Lake irvine is all of 4 miles from my house. I'd love to check out my boat really close to home like that. I don't need to do 70 MPH, but what I do need to do is make sure my boat floats, the steering, reverser and diverter work, and the engine can idle without dieing. I assume the entire lake is a 10 MPH zone, and I even have mufflers in my transom. Anyone know if I drop my jet in there?

Everytime someone comes over to "help me" or "just gonna watch", they either screw me up bad enough where I undo EVERYTHING that was done that day, or more commonly, I spend the next week or two getting back to where I was before they came over!

Nothing like having someone who knows nothing about engines or mechanical stuff convincing you you are wrong (which of course 2 days later, you confirm you were right in the first place), or worse, breaking something like a locating dowel pin off inside your brand new half assembled fully machined $5500 Keith black aluminum block while you are in taking a piss.

Everyone wants to see my "secrets" so to speak and learn to build engines with me. I never advertise when I am actually building anymore, it ends up costing me money if I do. Nowadays I say, sure come on over, I was just finishing up. My wife is the only one that seems to be able to build an engine without f'in everything up or screwing me up in the process (yes - the wife builds engines too, she built the one in my 12 second van, and the right side of the 452)

I do the major stuff beforehand, and leave the little crap like VC and intake installation or maybe even lash settings for when people are over.

Well my block is going to the machine shop for all the stuff like boring honing yada yada tomorrow.  Hopefully get it back next week as a short block.   Then all i have to do is get the pump rebuilt and i am back on the water!

Congrats! I'm right there with you. My pump is rebuilt (or should be, I haven't called), engine is built, now for interior and various little items and I hit the water......

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do that first fire. Don't want to run the fresh pump dry or with a hose the first time, don't want to be an hour from home the first time the engine fires....

And it looks like I pretty much have to pull the engine to disco the driveshaft ...

Thanks U/D and Omar, As I'm certain most of you know, with energy costs on the rise comes increased cost at the "wholesale" level too. As retail sales wane in a slower economy, the competition for the $$ in any given market becomes a mite more fierce ('cept for gas ). What really matters to us (Josh, Rhonda and myself) and hopefully to you is solid Customer service!  This to me is not just getting your part to you on the brown truck in time, but informed, friendly service both during and after the sale, non combative returns, honesty, integrity and treating you like a friend, not a "mark", not "just another customer", and certainly not an inconvenience or an unwelcome interuption!  The best deal is truly not always the lowest price. This is still a place where you can call and talk to the owner.

Well that may be true - but I absolutely needed my short timeframe ordered parts here last Tuesday - and they showed up on Tuesday. So I say you can do both :-)

It seems the lack of zinc in oils is what are killing the engines nowadays, at least the flat tappet cams. Every year they seem to have a new way of doing the rings too, damn now you smooth bore and break it in during assembly. It'll change next year I'm sure...

Isn't that where Place Diverter is?

Of course now I'm wondering if I should have added an inducer. Do I need one? I went from a Berkeley A to an A/T A - those are the ones that are more aggressive alone, correct?

wow thats totally awesome!!!1 <---------whoops, not a valid reply! Damn!

Yes! you should have started a new thread!

 

i think i saw one for sale over on texashotboats.com

Couldn't find it. Saw other nice things on there though

Which sucks 'cause my 77 race van was supposed to have its last smog check right when they killed to rolling exemption. Looking to find pre 75 chassis now...

Harbor freight has a comprossion tester kit its "cheezy" but it has a quick connect coupler that interchanges with all the different plug hole adapters, and it just happens to be the same fitting as the hose end on your compressor, 15.00 bucks and your in there. There are two different fittings, double check your hose end to make sure you have the right one. I used the same setup for a leakdown test it worked great.
When the cylender is compressed with air take a socket and "tap" on the retainer, (not the valve itself) that'll break loose the keepers and you wont lose your compression when you push the spring down. I would also recommend you only do one valve at a time, you pop both springs off and lose pressure you're fawked. The mistake I have made before is when re-installing the retainer I didnt have it alligned with the valve (allow for the arch the tool needs to compress) and opened the valve instead of compressing the spring back into its position, and that little "ting" when the valve drops really sux!!
Dam, after writing this, the rope sure sounds easy LOL

The issue with the rope is you have to bring each cylinder to TDC (or near as you go) so you have to pay attention with engine crankshaft position.

Lots of back and forth....

I think the whore is cheaper!

Not in New York!