Eastern Hot Rodder

Found my buddy Mike’s old Skylark big block stick car at the MainStreet Cruise in Cleveland, TN.

A half dozen of us met up and cruised out to the Cleveland, TN MainStreet Cruise In for their July show. They host this event from April to September every 4th Saturday of the month and it is a great cruise. 6 to 8 city blocks worth of hot rods, customs, muscle cars and trucks plus a free swap meet area. What's not to like? There's plenty of shade to be found and many of the shops are smart enough to stay open for us hoodlum hot rodder to shop and enjoy a little AC. This trip out sure din't disappoint, there were a ton of over the top cars at the show. A trick '57 Belair, a few killer Chevelles, a few wild truck builds and a really nice '34 Ford 3 window with a full dress flattie to name a few. Unfortunately I screwed up and didn't get the video of us meeting up with Flatbroke Garage in Ducktown for the ride over, but I think you'll dig the show coverage. Another plus, Lil' Red's fresh 383 is running great.

We had an issue with the 409" Small Block (400, .040 over) we rebuilt for our Lil' Red 1946 Chevy rat rod shop truck. Shortly after rebuilding it we stuck it in the local parade and then it started burning oil like a tired Diesel. It was also leaking at the balancer seal (bad balancer seal). I figured the rings failed to seat. I located a freshly done 383 short block. High nickel 010 1970 350 block with a new Eagle rating assembly. The flat top pistons and the 64cc Promaxx heads give it 10.5:1 with the .041 Cometic MLS head gaskets, a full point higher than the 409. Everything else from the 409 was moved over including the Howards hyd. roller cam & lifter set, Summit 1.5 roller rockers and all. It fired up with ease and held an idle without issue. But.... it started smoking like the last bottom end. It dawned on me that night that the valve covers were allowing the PCV to sit too close and right on top of the #8 intake rocker. I bypassed the PCV temporarily and the smoke cleared. I ordered a set of taller valve covers off of eBay that also shifted the PCV location over and away from the rocker. Problem solved, but not after spending $2500 on the short block, plus $88 on the valve covers and a few hundred more on oil and gaskets. Well, the good news is this little hot rod isn't leaking a drop and that 409" small block is good for another project down the road. They say live and learn. I say I hope you learned from my mistake. Always look for the cheap and easy fix first. Had I done that I could have just replaced the balancer seal and valve covers and saved at least $2800. I'm just glad it is easy to yank the engine from this little truck.