The colour is stunning!

No shit! I haven't seen that.

Kevin was super cool and showed us around the shop. It was a great trip up to Atlanta. Kevin said he took some video but I had no idea he posted it up.

Now that I have the chassis there is no excuses for not getting my engine ready for installation. I spent most of the weekend working on the cylinder head.

I removed the valve springs with a cheapo Amazon tool kit and it worked perfectly. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.


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that video makes me want to grow a mustache.

One thing that I had trouble with was removing the valve seals. I initially mangled the first few trying to get at them with some needle nose pliers. Shit was breaking off everywhere. I then tried to pry up one side of the seal to get a better grip and that worked way better.

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The intake side of the head is caked in carbon.

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I'm in the process of doing a stage 1 port and polish to help things flow better. I'm following this guide:

While working on the cyl. head I noticed this number on the casting. It's at the rear on top of the coolant inlet. It's totally irrelevant but now I'm curious if anybody else has the same numbers on theirs and what does it mean?

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One last chance for a parts collection money shot before parts start going into the engine this weekend.

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check that clutch PP before install....make sure the tangs are all uniform.

Thanks, I'll definitely check. Is that a thing with FM clutches?

Is that an FM stage 1 or 2 clutch? My stage one is slipping after 4k miles with 255whp. Wishing I had gone stage 2.

I went with the level 2 and the 10.3 lightweight flywheel. I say "went with" loosely since I found it on Craigslist and the guy had never installed it.

Nice! You should be fine then.

One cylinder head bowl clean, three more to go.

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I realize that this is just cosmetic and it will get filthy again in 200 miles but it's just the way I do things. I'll be lapping the valves and a simple/basic port and polish so that will be where there should be some minimal gains made. If I don't screw it up.

Did you get your block and crank cleaned by a machine shop, or are you just sending it? If the latter, go to Autozone and rent a Cylinder Ridge Reamer - you use it to clear all the carbon at the top of the cylinders so you don't mess up your new rings and pistons.

And welcome to the Exocet family! (I have chassis #160)

Thanks. That's a good call. I was just going to clean everything up really good and go. I didn't even know about a ridge reamer. I'm pretty new to engine building so it's these tips that really help.

How do you like your Exocet? I'm getting nervous because I've seen a bunch for sale lately. I don't get it.

I finished cleaning the remaining combustion chambers and also cleaning out the ports. There's a ton of casting flash that needs removed to help this thing flow better.

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I also found some time to work on removing the front of my valve cover. I have some purty adjustable cam gears that need to be seen. I think it came out okay. Now the cover, intake manifold and brake calipers can go out to powdercoating.

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RIP to my 15 year old Dremel. It finally gave up the ghost right in the middle of cutting the cover. Luckily I had a spare.

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