They are Crower tool steel retainers. All the machinist that I have talked to said they have never seen anything like it before. There must be something wonky with my setup. I will be getting a new cam, springs and retainers in hopes to avoid this again. Jim

Thanks for all the responses guys. after looking at the Cometic website, I should be able to compensate for any small cut that is needed. Gonna be a while getting it back together but I am going to take the time I need to do it right. Jim

My finish line mph is 124-127. I am using 8% converter slip. Hopefully it will be less but I wont know until I run it. Jim

Hey all, I sent my 9" center to have new 4.71 gears installed in it replacing the 4.11 that I was running. This would put me at about 7400rpms through the traps. Unfortunately they installed 4.86 gears by mistake which would put me at about 7650rpms through the traps. My engine builder is ok with this, but I am low budget and cannot rebuild the motor every year. How much extra wear and tear do you think the extra 250rpms will do? The place is a 4 hour drive from me and I was hoping to get out next weekend. Any thoughts? Jim

Is your timing locked out? Mine is on my Comet. While chasing my tail tuning my BP motor Blair said I should check my timing at 3000 and sure enough there was a 4 degree (retard) difference compared to checking it at idle (1000rpm). Not sure why or what is doing that but it is repeatable and consistent. I have checked with 3 different timing lights to verify this. Jim

My main deal is that the exact same 780 ran 10.7's last year and this year with no changes other than the exhaust collectors it is has slowed to 11.6's. Almost like the secondary's aren't opening plus it is super rich. I will wait until the next test day, when there is no rain in the forecast to retry the 780. My next race is Labor day weekend to run both brackets and index class so we will see what happens running just the 1050 that weekend. Jim

Saturday I went to a test day with the Comet. I made 4 passes with my new 1050 carb and Hooker collectors with 18"extensions. The car ran 10.76's at 125 mph on a 88 super humid day I was happy. Wanting to do some testing, I put on my 780cfm vacuum secondary carb untouched, which I had used last year and ran high 10.70's  and the car now ran pig rich 10.0 afr (84 primary w/power valve/90 secondary no power valve) 11.76's. I then dropped the jetting down 6 steps from last years setting (78 primary w/power valve and 84 secondary w/plugged power valve) and the afr went to 11.0 but still ran the same 11.6 et. We then got rained out. while I understand 12.5-13.0 is the desired afr, Could that really make a one second difference? when I blow air past the secondary vacuum port the secondary opens. What are your thoughts. Jim