I ran into a snag, my usual luck. I got everything cleaned up, blended together smoothly, even opened up and sharpened the transfers and smoothed everything else, slapped it all together, checked the squishband...almost identical to what I had before. Perfect! Bolted in the new ESR reeds and billet intake for a quick leakdown on the bench before I drop it in the buggy. SSSSssssssssssss! DAMN! and it leaked out as fast as I put it in. I have never had one this bad ever. It was the main crank seal behind the counter balancer gear. It looks fine, its fully seated, the wire coil is still in the seal lip but it leaks horribly against the crank all the way around. I smeared some oil on it when I put it together last spring. The seals should last alot longer than one season. I am pretty sure thats why I holed the piston at the track last November.
The crank is solid(no play), I don't know. There was a big discussion on one of the boards last year about which way that seal installed, so I just installed it the way the old one came out. Hope I can get that seal in before I leave for the dune trip(next Saturday). I am a little nervous about the cylinder studs being a little short with the spacer on. I am getting about 2/3 of the threads in the nut before torqing, what do you guys think? Longer studs are probably the smart thing to do huh. Here are a few more pics...