The building that houses Ted' shop has been in his family since the early 1900's. Ted is slowly restoring the building to look like it did when he was growing up....a combination Pure gas station / Dodge & Plymouth dealership that was run by his dad. Very cool !
This GT6 door is hanging on the wall in the shop. Everyone should have their name on a race car door...even if it is a little "bent" ! :-)
Ted (the teacher), is in the foreground, explaining to me (the student) how to use a cordless drill to bring up oil pressure before firing up the engine. Ted provided me a VERY detailed sheet on how to prepare the engine for the initial run.
All tied down and ready for the trip back to Toledo. As we were heading back north on I-75, wife Rhoda was laughing because of all the guys who, when passing us, slowed down to eyeball my nice shiny engine !
Safely back home and in the man cave waiting for the chassis to come back from the body shop. For those who are wondering, here is a list of some of the "improvements"' done to this engine.
1. increased the compression ratio to 9.5:1
2. reground the cam to "S2" specs.
3. installed 20 thousandths oversized pistons
4. installed roller rockers
5. multi-angle valve grind
Of course, all the normal engine rebuild things like balancing, replacing rod & main bearings, replacing the oil pump, valves, seals, timing chain, etc., were also included in the rebuild. The machine shop Ted uses has been doing his work for 40 years, so they really know how to build a TR6 engine !
The one thing the machine shop couldn't do was rebuild the damper / pulley that attaches to the front of the crankshaft. So, the first thing I did when getting the engine home was pull the harmonic damper off the engine, pack it up, and send it off to "Damper Dudes" in California for rebuilding.
