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IDJI always get into a dragster from the left side.

I always climbed onto my little pulling tractors from the left also. Since the knee replacement I've had to swap to the right. My results improved. Until I read your post I couldn't figure out why I was doing better. Now I know, I'm backwards from everyone else.

Tony, I have been looking at the Champion generators. They are about half the price of the Honda. I have 2 friends with them and they are happy. I'm sure they aren't up to the Honda standard. The price at my local store is $550. On the other hand I have another friend with a Honda gen. It is sweet.

My intended purpose is to power lighting and small tools in my enclosed trailer, and in an emergency power essentials at home if there is a power outage. Most of my home is gas so it just needs to power the furnace blower, electronics on the stove, refrigerator and freezer. I do want an inverter style so it can power sensitive electronics.

My trips to the salt on Hooley's crew are some of my fondest memories. I will cherish them forever, awesome place, super crew members, and an experience of a lifetime. All motor-heads should experience it.

I went from home, 20 mi south of St. Louis in IL, to S. GA this weekend. I try to find the cheapest diesel prices. The cheapest I found was right here at home, 3.28-9. All the pumps I see stop at $100. I went 1300 miles with a 10.3 mpg average. Pulling the trailer makes it suck it.

In my little tractor pulling world there are a lot of guys with them. They sure are handy for throwing the weights, gas can, jack into instead of carrying them. I see more electric than gas. A friend had an issue with his electric cart which he hauled in the rear of his trailer. The trailer rode bad enough in the back that the acid would splash out and drip to the floor. His solution was a $1400 conversion to a lithium battery. Being sealed there is no more acid leak.

I wear an instant on also and do wear it when spot welding or tacking.

I got the high dose flue shot and pneumonia shot on Monday. I am ache from that. I'm not ready for the chinese virus booster yet.

chimp koose - That is exactly what I did. Being a 4 cylinder it is much easier. I have my balancer marked at TDC and BDC. 1 & 4 at TDC and 2 & 3 at BDC. I have a cam position trigger that I can easily see so I can see when #1 is on top. Then just follow the firing order and adjust every 180 deg.

My lifters were the other way. It seemed they didn't want to bleed down or the plunger was stuck inside.
I think I finally have them adjusted, at least to the point to start up and adjusting while running.
I adjusted them a little light. I took up the lash and added 1/4 turn.

I was dreading pulling the side cover off of the motor to access the lifters. All the EFI wiring is there and the intake manifold is in the way. I gotta' do it. That will be my morning job. As you said I have to see if the plunger is down. I don't remember what brand they are, but not a big name one. I may have another new set of similar lesser name brand ones out there. It is probably time to buy a better set. I need 8 but they are often cheaper is sets of 16 for the SBF.

I need to get cranking cylinder pressure with the throttle open for the cam grinder. My previous pressure was with the throttle closed. I didn't know that it mattered??

It seems I am having hydraulic lifter issues now. When I take the slack out of the pushrod and give my adjustable rocker arm nuts 1/2 turn the valves are opening. It appears the lifters are collapsed. I have primed the oil pump, have 65 psi oil pressure, and have oil to all but 1 rocker arm. I guess I need another new set of lifters. These have never been ran, but have considerable starter cranking on them. I'm guessing I had them to tight and hammered them to death?

Anyone have any thoughts?

I got it to fire once putting 24V to the 12V starter. I think that is a breakage problem waiting to happen.
Using the Holley Dominator the ignition doesn't turn on until the engine is cranking at 200 rpm.
At that low rpm when the motor fired once with my initial advance it slowed the engine, so the next plug never lit.

I'm like you Charlie, I wouldn't know how to make that compression release.

Bullet Racing Cams did my 1st one. I believe they did a good job given the information I had given them. They are easy to talk to and work with. I have again sent the "new" used cam to them for regrind.

I considered the cam retard option. I really need the bottom end which goes away a bit with retarding the cam. Once I am deep enough to retard the cam it doesn't take much to just put a different one in. It's just $ signs floating by, and I have seen a lot of those with this build.

Sometimes I wonder why I keep trying.

I am still fighting with the 4 cylinder that has haunted me for the last several years. I thought I had it ready to go. Initially I thought battery/cable/starter issues. It is making so much cylinder pressure during cranking that the starter just cannot do the job. When the pressure was checked it was 280-285 psi while cranking. From what stupid me is told, that just won't work.

There are a couple of options. 1) Cut the tops off the pistons. They are currently 13.6 compression for E85.  2) Install a thicker head gasket. 3) Install a bigger cam.

With this odd-ball motor there are issues with most of the options.

Cutting the tops off of pistons would be a challenge for any engine. The 13.6 compression is right where it needs to be for E85.
Head gaskets are a bit weird on this motor and not all work as claimed. Cometic says they do have them available. Again lowering compression lowers the power output.
You just don't buy a cam for this engine. You buy a used cam, then have it reground. My current cam is a wimp. It needs a bigger one, so this is the route I have chosen.

I disconnected the grounds from each battery last night and put chargers on both batteries. Both recharged overnight. I hooked up the grounds for both and it again seems to be fine. It will make a trip to the dealers tomorrow. It's nice it doesn't need to go on a roll back to make that trip.