Herbold Racing!

The chronicle of my adventures with a 1973 Plymouth Duster 340 drag car.

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Entries from February 2009

Many Little Things…

February 28th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Today I hit many of the little things on my to-do list. Just about everything on that list is done! I should be able to "test" the car tomorrow. Here’s what I did:

Clean the valve cover gaskets and the surfaces they sit on.
Put the valve covers back on and bolt them down.
Put [...]

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Tags: General

Checking the Valve Lash

February 27th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Today I checked the valve lash on all 16 valves. Here are the results:
1 155 E 0.030
I 0.030

3 165 I 0.029
[...]

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Tags: General

Maybe It’s the Coil?

February 25th, 2009 · No Comments

One of Andy’s friend, another rabid Mopar fan, has suggested that maybe the coil is going bad.  Coils are cheap, and easy to replace.  Andy suggested that at the same time I could put in a firewall feed through so that the coil could be mounted inside the car rather than on the motor.  Why?  [...]

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Tags: General

Valvetrain Action!

February 24th, 2009 · No Comments

Today I made a video of the valvetrain action.  Here it is:

It doesn’t look like cylinder #4 is any different than the others as far as rocker action is concerned.

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Tags: General

Cranking Compression Test Results

February 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

Today I did the cranking compression test. I tested all 8 cylinders, and here are the results:
#1 – 155
#2 – 170
#3 – 165
#4 – 150
#5 – 165
#6 – 165
#7 – 158
#8 – 160
Andy has suggested that I start using a mix of 3 gallons of 100 octane unleaded fuel to 1 gallon of 110 [...]

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Tags: General

Diagnosing the Problem

February 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

I have a new friend from way up north in Canada.  His name is Andy Closkey.  We “met” through the www.MoparStyle.com forums and for the past couple of months have been emailing each other quite often.  He is a serious drag racer and also builds his own engines.  He is also an NHRA technical inspector [...]

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Tags: General