Well, results were impressive for a moment... But after 1 hard ride my idle quality went to shit, like it had a bad vacuum leak. I double and triple checked everything including valve lash, and replaced all the intake gaskets and plastic insulator but nothing seemed to help. After scratching my head over it a couple days, I decided to remove the engine and completely disassemble it again going over everything with a fine tooth comb, concentrating on the valvetrain and head that I had just done. In the meantime, the bike served as a test bed for a couple other engines I had built.
Another Hemi Predator with .020 long rod, .010 head gasket, CS cam and 22lb springs with "stock look"
Tillotson carburetor.
Gen 1 (non Hemi), .020 long rod with milled and ported 5 bolt Grayhound head, CL22 cam, 22lb springs and big bore carb.
Back to my Hemi block/clone head hybrid...Surprisingly, I found that the exhaust lobe on the cam had almost a flat spot and the lifter looked pretty beat up too.
hard to see in the pic but fairly obvious in person. Being the only issue I could find, it was time to order a new cam and lifter, and gave me an excuse to make some upgrades. Since some of my competition is now on the forum, I'm keeping my upgrades on the low, but will say It now has over .300 lift with dual springs on new stainless valves. I ended up ditching the guide plate as the new thicker molly pushrods rubbed, and it was unnecessary with these Champion rockers.
I also got myself another Premier Stinger clutch for it. Used on eBay for $40, it had a 17t driver on it that I switched out for a much smaller Bully driver that still had needle bearings instead of the bushing typical of most others.
She hauls now...
I'm going to try the next size up in main jets and might play around with gearing a little more, but I'm loving it so far...