I remounted my fan on the radiator, reset my valves on the right side only. That is a long story, but Mr. Van Johnson raised some doubt as to those valve being set correct. I could not remember if I tighten down the stud girdle on that side, so I warmed up the engine and went back in to check the stud girdle, which was tight, and while in there, I checked the valves again.
Van warms his engine and sets half his valves, then warms the engine back up to N.O.T. and sets the other side. I normally set one side, then the other, and call it complete. I normally start adjusting at about 160 degrees and finish before I am down to 130 degrees. Today, warmed the engine to 160 degrees and checked all the valves on the second side that I did last week, just to see if any needed resetting. Three of the eight were just a little loose, .001″ – .002″ off. The other five were correct.
I changed my oil from the Mobil-1, 10W-50, to a mix of, Mobil-1, 10W-30 (4 qts.) and Mobil-1 0W-40 (3 qts.). I also changed to a Fram Racing Filter (H4). The oil pressure at cold start was 65 psi., and it got down to 55 psi. at 175 degrees F. All of this was at approximately 900 RPM.
I also reset the right wheelie bar, down approximately 1/8″. It was not contacting the track surface on launch the last time I ran. My wheelie bars have springs. I found the right spring did not have the same tension that the left one had. I reset them so they are equal. I have been told that high horsepower cars should have solid wheelie bars. If I have too, I can adjust them so the springs do not have any effect (solid).
After doing all of that, I took the car to be aligned at Joe Louis’ Car Care. Joe found the front end needed a lot of adjustment, and he set the ride height. Joe has the latest and greatest computerized, automatic alignment equipment. He said I should feel a lot of difference when going down the track. That would be great. Maybe I can stay away from the left wall or centerline. The car always wanted to drift to the left, after launching hard right.