The idea is to get to enjoy the fruits of your labor and investment as long as possible in a frugal and intelligent way.  I am introducing you to reality, not sugar coating vinegar so it all smells rosy.  American V8s generally can be rebuilt several times unlike other high profit cheaply manufactured engines featuring thin wall castings.  Valve guides are usually the first thing to go, if all goes well this would be the normal end of your engines useful life expectancy.  That is because racing cams violently open and close the valves against massive valve spring pressure to achieve high R.P.M..  Fortunately under ideal conditions this hopefully, gradually manifests by bell mouthing the valve guides, which is an increase of valve guide clearance at the ends of the guide.  This reveals itself by an increase in oil consumption, as the engine sucks oil through the worn guide(s) due to increased clearance, and valve noise that cannot be adjusted out, and is your engines way of yelling for help.  If you catch it early on, and follow my advise, you will tear the engine down thus avoiding catastrophic engine failure, and freshen it up, by replacing the valve guides and other parts as required etc., otherwise the valve will damage the seat and eventually the head will break off the valve and punch a hole in your piston and cylinder wall which falls under the general term of grenading the engine pronounced KaaaaaaBooooooom.  On a daily driver you avoid this by checking the oil level weekly.  If you use a quart of oil in a week your engine is ready for the intensive care unit, and should be rebuilt while it is still there to rebuild.  I realized high compression engines are loud, even if the exhaust were silent, so you want to teach yourself what excessive valve train noise sounds like.  It’s messy, but you can adjust your valves with the engine running.  While idling gradually loosen up the valve lash, just enough to hear the noise, and record that sound in your brain.  If your valves are perfectly adjusted and you hear valve noise locate the noisy valve.  On many engines you can shut the engine off, remove the spark plug, rotate the engine until both valves are in the closed position.  On the suspected cylinder with the noisy valve, put compressed air in that cylinder, to

hold the valves shut, and remove the valve spring to check visually and with a dial indicator for excessive valve guide clearance.  This is more less the end of your engines life span due to natural causes and thus a happy ending has occurred.  As long as your cylinder wall taper is within specifications, you more or less just need to put a fresh hone in the bores of your hotrod, and your going back to hot rod heaven to be born again with a new set of rings, bearings, cam, lifters, springs, retainers and a valve job.  Happy Hot Rodding!  Not wanting to end this fine piece of literature on a sad note, remember they can’t outlaw hot rods unless they outlaw barbeques.  Billions of Chinese people are having a barbeque right now, really…Oh and by the way I am in no way shape or form ridiculing Alan Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio or any environmentalists efforts to make the world a better place.  The fact that Leonardo DiCaprio drives a hybrid when he can afford anything is quite Nobel.  Speaking of Nobility, congratulations and good luck to Alan Gore, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work regarding the effect man has on climactic change.    The limited use of these types of Hot Rod specialty vehicles are of miniscule effect on the environment.  The faster the majority millions of the mainstream front wheel drive cars are replaced with electric hybrids, and an environmentally clean electrical power source to recharge them and keep them running around locally on the batteries is implemented, the better off we all are. 

Which reminds me Hot Rods do generate plenty of heat so make sure you get  the biggest radiator you can stuff in your chassis.  For example Chevelles came with 2 core, 3 core, or four core radiators depending on whether the car came with a 6 cylinder, a small block, or a big block V8.  Use the four core.  Stall converters also generate a lot of heat so your going to need a transmission cooler as well.  You see if it were not for Global Warming I might have forgotten to remind you that Hot Rodders pray for another ice age or  maybe just Global Cooling… Stay Cool…Hug a polar bear.

Furthermore if your wondering why I would even write something like this remember….

Entertainers and cars are not new.  Paul Newman is a mechanic, race car driver and Championship Auto Racing Team owner.   Although it is not a funny fact, the man is funny certainly, a comic genius in his own right, and currently one of the biggest car enthusiasts in Hollywood having in his collection a turbocharged 1000 horsepower Toronado super sleeper of a Hot Rod that should keep him awake to do the Tonight Show and heeeeeeee’s  Jay “Twin Turbo” Leno...  And then there’s his twin brother “Open Wheel” David Letterman and a cast of thousands…  I hope you enjoyed my article and it can be of assistance in your quest to enjoy Hot Rodding. 

Good Luck and God Bless, peace be with you.

Sincerely, 

                                                                                                Michael Kegg