ooooweee, fired up the jbl this morning

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finally got some nice weather and went for a spin after the r & r.

i don't know how you guys run your cars with hi hp engines, mine prob only puts out 500ish and accels fast enough.

here's some things i did and found out.

i had to fix the tb and tranny leak so i pulled the motor and redid some stuff.

i wrapped the headers which i think should help.

for you guys running an avaid dry sump pump--i had a leak at the front seal, the way they are made the output shaft or input shaft, depends how you look at it, has an o ring inside, then bearing, then seal. the seal is like a double lip design cept the way they are installed the half lip (kind of a dust cover) is inside with the full lip pointing out. i talked to john at avaid about it and he agreed there is a prob with leaking or mist out the front of the pump. i pulled the seal and reinserted another same type with the lip in and din't have a leak after the run this morning. the seal is a b**** to pull so you better have another one handy. they are installed dry and i had to cold chisel and work to get it out. when putting another in i would suggest anti-seize. heaven forbid the bearing should have to come out, i don't think it will.

i also changed the oil to a 5w30 mobil brand. i had initially used 10w30 then switched to 20w50 to try to up the idle pressure and felt the 20w stuff was too thick, more blew out the front seal and from what i have read volume will keep the bearings cooler, especially with the al blocks and tighter main clearances. i reasoned the al block vettes are using the 5w stuff so tried it this time and the pressure seemed better, time will tell if i have to change back to something thicker. i did notice aeration bubbles in the sight tube moving to the top so maybe the thinner oil will deareate a little better. i am running a 19/28 pulley ratio, which is pretty high.

when i reinstalled the tranny i went with the dexron stuff for breakin. when i purchased the tranny the guy said to go with amsoil, no breakin required, but after reading a post here in the tranny section decided this was the way to go. a different race tranny i had purchased required breakin and i always wondered why the tko wouldn't.

fms makes a good valve cover gasket. i had initially purchased a $15 set made of neoprene, but this stuff squishes out and leaks. the fms is approx $45.

i installed a mocal oil to water heat exchanger in the output line, will have to see what this does to water and oil temps, but the water temp today didn't get over 160 with a 195 thermostat, bout 60 outside air temp. there is an hour meter and i don't figure to run the oil for max amount of time/miles and will change sooner.

i have a diff set of valve covers without the breathers i might use after the engine is good and broke in, can't break it in with vacuum.

still need an alignment, i changed the rack to a 16:1 and above 70 gets kinda hairy. also have to watch the speed!

get a good tune, mount the hood, and i think it's a go this time. here is a pic of the finished engine.