I'm Baby Steppin'

... I'm doin' the work!

I went to the machine shop today to drop off the crank and connecting rods, and talk about the crank timing issue.  But, the sign on the door said "Be right back", and I was late to work, so it will have to wait till next week.

Back In The Saddle Again

Enough hiatus; motorcycle weather has long past; heart on the mend... time to organize the garage.

The Remains of the Day

I've missed my first milestone deadline.

My goal was to have a drivable car as of today.

In some ways I am disappointed I did not meet my goal.  In others I feel it is an acceptable "slip" in the date.

The Chinese parts debacle caused a month of lost time, and some personal developments made me lose motivation to work on the car causing further delays.  As my boss says, "life happens".  I think this is his euphemism for "shit happens".  Indeed it does.

Current state of affairs:

• Engine heads are rebuilt and clean with new .194 exhaust valves
• Engine block is decked and planed and ready for parts
• I have American replacement crankshaft and rods
• The new parts need to be balanced
• I need to sell my Chinese parts/transmission/old intake manifold

I feel I'll muster the will/money to continue in the following couple of months.

Distractions

I've been distracted.

And my dentist just slapped me with a lot of upcoming work.  We'll see how I balance all of these things.

Honestly working on the car has not been a priority for many other reasons as well.

1. Don't Trust Whitey

Actual text exchange:
    Random Number: Do you still have that crab?
    Me: Nope, I saw a doctor and got rid of it.
    Random Number: LOL ya.  I have a 750 Holley Im trying to (get) a 600.

Then it all clicks for me... the Craig's List ad about the carburetor.

Also the crankshaft came.  Back to the machine shop for (re)balancing.

Doing a 180

Grrrrrr.

I called Jegs yesterday to ask where my crank is.

They have not yet shipped it.  The reason?  Because the crank "key" (the bit that allows the timing sprocket to stay attached to the crank at the proper orientation) is located not in the 0 degree position, but in the 180 degree position.

For those I've lost, look at the following picture

The lower arrow is pointing to the 0 degree mark on the crankshaft's timing sprocket.  Right below that is a notch called the "key".  Well, the Lunati crank has that key located in the 180 degree position, directly opposite of the 0 degree position in the picture.

This means that I'll have to either

1. Get a new timing chain set with a key-notch in the 180 degree position (my current one doesn't have a notch at 180 degrees).  Oh, and for the record, I'm told they don't make them this way any more.
2. Use the one I have, but rotate it 180 degrees out of alignment and do a bunch of mental gymnastics when I'm setting up the engine (for example, the 1st cylinder should be all the way up at 0 degrees, but when things are 180 degrees out of phase, the 6th cylinder will be all the way up instead).

Bah.  I thought hobbies were supposed to be fun.

If Anything, I am a Patient Man

The Crower rods came, but I'm still waiting on the crankshaft.

Still haven't sold the Chinese parts.

And so I wait.