Let her know she may be driving the Demon when whe gets older.

Ralph came over Sunday. I had to make him pancakes.

We got lots done since all the measuring was done previously.

Rods are cleaned up ready to go.

First time my face made its way into this build. Installing rod caps.

Garage work is always a family affair.

Rotating assembly in and done.

Hey that sling is not stock appearing. That is an outward modification not allowed by supercars

Tell me about it. Less than 5 days to go......

Back to work!

Cylinder heads were done by Dwayne Porter of course. Ralph asked for a duplicate of the heads he did for me. Flow numbers are right in-line with what I had done. Only difference is these were not machined for larger springs since Ralph is not running a roller cam.

Bee-you-ti-full work....

Intake gaskets glued to the heads ahead of time.

So is this going to be a solid lifter motor?

Yup, solid flat tappet.

Wow old school. I love it. This motor is going to be violent

Why do it any other way? The time it takes to run the lash is nothing compared to the other things we do to these beasts on a regular basis.


Heads are bolted on and torqued down. We used ARP head studs and while ARP stuff is great, sometimes there is more work to be done. The oil passage that feeds the rocker shafts intersects one of the head bolt holes, travels around the clearance between the stud and hole then up into the shaft. Stock bolts are undercut to provide clearance. ARP studs are beefy and tend to block the passage. So the studs were ground down in the middle to provide clearance.

Rockers are Dove Aluminum on chromed shafts with Mopar hold downs. Very colorful huh? These required the baffles in the stock valve covers to be cut out for clearance and luckily they were removed. Since the valve covers were sandblasted, once the baffles were cut out, underneath I found caked on sludge embedded with blasting sand. Not something you want able to loosen and fall inside an engine. So be carefull with those sandblasters out there. If you can't get into every nook and cranny to make sure it is spotlessly clean, don't blast 'em.

I made a couple of pushrod length checkers out of a pair of old pushrods. Its nice having a full machine shop at my disposal. We got a length and Ralph ordered up some nice 5/16 thick wall pushrods from Smith Brothers. Very nice beefy pieces.

The modfied intake manifold was bolted on and it is 95% complete that this point. Ralph is due to stop by tonight with some Brad Penn break in oil. This way we can fill the sump, prime the pump and just make sure all the oil is going where is should prior to dropping it between the fenders of the Demon.

Looking good.

What intake numbers you guys running? X-Heads on a 71?