We had the block repaired and went from using steel shim head gaskets to some composition head gaskets but just kept blowing head gaskets and kept cutting the deck of the block. Finally we took the engine apart and took the block out in the back yard and beat the shit out of it with sledge hammer. Back to the drawing board. Bobby was ready to move on to better things and had a new girlfriend and wanted to know if I wanted to buy his half and I did for $4500.

• 

• 

• 

I decided I wanted to build a small cubic inch motor. I wanted to build a 287. That was a 0.030” over 283. I took on a second job and my plan was to save all the money from the second job to have it built by Reher & Morrison. I located a used 283” block and had it vatted and took it to have it magnafluxed and x-rayed in critical areas for cracks. I also still had the Manley valves that were in the heads that Lee Shepherd did for the 325” motor. This is all I supplied. Reher –Morrison was going to supply the rest.

Another good friend of mine, Jerry Brown, and I took night jobs as janitors in the First National Bank building. My responsibilities were to mop the halls and bathroom floors of a certain number of the floors of the building. I also had to clean the cigarette butts out of those little things that they used to fill with sand where you could dunk your butts. And they put them by the elevators. I hated that. I got off work at Amerada Hess at 4:30 and had to be at this job at 4:45. The first thing I had to do was clean up those butts. Well when everyone got off work at 5:00 there I was picking those butts out of the sand. All these really pretty girls were getting off work at the bank and I’m cleaning up butts. I bet they were impressed with me. What you’ll do to go drag racing.

I was talking to Buddy Morrison every week checking on the status of the motor. When Buddy called and said it was ready I couldn’t wait to go get it. I got off work on Friday night and drove down to pick it up an slept in my Suburban out in the parking lot. I remember writing a heck for the motor. It was $10,500. This was in 1975. A lot of money…at least for me. We loaded it in the back of my Suburban and I headed home. I think it went directly from the back of my Suburban right into the ’56.

While the engine was being built I had also bought a Doug Nash 5-speed for the car. It was a newly developed transmission and I couldn’t even find a shifter for it. I talked to Buddy and he told me about a guy named Coleman who had a shop in the same complex that they did. I called him and all he needed was a Hurst competition Plus shifter and he could convert it to work with the 5-speed.

Got everything put together, busted it off, loaded up on the trailer and headed to the track. We unloaded the car and went to the staging lanes. It was time to go and it wouldn’t’ start. Loose connection on the starter. When it busted off you could see people turn their heads. Another racer, Bill Long came over and said she really sounded good. I was ready to go set a record again. Pulled to the starting line, staged, and let out the clutch and here we go. Wheels up and she sounds beautiful. 9,000 in a split second and it’s time to shift into second gear, 9,000 again and shift into third. This baby is flying. 9,000 again and when I go to pull it into fourth I pull it into second gear. You can imagine. The engine revs to I don’t even know how high. This as before rev limiters and tell tales. I let off the gas, pushed in the clutch, shut it off and coasted on through. I’m at the top end of the track and let her cool down and started it back up. Sounds OK. So I decide to drive it back down the return road back to the pits and just can’t resist getting on it a little and I push in the clutch and I hear a little bit of noise and the engine dies. I coast on back to the pits and park and we talk for a little bit and then decide to try and start it. It won’t even turn over. We load up and take her home.

The next day we pulled the plugs and 4 of them are all beat up. We pull the manifold and can see one of the heads off of an intake valve in the runner of the head. We pull the heads and I couldn’t believe what I saw. The head of the valve had traveled to both sides of the motor and had busted holes in the block in 2 cylinders, and 2 combustion chambers on each head had holes in them and looked like they had been bead to death with a ball peen hammer. WOW…$10,500 and now I have a pile a junk to show for it. And all over some used valves that I had from that 325” motor. It doesn’t take too many of those lessons to find out you just don’t do certain things.

• 

• 

• 

•