In Feb. of 1989 the work began on the engine.  The engine presented a number of challenges. All I had were photos taken of the engine in the car with the hood open and only showing the top parts.  I also found a Hot Rod from 1961 that showed an older version of this engine that Mickey Thompson built with a small   2-71 blower.     

The block was honed and new piston purchased.  The heads were overhauled.  I measured the cylinder volume and the heads to determine the compression ratio.  I wanted it to be 7 or 8 to 1.  However it turned out to be 9:1 and there was no way to reduce it. Do to the high compression ratio the engine will have to run on pure racing fuel.  In most cases this will not be a problem as this car will probably not be driven very much. The pistons and rods were balanced and the engine assembled.  There were a number of items that had to be worked out.  First was how was the alternator held on the block.  It had to clear the blower drives. Second item how was the block cooled?  All I could tell from the photos was that there was two hoses running from the radiator to the block and you could not tell what they connected to on the engine.  The blower intake manifold did not have any water crossover.  We determined that the coolant must have been circulated by using the holes in the heads.  I designed a pipe connection to fit on the alternator side and we opened up a hole in the power steering bracket and made a pipe connection for that size.  After this was completed a special bracket was designed and built for the alternator.  Finally the belt drives were on and in the correct place.

After the blower and drives were installed on the block, I attached the carburetors.  When I started on the engine I only had two carburetors.  These were Carter YH side drafts.  I contacted Jon Hardgrove who sells kits for rebuilding carburetors from his shop in Eldon Missouri. I have known Jon for many years and he has helped me out with many problems.  I gave Jon the tag numbers on the two carbs I got with the blower.   He had records from Carter on all the carburetors that they made. In looking up the numbers he found that these were special for a blower application.  In the records were all the specifications for the parts.  He had the tooling to make what was needed and made rebuilding packages for me.  I then rebuild all 4 carburetors and painted them with wrinkle black that was used in 1963.