The weekend before last we installed a Shifnoid electric shifter in the car...went to a two day event and it would not shift...spent all that Friday night and Saturday thrashing but to no avail...left it be until this past Friday...

We spent all afternoon getting it to work...turns out it was a low voltage deal...sheesh.....I loaded up and ran over to Speedworld to test it...well, the car shifted at 6500 just like it was supposed to...unfortunately, it felt kind of soft or mushy...motor sounded OK but it ran way slow...

On my second pass the car died on the return road...after 10 minutes I got her started again and back to my pit...the number four plug was soaked in gas...I pulled the valve cover and bingo!...there lay a loose rocker...peeked into the lifter valley and...ruh roh...no lifter!...put her on the trailer at that point as we could not see it with a flashlight...apparently the set screw on the poly lock backed off allowing the rocker to wander off the reservation which let the push rod pop up and thus let the lifter escape to loiter in the lifter valley....

Saturday morning I towed to the shop and we found the lifter in 5 minutes...it was lounging around on the opposite side of the lifter valley...the good news is no damage...we pulled the intake, put the lifter back in, checked for damage and re-installed the intake...let me say I hate scraping off the old material...my back is still sore from bending at that angle...

Then I decided to avoid this problem again so we re-lashed and installed stud girdles...all good until we went to put the valve covers back on...they would not clear the girdles...what next!...I had enough so we put the tools down and I went to work on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday...today I am off to the shop to grind the inside of the covers where it rubs....then top off the radiator, check the timing and I should be good to go...whew!...

Methinks I may have caused this problem...my guess is when the car would not shift it hit the rev limiter on two occasions...7250 rpm...

 

Dan Moroso makes a real thick valve cover gasket been there done that.Moroso #182 5/16 thick or Fel Pro 1630 it has a strip of metal in it so it wont crush.

 

I had to buy the 1 inch spacers at 200.00 to fix that problem in my car...

 

I ground the problem off today...these are custom polished aluminum valve covers with a lot of meat on them...no height problem, just on the ends...the part I ground was left over from the castings, I think...

When I fired her up she sounded nice and tight...I am looking forward to testing on the 17th and then the IHRA divisional finals on the 20th...back to the House of Hook, Carolina Dragway....woot!...fried baloney sammiches here I come....lol...

Thanks guys and I hope you are feeling well, Keith...

 

well it looks like, I won't be able to make it up for the IHRA divisional finals. I was really looking forward to coming up their. The business needs me and money is too tight. Good luck up there should be a lot of fun...

 

Sorry to hear you can't make it, Rick...it is so much better than anything the NHRA has to offer...we race for over 2 grand to win on wed and thur...then 2500 to win on friday and 2 grand on sat.....then 5 grand on sunday...this is for no box....

I sure hope I have some good news to post...