4/20/09

I guess we won’t be seeing very many stoners today. Anyhoo, here’s what I got done over the weekend. Saturday morning, John texts me to say he’s got a squirty bottom and won’t be joining me at the shop. I choose to believe him and don’t send back a text saying, “Well, tell Samantha ‘Hi’ for me and enjoy the day with her.” I roll to the shop. I should say, “I roll towards the shop.” As I was trying to put Big Millie in the back of Ms. Clio, the little remote unlocker button on the hatch didn’t work. About halfway to the shop I noticed the dome light come on and the “Door Ajar” light lit up. I pulled over and slammed all the doors and the hatch. The lights stayed on. I turned around and headed to the dealer. The other day the driver’s window didn’t want to roll up, so I figure it is time for an electrical system exorcism. I'd be pissed off if I came out in the morning to find my battery dead because of the dome light being on all night. Not as pissed as if it happened at work during the day though. Of course on the way to the dealer, I hit a bump and the light went off. I continued to the dealer. I told the guy about the button, light, and window, then asked about replacing the in-cabin air filter as it is about three months overdue for changing. I took Big Millie out of the hatch and had the shuttle guy drive me home. Oh, as an aside, this laptop is just about to terminally piss me off with the intermittent power supply. Count yourselves lucky if you are reading this. Back at the house, I sit down with the cat for a bit and watch some TV. John checks in to see how things are going with Shichi and I tell him the tale of Ms. Clio. At about 1100 h I head out in Fifi. I decide to go shoot Big Millie first and head for Whiskey Flats. The lot is full so I figure I'm going to have a wait on my hands. I go in anyway. Turns out, they were having a CHL class and the range was virtually empty. I stapled up a target and unloaded the twenty Hornady JHPs I keep in the magazines then loaded up twenty rounds of ball ammo. I take aim and shoot. I like these new fiber optic sights! They are very accurate and, more importantly, I can see the damned things. It was a piece of cake to draw a quick bead on the target and pop off the rounds. I didn’t try any true “double taps,” but quick pairs of shots, one to center mass and a second to the head, were all right on. Well, I had one “flyer” on the head shots, but all five “center mass” bullets found meat. I blew through the sixty rounds of ball ammo I had with me and decided to pop off ten hollow-points. Eight of them hit in an almost perfect pattern of four in a line above another four in a line. The other two were close by as well. I cleaned the schmutz off of the gun, reloaded the magazines with JHPs, and tossed my target. As I was sweeping my brass, and some other brass from other shooters who don’t read the rules apparently, a dude came up with a dud. I told him that if it did go off, the bullet would, most likely, sit there while the casing went flying. I went on to say that I would just toss it downrange. I then thought about it and said, “But I don’t work here!” We decided that he ought to ask the range master what they’d like him to do. While I was paying up, he brought the bullet out and it was dropped in a “dud bucket” full of water. I bought 100 rounds of ball ammo and headed to the shop. I cleaned Big Millie and got to work on Shichi. I don’t remember exactly what all I got done, but here are some highlights. I installed the driveshaft. I... I know I installed some other stuff before moving on to the head. I don’t remember. Ok, so I moved on to installing the head. I scraped some crud out of the dowel holes and knocked them in place. I cleaned up the ARP studs, not on the wire brush but with a cloth, and put them in with a little grease. They are just a tad over finger tight as I did use an Allen wrench to install them this time. I dropped a head gasket in place and then slid the head on. I had removed the spark plugs in advance so they wouldn’t hit the pistons, yes. I dropped the washers onto the studs and was about to put the nuts on when something caught my eye. There was no zorst manifold hanging there. I lifted the head back off and dropped the manifold into the frame. Head back on and we nut up. I set the torque wrench at thirty foot pounds and have a go at them. I reset the wrench to fifty-five foot pounds and take a final swing at them. They all clicked nicely. I need to either find or replace my 12-point 12mm socket before re-torque time because the ½” socket slipped on one nut. Yeah, shut up. I tried to install the intake and exhaust gasket but couldn’t get it past the manifold and studs. I wasn’t happy. When that gasket got damaged, I was even less happy. I took a gasket from one of the kits I'd bought and checked it against the intake manifold. It was close but covers a bit of the port. I was stuck so I went with it. I removed two intake/exhaust studs and got the gasket in place. Yep, the port is partially shrouded by the gasket. I'm going to use this gasket for the time being but Marty Smith found me another oval-port gasket at the swap meet. I'll change that out soon, I'm sure. I installed the intake and carburetors, as well as the zorst, and hunkered down on the nuts and bolts. Next, I dropped in the push rods and bolted up the rocker assembly. I adjusted the valves about 0.001 looser than the book said to but the springs still look awfully close to being in bind. I decided I didn’t feel like doing more and cleaned up to go home. I asked John his opinion on just how sloppy a valve lash would he run. I went on to ‘splain how I intend to find my lash. I think I'll put a 0.003” or 0.004” feeler gauge between the coils of a valve spring and then turn the engine until that valve is fully open. I'll adjust the ‘coil bind minus 0.00X”’ lash and then turn the engine until the valve is fully closed. I'll check that lash and set the rest of the valves to that number. John said it should work, as I knew it probably would, but warned that the thing is going to be a tad on the noisy side. I can live with a little valve clatter, I think. And there you have it. I’ll tell y'all about the swap meet on Sunday tomorrow.