Several weeks ago we took the 56 Vintage racer to the track to test out some of the modifications we made over the winter. We were making good gains on sorting out the suspension when disaster struck. Dr. Rauscher was driving and I was riding when I heard knocking and squeaking noises coming from the engine. He was in a zone and had not realized we had a problem until I smacked him on the shoulder and pointed to the oil pressure gauge that read a big fat 0! We slowly drove it to the pits and loaded it up. Got it home and had 60 psi oil pressure but still knocking noises. A week or so later I took the oil pan off after draining out what oil I could get out considering the angle of the pan and the front oil plug placement. I put my hand down into the residual oil and pulled out about a Dixie cup of red silicone in chunks and strings. The engine builder if you could call him that had put so much silicone on every gasket surface that a bunch of it came loose and worked its way down into the pan, pluging up the oil pickup screen. There was even red silicone under the head bolts! Silicone does have a place besides breast implants, it really helped me when I was into Corvairs, but don't let your engine builder do what this moron did and use it in place of proper gaskets. We were going to have to build a legal engine for the car but didn't want to do so until winter. This little trick cost us a good 350HP 327. Just my experience. GL
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