[Verdoro 68]

I'm not sure how much more persistence I have in me for this problem. I had more time than usual to sort this out because I took the Summer off of work, but if I had my preference I would have been driving this thing around instead.

I have learned a lot throughout this experience. I'm certainly capable of assembling a full engine now and I couldn't say that a couple years ago. I'm still not sure exactly what I did wrong with the last seal. I never heard back from Best Seal with a diagnosis and I've heard conflicting opinions from folks (packed too tight, not packed enough). My money is on packed too tight when torqued. I tried to leave no stone unturned with this latest attempt by measuring everything again, checking all the tolerances, polishing the serrations and consulting with Wade on the install. Fingers crossed!

A positive side effect of this latest disassembly is that I found that some intake ports were significantly misaligned with the ports on the heads. This gave me an opportunity to fix the alignment so it's almost perfect now. We'll see if it runs any better when I get it out on the road.

Oddly, the issue with the timing light spazzing out with the Pertronix II and Taylor wires I posted about a while ago is back. I had to set the timing with a factory reproduction plug wire on #1. It seemed like I had that solved with the Pertronix III before the seal blew out last time so I'm not sure what changed.