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...don't know about ''awesome'' but its not to often you catch a picture of Rumplestiltskin clearing out the ice from his cave... Mike ...actually that looks remarkably like myself....

One for next year or the year after. But a yearling coming right to the house well after sun up. Many of the deer seem to like a little container over drinking 150 yards out in pasture from the big cattle trough. The nephews got one Saturday evening, no report on how big so my guess is not to big.

Finally... some strategic peening, heat and a jack bolt I got that cap to open up 0.010” width and now matches the others and fits the block register properly. Ready to go for line bore.

Tried the needle scaler on this narrow cap. moved 0.001”. Not enough. Took the oxy/acetylene torch and quickly heated between the center bolts just enough to make the surface red the width of the torch flame. That pulled it 0.013” and seems to have settled at 0.009” but it’s still warm through. That’s near perfect if it stays there... I can dress it on the surface grinder here to width and they will be grinding the mating face to the block as part of the line bore... might have a winner yet...

Yeah it’s on the “list”. Not even sure which project that one is for rn...

That’s sure a good looking GMC tailgate in the background!! Do you have the rest of the truck?

If it fits it chips eh? Build on the back of the garage and stuff a 3” or 75mm horizontal boring mill in there and you’d really be in hog heaven!

Done, ready for line bore and hone. One virgin sissy two bolt turned into a Chad 4 bolt go fast block! Still need a set of outer studs, I won’t mix bolts and studs, this just for mock up right now.

Almost done. Fresh in frame thanks to a faulty o ring and a bunch of little things done that needed attention. A small o ring leak on the mcv and it will be tight. Amazing how much time it takes. What's a good place to get the hood/ sheet metal hardware kit from?

Had this at work the other morning and this on the camera last year the coyote,bear,and deer in the last photo were all the same camera maybe even the same night or a day apart

Well a nice 100 degree day and the first day of rifle season for Pacific Coast Black Tail deer, buck only with a fork big enough to hang a ring from. I have no idea how many zones Calify has for deer hunting anymore. This has always been zone A from San Francisco down the coastal mountains, till no more deer only people on the coast from LA to the border. Always been the earliest opening here, the second Saturday in August for 6 weeks. You are allowed 2 bucks. Hunter success is less than 30% to get one let alone two. Having family land and always leasing grazing land (which implied you could shoot on the property unless told other wise) I never had trouble getting one. It could be 25 years since I shot one now. Partly I got lazy to the cleaning and butchering, and my wife refuses to eat venison. With big push for grass fed beef, we found it is the grass fed part she doesn't like. There was one buck that was expectable many years ago. Found out way latter a guy was putting corn out so they did not push his half ass deer fence and eat his fruit trees so much. Has been no shooting to speck of so far today. My son looked and saw nothing of interest but wild hogs. He has one tag for here and one for right on the Oregon border which can be Black Tail or Mule deer, and once in very great while a hybrid. Time to go check water so the does and fawns can come right to the house and get leaves from the sucker on a plum tree as well as a drink.

Couple pics of the old two bolt caps “dancing” on the block and transferring material... got the block on the mill, gonna be tight to drill and tap these holes...

Took Friday night off work so I could get the 'new' spindles installed. Kind of a busy day really. Had a gentleman show up to buy my 2 row Allis planter, he also took a harrow section and some iron wheels. A friend of mine was in the yard removing a stump and a tree with his track-hoe. Anyway, it was almost noon by the time the combine got out of the shed. Here's a couple of shots of the old and the new spindle/hubs. Changing the bushings in the knees is probably the worst part of the job!

....went up to the back of the Station....and as it has got a bit colder after heavy snowfall...the icicles are everywhere, on the rock faces and batter cuts above the road.... Some are very pretty....but I guess to you blokes who see these every winter up there in the big 'deep freeze'' areas of North America, these pics will be very ''ho-hum''.. Mike

Still running good! Put nearly 45hrs on clear cutting and running a pto wood chipper. Getting ready to haul it to my moms for our annual home town fair August 20th. This year there will be more weight on the front end with no weights on the back! Here are some pics of the cleared areas of my back yard for my future 40x40 garage. Scott front yard 2 dropped poplars future driveway after dropping a cherry and hickory

great picture , Mike...Bet the hound was growling softly !!!! Mike

Dog watching "deer-tv", out the front window of the house... Mike

Cash will dutifully go out at daybreak to check the fall calving cows with me. but as the temps climb to a hunnert as they have been. This is his his spot and he could care less about me leaving the house. The dog days of summer 😄

About as exciting as it gets around here

Just this

Hank enjoying the dog days of summer

Thank you! Possible I think the split manifold was a failure due to transitions from the actual manifold to the mock up pipe. Did some testing the past on a truck manifolds on the previous 263 using the stock 656 carb it did not like the manifolds either. One thing I have noticed is it is very fuel efficient. It does more work with less fuel as compared to the 263. Alot I attribute to the changes I made which translates to off the governor when light loading. I have struggled with oil with this engine the 10W30 did not seem to work. I had alot of oil residue in the chambers 1-2-5-6. I expected the Nappier second ring with an 3mm oil to have superior oil control, I don't expect oil is coming from the valve guides. It shows no signs of burning oil while running, I just discovered this in a routine check. I have switched to 30W and have yet to see if this curred it. My machinist thinks it could be a reaction with the ethanol fuel. I think he has a pretty solid theory since 3-4 did not have problem and I expect better atomization with these cylinders. It does run dang good though! Scott

My wife took a partial video track side, she missed the beginning. Youtube

Well not what I had planned for, ran 1st high sat right at 1800rpm all way down the track and then about the 240' mark front went up a little then higher, then higher, lost my hitch height, spun out with the front end in the air I'm guessing 15-1600rpm. Next year I will leave the back bracket at home, had 450lbs off the 3pt quick hitch. Sorry no video yet but here is a screen shot of how high it went. On the bright side had no problem spinning out in high 1st.

Ready for the local fair tomorrow. Can't win as dyno will not be legal I would settle for second or third though...still debating on weights between the center and rear, track conditions help decide that. I expect to not have to have to TA it in 1st and even thought about running 2nd low. Will see how it all goes tomorrow in the 9K farm class at the Armada Fair at 12pm.

Final wrap up day! Its done! I drilled the main jet from the previous time .070 to .082. I also opened up the idle jet from .028 to .033. I tried one last time on the split exhaust set up and just could not find the hp, down about 5hp. Ended up trying different pipe sizes from my 2-1/8, 2-1/4 and 2-1/2 on the single exhaust, did find a couple hp without the muffler go figure. Any guesses what made the most hp? Last weekend I straightened and pulled the fenders, this was a nicer set I traded. Less rust. Sorry no pics, I used the same method as covered in my previous thread linked in post one.

Coating is heat barrier on exhaust ports and combustion chambers this is the same benefits as aluminum heads for the car guys. I knew trying to run more compression and 87 octane was a risk. This was the recipe to eliminate detonation. There was some port work done, I knocked the rough areas down on the intake and exhaust. I also worked the short turn radius on the intake ports just blending and smoothing, this was a learned benefit from the past on this particular head. We changed some of the seat angles and I will keep that to myself on what we changed. Depending on the type of usage which in my case, field use you have to keep in mind through this whole process this is on a governor and most time the throttle shaft is just cracked open when engine is light loaded. So the added benefits to larger ports or larger valves will not help, also there are some mistakes on this head and manifold that create some poor inefficiencies. You want velocity and good fuel mixing! Yes I did not go into detail but everything was balanced, crank, rods, pistons, balancer, flywheel and pressure plate. Yes pto dyno was a bit old but does the job he says it leaks a bit of oil... Thanks I hope and expect it to last the rest of my life! Scott

Today was dyno day! We broke it in to seat everything. Doing the 30%-%50-%100-%30 load process. Could not be more pleased! 90hp at 540pto. It was sitting at 85 for a most of this then at the end I bumped the timing 2 degrees advanced and it jumped 5hp. It might make alittle more with some more fuel if I drill out the jet. It will be backed down about 10hp for field work it runs alittle cleaner and will make less trips to the fuel barrel. Not bad for 87 octane and stock 656 carb. I will upload a video later from YouTube. Scott

Link to video my wife took https://youtu.be/gIsZpQWs_ao

Had it running a bunch the last 2 Saturdays. It was running a bit on the warm side so last Monday I ordered a high flow 160 degree Mopar thermostat same diameter as the Internationals at 2.5". Put that in today and also drilled a 3/16" bleed hole. This engine puts out some heat! Last Saturday, the temperature gauge was sitting nearly in the center and my fear was under load it was going to run even hotter. I found parts on the block that were hitting 195 and it had a 170 thermostat in it. There is a brand new water pump on what started to happen was the lower hose started to get warm shortly after start up and stayed that way. The only logical conclusion was pump was pulling heat out of the head through the bypass hose while the thermostat was closed or restricted. Now it sits right between the 2 lines and any where I look on the head the hottest I see is 180 degrees. I ran it down the driveway in 5th gear and for a gasser its got some guts. This would certainly explain some of the heat issue lol. Any way we are ready for dyno! My dyno guy is tied up with harvest/wrenching but will be over soon to break her in and twist her tail. Any work from here is cosmetic, fenders, sheet metal etc. I do have a exhaust manifold modification I will be working on for final dyno tune. I have a video but can't upload a MP4☹ Scott

It runs! One little coolant leak at the temp sensor, just snugged it a bit more. Slight leak around filter base on small bolts, just snugged them a bit more. Did 4 heat cycles. It sounds a bit deeper at idle and really responds when you crack the throttle.

We will see hoping since it is a gasser less vibration. I also don't put a ton of hours on it. I will rinse the old one and store it assuming the tanks are still salvageable.

Getting closer...did a muratic acid flush on the Radiator a couple weeks back well it still did not clean all the calcium deposits. So did another flush today. Well apparently the acid even though I did a though flush ate through some tubes. So its now junk! I am just going to buy a aluminum one and hopefully be done! Should have done that in the first place! I chose to use Evaporust on the inside the fuel tank as it had just a tiny bit especially in that bulge areas that is lower then the fuel line. Did a flush with diesel then gasoline. Its back on and ready for next weekend!

Yesterday set the engine in. Me and dad put it back on 4 wheels yesterday. My wife was there helping too!

Finally getting back to this thing today, after 2 weeks ago breaking water temperature fitting, there brittle. It was great fun drilling it out and tapping it upside-down so shavings don't go down the clean water jacket. Governor went back together with a new seal and I added a washer to the one linkage to tighten it up with some fresh grease too. I went alittle OCD on the side cover and aligned all the screw heads. I just have the oil pump to clean and build. The water pump will need alittle clearancing at the top as it hits the head (effect of milling alot off the head and alittle off the block).

Finished the head assembly and install today. Used ARP studs and silver paint method with a NOS Felpro gasket. We have a whole collection of rockers from over the years. Note the design changes. Dad said some of the pullers that use stock rockers are after the early style for strength. I choose the middle with the nice's shafts I could find and flipped the wear side of the shaft to the top. I will be call Smith Brother Pushrods on Monday to order a set of slightly stiffer push rods. Getting closer! Scott

We're going to need to see more pictures of that Cobra! Some details would be nice too.

Finally made some progress today, cam is in final time degreed with the donor motor gear timing set. Had some delays as I traded my running 263 for a non running 263 and it took me a bit to get through this poor 263. I was able to salvage everything I needed off it plus a good crank and head, but 5 had about 1.5" of rust. I also helped my dad upgrade his brakes on his cobra, took a bit extra as he had a twisted axle and we had to upgrade the master cylinder to a bigger bore one based on my calculations.

I use it, I have 5 acres that I till for soy beans. It also get snow blade duty in the winter, when we get enough snow.

Here are some of the pictures so far of the build! Note the difference on the stock replacement piston in comparison to mine I took 200g out of each piston.