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I made it!!

To: british-cars@hoosier
Subject: I made it!!
From: Dennis Wilson <DWILSON@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1992 13:20 PDT
Just a quick message, me and the Midget made it to Phoenix without a hitch.
We covered just over 1500 miles in 110+ temps accross the desert and the car
ran great!!  

I took the car into Charlie Rockwells dynotune shop and quite honestly was not
too immpressed.  I only gained 2 hp for $150, so I had the car set up pretty 
close to as bet it could OR did I??

I don't care what anyone says, the valve clearences should be adjusted before
anything else can be adjusted correctly, I said this to Charlie but he did not 
look at the valves, all he did was change the main jets two sizes smaller, and
adjust the timming (which did not affect the HP or the feel of the car at all).

I told him all about the motor (as I rebuilt and modified it), it is a 1296
spit motor but he kept on reffering to it as though it was a 1275 A series
motor although I told it was not, he even got out Vizards book to show me
stuff on the A series and said ones of thoes heads would work well on my motor,
wrong, it won't fit.

He said that my engine puts out about the same as a standard 1275 motor with
all the emission stuff off. I asked why so little when I have an SK sidedraught
carb, hot street cam, tubular headers, freeflow exhaust, larger inlet valves
and afew other bits, he did not have an answer and appeared eager to finish
.  

On the bright side, I now get about 30 mpg instead of 24 on the freeway but
the car feels NO different.

I think I know what the problem is, I have a 1500 head which was skimmed down 
tothe same depth as the 1296 head.  I did this to keep the CR the same, BUT
like an idiot I did not CC the head and I think tyhe 1500 combustion chamber
is wider than the 1296 to accomodate the slightly larger valves.  So I have
a low CR thus the cam, carb etc are not really doing what they should do.

Anyway, I was not impressed with Rockwell motor sports, I think it is fine
if you want the carbs jetted spot on and your timming set but he didn't do
or look at much else.

Cheers DW

PS my not on the list yet but I will when I am settled in Phoenix


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