I think it’s the bit that keeps the timing chain from coming off the crank gear when you let the chain drop. I remember that the FSM says the timing chain doesn’t have room to come off, and I think it might be because of that.
It makes sense that the rocker could take that with it as it traveled down the case.
The previous owner advised against rocker arm stoppers, as his engine builder advised him against it. I believe the reasoning is that a broken rocker getting stuck underneath the stoppers could jam a valve open, contacting the piston, and so on and so forth. I think re-shimming may do the trick.
On a side note, I hit up the drag strip today.
After spending Friday afternoon getting the engine running again, I decided to re-install my fixed full race manifold on Saturday.
It was a battle, as it had originally went on the engine while on a stand, and came off broken in two pieces. It wasn’t fun to install on the car as one piece, and I had to get creative with removal and installation of various turbo and engine components to get it to fit.
Anyway I hit up the streetcar shootout and entered the 13.0 second class.
Last time out I ran a 13.1 at 112mph on my street tires with no traction.
This time I brought my track tires and opted for the burnout box.
During qualifying I was running 13.0 and 13.1 consistently…although I was getting an ignition break-up or misfire or something at higher rpm.
I logged a run, and the boost was spiking over 20psi, so I dropped the boost at higher rpm.
I kept running low 13’s in qualifying, but could only hit 104-106mph. I think the timing (CAS) was off, as I just set it without a timing light very late last night, so I wasn’t running as fast as I should have.
Long story short, on my first competition run I had some detonation or misfire / ignition breakup / etc. It didn’t sound like detonation, it just seemed like a bunch of misfiring, so not quite sure what it was.
On this shitty run, where I had to peddle the top of 3rd and all of 4th, I ended up breaking into the 12’s !!
That’s a personal best, and the fastest run ever for the car.
Anyway, because I broke the 13.0 second mark, I got disqualified.
Good I guess that I hit the 12’s, but shitty that I could have went much faster if the setup had been tuned better. As always, it’s a work in progress…but it’s coming along.