I surprised someone tonight!

A little bit of irony went on this week, I work in a family run auto parts store at the counter, I work with another person named John, an older gentleman who walks with a limp from an unfortunate incident on his motorcycle. On Friday it was a little slow and later on in the afternoon we were discussing finding the Dusters owner, he asked me how I found him so I started with the story and when I mentioned the street name, he quickly asked what's the guy's first name was, I told him and he immediately blurted out the guy's last name! Here John was dating the owners' wife's sister for years until unfortunately the nasty "C" took her life. He remembered the Duster from back then when the sisters would meet for a visit.

So later that night the owner finally called, after the normal hello how's things pleasantries, the first thing he asks is "That guy John you talked about, does he walk with a limp?" I answered that he did, and got the whole story again from his point of view which was basicly the same as I knew from John. Here I have worked with this guy for 7 years side by side, and I could of had the answers long ago!

Anyway, he told me the X heads are a 1970 vintage, I thought the engine was bored, he believes it was still the stock bore, he did change the rod and main bearings to Federal Mogul bearings as in his words he wanted a better quality bearing set on the bottom end. He didn't remember how much the heads were shaved he just said a "few thousands". I also mentioned to him that the engine number stamping (38340059) on the front of the block under the head verifies the engine came with a factory forged crank. He did give me the valve lash figures for the adjustable rockers so I'll check those out this spring and make sure they are correct. I also asked him about something I saw in the valley when replacing intake gaskets to fix an oil leak from the back of the manifold, a copper tube that runs from the right front of the valley to the left rear, both ends terminating in the lifter area, (pic below) he told be that modification puts more oil to a place in the block that could be oil deficient, the machine shop did that mod.

He asked if he could get some pics of the car and I had a bunch on my phone so I cent him a few pics of the outside, inside, trunk, the only thing I couldn't send was a video of it running while walking around the car.He was actually very impressed on how well "preserved" (in his words) the car really is.

Since the heads are 70 vintage I will start running a lead substitute to better protect my exhaust valve seats. Unless I can find some cam 2!

Now he is totally excited about the reunion in July!