This shows the impending bearing failure on one of our rod bearings. This was the worst one but indicated we have a problem.

4. The 440-1 Indy heads looked great and the springs were fresh in September so they are good. The valve keeper grooves are starting to show signs of "losing their edge" where the keepers sit. This could be a disaster if they came off and we dropped a valve. We decided three years was a good service life for the valves and we will replace them with Ferrea' stainless valves. Jay used his Super Flow bench to check the port flow and you can see the results in the photo. Indy Cylinder Head did a great job on the heads as they flow plenty for our soon to be 572" Mopar.

This shows the wear pattern caused by the notches in the cylinder walls for crank clearance. New pistons may have a different skirt design.

5. Here is why you take a close look at everything: Jay removed the J-W Fly Wheel and when he cleaned it up he noticed a cracked weld where the ring gear is welded to the Wheel. Man, am I glad he saw that. I can't imagine how much damage throwing off a starter ring could do to the transmission, engine or possibly the entire car if it oiled the slicks at 180 mph. THANKS JAY! It will be the easiest $125.00 to spend this year. We are set to order the new CP Pistons, a new ring package that includes .043 rings and low-tension metric oil ring set. The bearings, pistons and pins will likely get a dry lube coating before assembly as well.

I'll be back in a couple weeks with some more updates. We have one of the new Indy Cylinder Head tunnel rams in our hands right now so it could be time for dual King Demons or... I'll cover some of the chassis inspections we did and upgrades we are doing in mid-December. Stay tuned; we are shooting for 7.50s at 180 mph out of this old Mopar.

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Project 4-Link — 7/7/03 Time for a change in our racing efforts