The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster

Alright, I seemed to have resolved the dowel pin alignment problem. Turns out this has happened to someone else I know and after talking to him, he said it happened the same way on another set of heads he helped a friend with - driver's side only!

Not sure how or why this could happen. Maybe the RHS machining jig is off just enough to cause the issue? Does not make sense though since the passenger side goes down normally. So if two heads are the same how does one fit properly on one side and not the other? Makes no sense but the issue exists and apparently has happened on more than one occasion.

At first, I thought the pins just need to be tapped down into the block a little more but that was not the case. Tapping them with a metal hammer deforms/mushrooms the tops which obviously compounds the fitment issues. So I got out the files and whizz wheel and went to work. Two hours later I was able to get the one side down close enough to the block to tap it the rest of the way down with a plastic mallet. The pins look like little nubs now and I ended up putting a few superficial scratches into my nice straight deck from wayward file strokes. Grrrrrr....

Reaming out the dowel locator holes in the heads with emery paper seemed to help some as well. I also slightly enlarged the chamfer of the hole with a counter sink which allowed a little more room to be able to tap it down. This head has to stay on the driver's side now though since it wiggles a little when put on the passenger side. Crazy stuff that I am not happy about in any way. Shouldn't be that hard.

The cherry on top of this wonderful afternoon was that I dropped a head gasket on a corner while checking fitment to make sure I had enough pin left after all the whittling. I did not separate but it got dented a little. It'll probably be OK once I crank it down but I might get another to be safe. Maybe I can pick one up at Carlisle next week.

Just an aside - the guy I was talking to last night has a similar combination to mine - 416 in a Duster with OOTB RHS heads and a similar solid cam from Hughes. He went 10.82 at Maple Grove last year.

More to come.