This update starts at 4:00 AM Saturday morning on 7-11… This was the first day I was to get the good ol’ Hot Rod out for testing so far this year. My schedule has been heavy on work/family stuff and light on racing this year. Aside from working in the shop, it has been a lean year trackside.
Due to oil-burning issues the Hot Rod has been suffering for the last 2 seasons, earlier this year I pulled the intake off the engine and discovered that we had a small leakage on the intake gaskets. I ASSumed (I know…I Know) that this was the problem for my oil-smoked exhaust problems and promptly ordered a custom set of intake gaskets from SCE Gaskets. I reassembled the Big Block. Dan, Joanie and I lit it off at the undisclosed Skunk Works facility. The engine responded well to our timing and barrel valve adjustments. All was looking good. Tiffany and I hot-lashed the valves and buttoned up the top-end of the engine.
We proceeded getting the Hot Rod ready for testing for an upcoming match race by installing the dual parachutes, fire bottles, and related hardware. Thanks to Dan, Brittany and Tiffany for their help on this as we barely made all of the upgrades prior to our 07/11 testing.
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