Well i was hoping to have the short engine put together over xmas but as usual with any well laid plan something went wrong,

Every thing was going well until the conrods were set free from their box, It wasn't obvious at first until i did the usual checks on dimensions, the rods were 15 thou shorter than the 6.750" they should of been. 15 thou don't sound a lot but would of affected the quench so they had to go.

After a bit of searching i found out that these rods were the hot ticket way back when aftermarket rods wern't available, They are actually Oldsmobile 455 forged rods and to use them would mean having 15 thou taken off the block decks, seeing as the block was finished this wasn't possible so a set of the correct length forged h beam rods have been ordered and will be here next week, I hope


I'm glad i found out before polishing them.








After this little episode i thought i would check that my Cad Parts stage III shaft mounted rocker kit would fit, It did, went straight on and seems a well made bit of kit.














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