74″ of Love – part 2

Finally got the bottom end completed. Got that Andrews AB cam spaced out proper. Cone back on. Tappets and hydro lifters cleaned and neatly back in place. New rings on .060 over pistons. Cylinders torqued back down and I even took a minute to set the timing. For now Im shelving the motor and Ill come back to the top end when I have more free time. I’ve got a couple pairs of heads that I need to have blasted before I reassemble so I’ll just save up the extra scratch and service all of them at the same time. This thing is looking real good and should run even better. Much thanks to Gator and Bear on this one. They both really laid some knowledge on me during the entire rebuild. Learning shovels from the best in the biz is a humbling (and equally rad) experience. More from the chopper blog soon.

74″ of Love

So that Davenport shovelhead motor I picked up turned out to be a keeper after all. I was really looking to flip it for a while but now that I started the rebuild, I have to finish it. And if I’m gonna spend the time to build it, I’m gonna keep her around for a while. Crank properly trued to within .001. Took me all damn day to get it just so. Checked the pinion side for a plug fit with .0002 over bearings. Pressed new sprocket side together and slipped the pinion half back together. Buttoned it up and checked end play. All well within spec. I got a really really clean Andrews AB cam from Gator last week. Gonna get that thing spaced out today. Top end coming soon.

Ideally, this thing will be a sweet mantle piece until I decide what to throw it in.