February 4, 2005
"Into each life a little rain must fall..."

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Notes:

• Well there's good news and there's bad news...  First the good news.  IT RUNS!!!  Now the bad news... It looks like there's an overheating problem.  Joe found this out when the 235 degree combination of anti-freeze and water decided to do an "Old Faithful" and cover him from head to toe.  Best news... Joe did not get seriously burned!  He was just a little tender the next day.

• ISSUE RESOLVED!!!  It seems that the temporary piece of crap flex hose was crimping at the goose neck.  Joe ran the car the next day and it was still having overheating issues.  He called me up asking if the hose looked crimped in the pictures that I took.  It didn't exactly look crimped, but when it was running the hose was definitely much closer to the alternator, so I would say that it was crimping a bit.  After rigging the hose so it would not crimp, Joe ran the car the following day (Superbowl Sunday) for 40 minutes.  The temperature never exceeded 200 degrees.

• A video was shot of the engine running, it'll be a few weeks before I'll be able to get it up on the web site.

• The engine was revved in the video, but it never exceeded 3000 RPM.  Joe did do a proper break in for 40 minutes (ranging between 1000 & 2000 RPM), so the engine should be ready to go when the body is on.

• The engine/exhaust sounds great!  Nice crisp throttle response.  The engine is running rich, but the proper intake manifold is not on yet.  Not to mention, I already figured that the carb will probably need to be jetted down a bit.  I won't know until I drive the car.

• Now that this part of the project is basically complete, Joe now has the opportunity to get cranking on the body work.  He plans on having the underside of the body painted black and the body back on the chassis in two weeks.

• Joe will be alternating from the body to the fenders & doors.  The project should start clipping along now!  All I have to do is keep up (getting parts ready)...