Ace-Garageguy

My first guess is that the tooling is toast. The Caddy engine in the Revell '49 Merc isn't anywhere as nice as he old Caddy parts-pack, and the Hemi in the Revell '32 5-window inn't as nice as the old parts-pack version either. Seems like if those old tools still existed, Revell could have saved considerable $$ including those vintage trees in the respective kits, rather than tooling all new (and mediocre) versions.

Some seemingly credible sources site the recent conditions (the average over the past few years) as the hottest, driest since humans have been keeping records in the regions that constitute the Colorado River watershed. . IF this is true, it's pretty easy to understand how a definition of local climate "normal" might have been mistakenly established. I'll not get into a debate as to whether climate change is real or not at this time, as I simply don't have access to primary, un-spun data. The issue is so stupidly politically polarized that it's almost impossible to winnow actual facts from vehement rhetoric spewed by both the believers and the naysayers. Realities like dropping water levels in snow-melt-fed reservoirs, rising water levels in the oceans, and disappearing glaciers tend to speak for themselves, however.

Much more than that, I think.

I have to be pedantic, as usual, and disagree with the first statement, for clarification. If the dam hadn't been built, there would be no really good way to get water out of the Colorado to supply Vegas, etc. The reservoir behind the dam, Lake Mead, is a water reservoir as well as being storage for water to turn the turbines that run the generators in the dam...and was intended to supply water for irrigation from the outset. I've worked in the area off and on for many years, and I've seen the white ring too, but the level of water in the lake is almost ENTIRELY dependent on winter snowfall to the north, and on how rapidly water is pulled out of the reservoir for irrigation, industrial/commercial and household use, AND on how much water is let out through the turbines to generate electricity. Believe in global warming or not, but the fact is that the hottest, driest conditions on record have shorted water coming into the lake, and account for the current drop to the lowest level since the dam was built.

Indeed. http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_1008_mickey_thompsons_427_ford_hemi_engine/

Seriously cool, selling EV performance...but I'd be somewhat more impressed if the styling wasn't a Cobra Daytona Coupe clone. Something original might be nice...

What wasn't mentioned in the video is that Lake Mead is fed by Lake Powell to the north, which is in turn fed mostly by snowmelt from mountains in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. The winter of 2010 / 2011 was good for snow, and the melt raised the water level in lake mead something like 50 feet. That was the last good year, however.

Ah, the roar of the grease, the smell of the crowd...

Really, close to $400 for all 6 is pretty decent. I mean, that's only about $67 per virgin single-car-kit, if you look at it that way. Another way to look at it is... how many parts-packs does it take to build each car? Engine, tires, wheels, frame, details (axles, mounts, etc.) and body. There are the equivalent of 8 parts-packs for each boxed double kit (I just counted mine), or 24 parts-packs total (the details, wheels, and tires packs have enough to do 2 cars...they typically did...and only one-each of the details tree, wheels tree and tires set is included for a 2-car package, and the rail-dragster frames have body panels included, so no extra body). Considering individual parts-packs are going for at least $25 each these days, buying them separately would set you back around $600, pre-shipping. I think I just talked myself into it.

These old Revell double race-car kits were simply collections of the necessary parts-packs to build the box-art cars. Bidding on a well-known auction site is up to close to $325 for a set of all 3. Too rich for my blood this month...

HT (high tension) leads (or "secondary ignition" or "spark plug" wires in US terminology) on most high-performance cars are about 10 or 11mm in diameter, more or less. For 1/12 scale, just divide by 12. 10mm divided by 12 =.833mm (or .033").

Or his Darth Vader voice...

That's getting pretty common around here in some areas, by guys who seem to have some sort of chips on their shoulders, or the little-thing syndrome. Too bad they can't all get Hummers to compensate.

Saw a white '60 T-bird droptop in a gas station parking lot late last night.

And if you really want to get all the actual facts surrounding IC engine design, start with Sir Harry Ricardo's book The High-Speed Internal-Combustion Engine http://www.amazon.com/High-Speed-Internal-Combustion-Engine-Ricardo-F-R-S/dp/0216890268

I do apologize for being misleading, and I have indeed checked a few things out over the years. Yes, OHV engines were developed early on in the course of IC engine development. So were OHC engines. Peugeot produced a DOHC 4-valve as early as 1913, and Frontenac built DOHC 4V heads for the Model T engine. But the technology was primarily reserved for exotic and racing cars. OHV pushrod engines were fairly common during the early years, but flatheads were everywhere. Buick may have had OHV engines early (Oldsmobile also had good-breathing OHV heads that were popular racing conversions for the little Chevy 4...it too was OHV, and the Chevy "stovebolt" 6 from 1929 was a pushrod OHV...among others), but in the late 1940s through early 1950s, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Ford, Chrysler...and Buick...introduced entirely new OHV V8 engines to take advantage of their superior breathing, and the remaining flatheads were phased out (though some continued on in base-line, low performance and industrial applications for years afterwards). Today, most manufacturers have embraced the OHC engine, and it shows up in baseline and entry level cars. Ford's V8 engines are OHC, but interestingly, Chevrolet retains the OHV pushrod architecture in its LS and Vortec series of V8s, making impressive horsepower and efficiency from a design much of the rest of the world considers to be obsolete.

Yes, gel pens or fine-line paint marker pens...both craft store items. This was just a first experiment with a white gel-pen on black plastic.

HRM = Historic Racing Miniatures, a producer of resin and photo-etch up-detail parts and beautiful multi-media kits. http://www.islandcollectibles.net/prod022211.htm TDR = TDR Innovations, makers of aftermarket 3D printed parts, available through Shapeways. http://www.shapeways.com/designer/tdr.innovations

After looking at your pix again, and the 1:1 pix, it looks to me like the easiest and nicest way to get a good looking setup would be to use the Revell parts-pack 427, as I suggested earlier, and use the TDR manifold with the outer edges of the Revell 2X4 manifold grafted on. With some very careful cut / fit, I think that ought to get you pretty close to perfection.

And all OHC engines are OHV, but not all OHV engines are OHC. Obviously, eh? This is the basic layout of the valve train in a "flathead" valve-in-block engine. Variations are numerous, but this is the general layout, for any number of cylinders. You see the cam is in the block, above the crankshaft. And this is the basic layout of the valve train in a "pushrod" OHV engine. You see the cam is still in the block, but it operates the valves by pushrods and rocker arms, and the valves would be in the cylinder head, not the block. The switch was made from "flathead" engines to OHV engines because flatheads are notoriously poor at breathing. There's no really good way to route ports and passages through the block, and valve size, combustion chamber shape and compression ratios are severely limited in flatheads. As blunc noted, placing the cam OVER the combustion chambers (in OHC engine configurations) allows the elimination of relatively heavy lifters (tappets), and heavy as well as somewhat flexible pushrods. OHC engines came into play to allow the higher RPMs (a benefit of eliminating all that excess valve-train reciprocating weight) that the better-breathing OHV engines, with their bigger valves, straighter ports, possible hemi-shaped combustion chambers and higher compression ratios made possible.

I actually prefer the self-checkouts, when the scanners are working properly and all the items I'm buying have been correctly entered in the store's database. When I go through the cashier line, there's invariably some clueless boob with a full cart in the 10-item line, or some center-of-the-universe fool has to update the checker on his or her family, gall bladder, religious conversion or whatever, or somebody can't grasp how to swipe a card or has to dump her purse looking for a checkbook, or someone is trying to buy wine with foodstamps...you get the picture. Just let me pay for my stuff and get on my way...please.

Man, you always do such nice work bringing these sad old models back to life. Every time I see one of your completed projects, I'm inspired to get to work on finishing up some of mine.

One reason you're having difficulty finding an FE manifold is that FE intake manifolds kinda form part of the heads, and include a part of the valve-cover gasket rail. This means that a manifold will have to be made to fit whichever specific kit engine you're using. This Inglese Weber manifold clearly shows the valve cover gasket rail (far right of the photo, under the carbs), I would suggest you use the excellent Revell parts-pack 427 Ford engine (cheap on ebay) and modify one of the included manifolds (the two-4 bbl manifold would be easiest) to accept your Weber port runners. I've also researched several sources for other turned aluminum stacks, which will definitely look far better than what you'll probably achieve with resin parts. Here's a top view of a similar manifold for reference.

I'm sure she's gone on to a highly-paid career as a politician or lawyer.

Yes, very nice work on the master.