[Burnd]

Hey Jamo:

When I was in the Corps they use to force us to tear down and reassemble our rifles blindfolded. I now think I can do it to the top end of my FE. It's getting to be a habit. I hope you're right about the heads. We were wondering whether we could put helicoils in without pulling the heads. The "shavings" aspect gives me the creeps. KC is the one that gave me torque specs and he said 30 to 35Lbs. I have it written in a torque log. I bugged him on Friday night (again) and he said it shouldn't have been too much. I think after 5 times the aluminum (without helicoils) just can't hold up. Even with the antisieze your still stressing the threads each time, in and out. The other thing we noticed is that I'm only grabbing 5/6 threads on the ARP's. They're 2 1/2" long. When I redo them I will measure the bolt hole and put the longest one's in that I can fit. Frankly; I just assumed they had helicoils. Aluminum blocks won't hold up without them, much less the heads. I'm going to do them all and be done with it. I did notice that the stock bolts out of an FE were longer. I put the rear breather back on the manifold, plus I put a 40 year old original FE PCV valve back on and I have a breather on the opposite valve cover. (The new PCV's valves and grommet fit sucked). It's ugly but it rattled, so it should work. I still got one hole available in a clutch. I'll see what happens when we drive it. That's if these monsoons ever quit. We haven't been able to get it back out on the street with all the rain and I'm trying to earn a living at the same time. I hope we didn't lose too many guys. If we did; let me know and maybe I can backfill with another Cobra. We need some representation.

Joe: If you had to put up with the debacles this beast has given me; you would call her a lot worse. She's pees on my foot while I'm being nice to her. I run 28lbs in the MT's on the street. I dropped them to 22 at the track, but my rims are a little oversized for the tires specifications. I'm too old to chance breaking a bead with low air pressure the first time out. (I think). Let me know how you make out with yours. Gotta go...

Bernie