9/29/06

I started in here earlier but got pissed off when “an e-mail” was tagged as being incorrect grammatically. It’s about to happen again if I let it. Me getting pissed off, that is. I'm moving on. I have the empty argon bottle in the back of Matilda so I will be stopping off at Blank’s out of the way home today. I hope John and Robert remember the alternator this time or I'm going to have to do something else. I don’t know what that will be just now, but I've got to do something. I really want to fire that thing up this weekend. I'd like to start it “uncorked” to hear what that thing would be like with open headers. We’ll see. I'm planning to have the zorst done before I go home for the last time this weekend though so and uncorked firing may not happen, especially if I don’t have an alternator. Besides, it won’t be that tough to remove the zorst and run it open I wouldn’t think. I'll bet I have to go buy some straight 2” zorst pipe at the BoP or somewhere. I might have enough but I doubt it. I'm sitting here thinking if it matters all that much how long the two individual zorst are. I think I am going to try and have an equal run from the collector to the muffler even if it means the mufflers get mounted in a staggered position. I may even try to keep the tailpipe sections as close to the same length as I can. It just depends on obstacles under the van, I guess. I think I might go back to the original idea of straight runs back from the collectors, into the mufflers, out to a pair of ninety-degree bends, and then out straight tips in front of the rear wheels. Yeah, I think I'll stop at the BoP and buy a stick of 2” pipe and two rolled chrome tips for it. Oh, I guess I'll need some hangers as well. I'll pick them up too. I wonder if I could bend a round chrome tip, well two actually, into pentagons. You know, like those crimped bow tie tips for Chevys except they’d be pentagons for Dodge. Then again, I could just make turndowns out of Hugh bend sections and be done with it. The problem with turndowns is if the thing wants to shoot flames on deceleration they’ll be deflected down to the ground and won’t be nearly as exciting. I don’t know, we’ll see. I think I need a longer arm on the throttle on the carburetor. I say that because the thing has very little pedal travel before being whole-hog into it. The pedal arm is really long so it doesn’t have to move much to swing the little shorty arm on the carburetor to WFO. I think if I just make a really long arm for the carburetor, as long as the pedal’s if possible, I'll have better control. It’s not like there isn’t any room under there! That thing runs in the most wide-open area I have ever seen on a car. I'll probably have to re-do the return spring but that is no big deal. Again, we’ll see. John and I discussed the car situation again and it looks like he’s going to buy “his” 1200 back from me again. I need it off my plate so I’m glad to sell it to him. We also went back to the mid-engine VG-30 or VG-33 in the Chickenhawk. George will get “finished” and then I'll make a decision about keeping him or not. What we did not discuss was Barbecue Bob. I imagine we’ll continue along the V8 path until such time as we actually do it or sell the thing as a roller. I don’t know. Well, it is almost lunchtime and I have to go pee. I may be back later and I may not. Have a day if I don’t.