So here we are, 1 week before the start of Drag Week, and I am in a last minute thrash to get the GTX ready. Over the the last week or two, I have put the Hemi together. Since the last time this short block was together was 2005, it seems that I have spent more time looking for stuff and cleaning parts than I have actually wrenching.
I used the Summit windage tray with an integral gasket. I didn't think it had enuff holes in it to scrape the crank, so I make a few myself using a knife heated with a torch:
Hopefully, this FlowKooler water pump will help keep it cool on the street.
By the time I got it all screwed together today, and started cleaning it up to paint it was almost dark. I was so tired from the long hard days all week, I could barely stand up anymore. Then Jeff came over, and offered to do the honors with the $10 harbor freight HVLP gun. He was out there spraying by porch light, with bugs flying all around. THen it started raining, so we pushed it inside and blew the water off of it. When the rain quit, we pushed it back out and finished.
Seeing the Hemi in fresh paint lit a new fire of motivation in my heart, and I immediately got busy on it again.
I pulled the K frame out by dropping it onto a freight cart that I converted to a K frame cart. THe motor and trans will get assembled on and set on the cart, then the body lowered over it.
I still have a ton of work to do. The first passes on the new combo will be at Drag Week.