The finished cylinder walls are smooth as a baby's butt and almost perfectly round. This should make for a very good ring seal and better horsepower than a more standard ring package could produce.

Jay finished the cylinder walls with a 400 grit stone and with the help of the very sturdy Mopar performance Mega-Block and a BHJ torque plate I borrowed from Pete Williams at R-J Performance, the cylinders came out as close to perfect as Jay could get. The worst one checked out with a variance of only .0003" in roundness and the best one was .0001. With my technical skills all I know about those numbers is that I have lost and won a few races by a few tenths of a thousandth and those were too close to call. Accuracy makes power in engines and especially if the cylinders are perfectly round and the rings can seal up tight.

Jay got the 4.500" stroke Callies crank laid in place so "things are happening" at Roeder Performance Machine. Next up is checking piston to valve clearance, degreeing the camshaft and final assembly.

We are changing to a custom grind roller cam from Comp Cams as well as their roller lifters, springs, retainers and 10-degree keepers. More details on the cam and valvetrain in the next issue.

Jay chose the Federal-Mogul "ugly" race bearings. They are called that because that is how they look. No satin silver appearance just a goldish color that indicates it is a "race-only" bearing and ready to go to work protecting a powerful race engine.

The oil pump had three seasons on it so we got a new Melling pump that bolts onto the Indy single line external oil system. The heads are getting new valves, the intake system is getting a huge upgrade. We are going from a 4150 style single four intake with an adapter for a Dominator to the new tunnel ram from Indy Cylinder Heads that will be outfitted with a pair of King Demon RS 1090 gas carbs. One of my old buddies, Woody, matched up the ports on the tunnel ram to the Indy 440-1 heads and I appreciate the great job he did.

The new Indy Cylinder Head tunnel ram with the 1090 cfm King Demon RS / TR carbs mounted. The wood spacers are from Moroso and I finally figured out the Enderle tunnel ram linkage. This should be a major boost for our induction system and overall power. We have switched back to Sunoco race gas for this year mainly because we race so much in cool weather. The alcohol has worked great but it is a pain in the butt in cold weather.

The next update should be covering final engine assembly, the dyno test at Jeff Stealy's shop in Moline, IL, where we hope to hit over 900 HP.

Stay tuned as this ol' Mopar gets ready to race.

SOURCE BOX	Roeder Performance Machine Race Engines by Jay Roeder 1009 Bronson Avenue Waverly, IA 50677 (319) 352-2220 www.roederperformancemachine.com
CP Pistons 1902 McGaw Irvine, CA 92614 (949) 567-9000 www.cppistons.com	Comp Cams 3406 Democrat Rd. Memphis, TN 38118 (800) 999-0853 www.compcams.com
Demon Carburetors Barry Grant Fuel Systems 1450 McDonald Rd. Dahlonega, GA 30533 (706) 864-8544 www.barrygrant.com	Indy Cylinder Heads 8621 Southeastern Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46239 (317)862-3725