Ok, new season, new parts...

[wikd69]

I'm getting the build back together now and should be making noise again within the next month. I still have to scotch-brite the cage and then paint it and a bunch of other little stuff, but once I get that done and the motor stuffed back in it I'll be back out on the street (and after that, the track). It's been a long silent year while I saved up my lunch money for this new stuff But it's all better now

I did a test fit with these rockers today - man, I'm in love with this hardware, geez louise...

I can't believe how much cleaner it is with these Jesel rockers than what I had with the roller rockers and girdle. Sooooo much cleaner.

And, I'm hoping the new EZMax solid bush roller lifters will stand up better on the street than the last set of needle bearing rollers did.



I wanted to maybe try a belt drive but just didn'nt have room for it so I opted for this Comp Cams adjustable timing set. Looks like it'll meet the need and allow me to tweak cam timing at will. Pull the water pump and the top plate on my three-piece timing cover and change timing - should work out well.

[71 chevy]

very nice.

[clutchdude]

Money well spent Harry

[Carolina Kid]

very nice!
can't mess with folks with money

[wikd69]

very nice!
can't mess with folks with money

Folks with money ? Do you know any of those ? This thing sat up on stands for the last year while I saved up my lunch and gas money to get this stuff. Wish I had lots of money, I'd have had this booger making noise a year ago

[wikd69]

A root canal. Thats what I'd rather deal with than finishing masking off the interior so I can skotchbrite and paint the cage. I hate paint work and masking. Especially *interior* paintwork and masking.

This thing has a cream colored headliner in it and I'm painting the cage flat black. And of course, the cage is right up against the headliner... To start with, I have no idea how the fab guys were able to build this cage the way they did, as well as they did, with tig welds completely around *every* join... amazing.

However they did it, I now need to get the damn thing painted.

Anybody body wanna swap their root canal for my cage painting chore ?

[clutchdude]

Harry there's a reason why my car is not painted...

Good Luck

[wikd69]

Harry there's a reason why my car is not painted...

Good Luck

LOL - not exactly words of encouragement... LOL

[wikd69]

Ok, after much whining, complaining and gnashing of teeth, I finally finished masking everything off and over the last couple of days got the damn cage painted. Geezo what a pain...

Anyway, now it's done and I can move on to other things.

Got my top-end mockup done last week and measured, ordered and received my new Manton pushrods. I opted for the Series 5 stuff, 3/8" diameter @ .120 wall. Al at Manton wanted me to go with the .145 wall but that just seemed to be mondo overkill for a 3/8" pushrod - besides, that would have left only .085 for the oil passage. That might have been okay, but I had visions of oil starvation with my new shaft rockers on cold startups running VR1 20-50W oil. I'm sure the .120 wall will be stout enough though. I was running Series 4 stuff before and it was only .95 wall (as I recall) - and, those pushrods were a bit longer than these new ones. So, shorter & stouter pushrods and with very little deflection or movement in the top end with the new shaft rockers - I'm hoping I've got the right combo at this point.

At any rate, I have all my goodies and can now start back on the engine build. I'm going to try and have it back together and ready to install by the end of the week - maybe. I want to degree the cam with this new CC adjustable timing set at full advance and check p2v clearence while itsl on the stand.

I have a question for the group: Now that this cage is painted, I want to put some protection on the door bars, sill bars, and front clip bars so I don't end up scraping all that new paint.

I've found carbon fiber tube protectors and those would work but geezo they're expensive. What do you guys use ?

[John_Heard]

This is what I used, it's 3M Di-Noc Carbon Fiber Film. I have a lot of bars on the floor and used this stuff to cover it up so I don't scuff the paint. I figure once I wear the film out I can pull it off and just replace it if need be.

[wikd69]

This is what I used, it's 3M Di-Noc Carbon Fiber Film. I have a lot of bars on the floor and used this stuff to cover it up so I don't scuff the paint. I figure once I wear the film out I can pull it off and just replace it if need be.

That looks ideal, John. Where did you pick that up in wide lengths ? I'm doing Google searches now to see if there's a local source here in Sacramento.

[John_Heard]

I got mine from http://www.carbonfiberfilm.com/ and cut it in strips

[wikd69]

I got mine from http://www.carbonfiberfilm.com/ and cut it in strips

Perfect, thank you John.

Another question tho - things get a bit toasty under the hood and I want to wrap / protect the front clip bars as well, at least the top portions. I'm always banging them with wrenches or other stuff - do you think this 3M Di-Noc stuff will stand up to the heat under the hood here ? If not, I may still go with the pre-formed CF tube protectors from Summit for these sections. Those should stand up really well to heat issues, though they are a bit pricey.

[John_Heard]

I have it on my down bars in the front and it seems to be doing ok. The film does soften up a lot with heat, so keep that in mind, but I think it would do ok.

[wikd69]

A friggin root canal, thats what I'd rather deal with...



However, other than some touch ups and the bar protectors, this part of the effort is done. On to better things...

Checking cam end play below. Next up will be reclocking (+2 deg) and degreeing the cam followed by p-2-v clearance checks. After that, I get to assemble the new goodies on the top end and then stuff this thing back in the ride.