Today was a good day.

[bwells]

Got my motor back from the shop today.  The crank and pistons were already in, and my guy wasn't too happy about that.  Dropped it off last night after he went home, and he called at 10 this morning to tell me he was done.  When I got back from the shop, my cam, lifters, springs, retainers, valve locks, and timing chain had gotten here.  And while I was in town, I stopped by my local fly shop and picked up the new rod that I ordered two weeks ago.  And found out that the summer steelhead are running.  Definitely been a good day.  Hopefully the luck holds out during the engine build tonight, and the fishing tomorrow...

Pics to come (hopefully) soon.

[nothingbutdarts]

 
   

[MVRCorp]

 

[bwells]

It took just over an hour for my luck to run out.   
Tried to pull the old valve springs to put the new ones on, and neither of my compressors are working. 

One looks like a 2-jaw puller with different length arms, and it won't line up straight on the spring. 

The other one looks like a giant C with a rod that goes against the valve.  This one's just too weak for the springs.  instead of compressing the spring, it just spreads the "C" out farther.

Both of them were pretty cheap, so I may go look for a better one tomorrow, or finish up the rest of the motor and take the heads to the shop on monday.  I did that once about 3 years ago, and he had an air-powered compressor that took him about 10 minutes to do both heads.  And he did it for free. 

[ksdartguy]

Ive got one of thosw types.
did you take a hammer and tap the edge of the retainerlightly.
This will unseat the locks which hang pretty tight in used setups.

[bwells]

Yeah, I tried that.  I'm just going to take them down to the shop on monday.  I just got done putting everything else together.  The cam is in, new timing set, timing cover, water pump, damper, and oil pan.  Tomorrow I'm going to mount the motor in the car, sans heads, so I can start getting everything hooked back up.  Hopefully I can get it running monday.

[65rbdodge]

i havent been steelhead fishing in a couple of years, i used to enjoy it. what weight rod did you get, 9? i used a 9 weight whe i fished for them. i used to go to the salmon and oswego river in NY.

[bwells]

My new one is a 4.  I use it up high on some of the smaller rivers around here.  For steelhead I usually use a 7 in the summer.  I use a 9 for salmon usually.  The 7 weight that I've got was given to me by my brother when I got out of the Navy last year, and it's a navy-themed custom built by Tim Damon at Damon rodworks in Potsdam.  Navy-blue blank, teek reel seat, and gold wrappings.  We're from the west coast, but my brother was stationed in Watertown for a couple years, and I was stationed in Saratoga Springs for about six months.  We fished the Salmon river a couple times, as well as the battenkill and beaverkill.