[shor]

Hey guys. We went with the stock NHRA JE pistons 138814 .005 It was supposed to be 4 weeks for the custom order, but was really closer to 8 weeks. The journals on the crank were practically new std/std and we were able to track down a set of new gm 400 bearings.(and an original timing chain and ...ughh nylon gear) The machinist thought I was nuts, but I now have him on my "original" wavelength. He did insist on ARP fasteners though. Yea, it will be an 11:1 compression ratio, at least until I get tired of heading down to Sunoco at the Marina and paying 5.80 a gallon for the purple racing fuel. Nick did say that the advertised factory compression ratios of the day were actually the maximum and a "real" number was always slightly less, like a 10.7 or a 10.8 or 10.9, due to manufacturing tolerences and deviations. He said in my undecked block the top of the piston, the piston, not the dome, will be .030 below the deck at TDC. He said, after examining these JE pistons, that they had the true dome, faithfull in all respects to the original engineering spec. of the day; unlike some other "brands". This with the cleaning and balancing and polishing of the rods should put me at a true 10.7,10.8.( I think that is what he said...does it make sense?) If it becomes too much of a pain, I have a set of 71 ls6 heads waiting on the shelf. I'll keep you posted!