interesting.

Looks like very nice bachelor pad or a very understanding car wife.

Gus

Good stuff! On a whim me and a buddy went to Cobo on Friday night LATE. I saw and we waited around your car for a few but you were nowhere in site. There was a lot of show to see in a short time so, I didn't text you. Either way it was neat to see the car there and good luck this season!

My wife would murder me!

I had the interior for a car "staged" in our fully finished basement living area for a couple of months (carpet with seats setup) and I've never heard the end of it!

lucky for me, there is a "junk room" in this old house [built in 1872] that i am allowed to keep car "stuff". [not her words, but you get the idea. ]
works perfectly for those items that need to be kept in a [somewhat] climate controlled area.

Nice “shop stereo”

How much “naws” are you spraying those Maggie’s?

Sean, thanks! I had no idea how many people I knew were going to be there on Friday. I wasn't down at Autorama until midday saturday and sunday, if it's ever in the show again I'll spend more time hanging out for sure. Would've been great to meet you, hoping to make it out to all of the shootout saturdays at Milan to spectate this year.

I have a vintage Lil Indian minibike I fully restored during covid lockdown in my livingroom as well, lol

My garage isn't heated and my basement isn't finished, the dining room seemed like a perfect location. Currently don't have a live in girlfriend, so car parts are fair game in the house.

Dwayne, good eye on the maggies! I actually got those for free a little while ago from one of the buy nothing facebook groups, they need regluing and rewiring. I'll attempt it myself but they're on the project back burner until the car is done.

Have a McIntosh hybrid tube amp, a Technics 1200g turntable, and some Pioneer HPM-100's in the living room that get used on almost a daily basis, can't live without a decent stereo. If my garage was nicer I'd have a decent system out there as well.

TF has figured out how to make sure the seals won’t come loose in operation that’s for sure.

They’re really on there.
Having a replacement set on hand is a good move.

I’ve been able to get them off without totally ruining them before, but it’s time consuming.

If the bottom of the seal is right against the step of the spring locator, then it’s even harder.

In for pics of the Indian!

I have a fancy Honda Mini Trail 50 that hides under a blanket in the garage.

They definitely spared no expense on the valve guide steps to keep the seals on! Glad I bought an extra set of seals as I murdered a few of them...

Quick update, got the retainers and springs all swapped over, I had 2 different valvespring compressors and neither of them did that great of a job on the Isky springs. The manual one I bought from Summit was clunky and hard to keep centered, and a very nice air powered one I borrowed from a friend didn't have enough oomph to compress the springs the last 1/8" or so to get the keepers in easily- I would end up hitting the retainer with a soft mallet that would allow the keepers to drop in. They're all in within 1.975"-1.995" now depending on the existing shims that were already installed.

Dropped all of the engine parts off to Jim in Pittsburgh last week, except the pistons which still weren't done even though they were promised on the 5th! Those just showed up yesterday, picked them up from another friend here in Detroit that is starting his own engine shop and is attached to Mike Moran's building so I got a tour of that facility too. Shipped the pistons last night so hopefully machinework can start and I'll see the motor in a month or two! Final compression will be 11.04:1 after the deck gets cut to 10.720" for the cometics. I'm on work trips for most of May, will be cutting it really close for Sick Summer but we'll see how it plays out. Due to some unexpected personal stuff I might not do Drag Week this year, but am still hoping to do Sick Summer. Really excited to see what it will do with the new motor!

GY3, would love to see the pics of the Honda. This is my Lil Indian, went overboard restoring it during covid, and it's now too nice to use as a pit bike so I have a Coleman that gets used at the track.

-Nick