47-55.1 Eliminate draft tube options

[TX3100Guy]

The good friend I bought this truck from used to own a business restoring classic cars. He bought this from the window of the former owner, but never touched it in five years other than to hand crank the engine occasionally. But I have receipts and photos of a complete engine rebuild, so there aren't any old parts where it matters on this engine. Here is a photo of the engine underside up close -

In case, after I stopped crying and throwing up I called him for some advice. He gave me the name of an old guy in the area who runs an engine speed shop and has history back to the 60's and 70's at Bonneville. In any case, we just got off the phone and he remembered the truck from my friends shop, where it sat for a year until his retirement, and he provided a raft of advice and a plan.

First, he has another old Bonneville friend who will make a billet end cap for the engine and then he will do the work necessary to get the bearings right. He also said that the welding approach won't handle the torque applied to the harmonic balancer by the supercharger belt. He also suggested that having worked on superchargers for a long time, that the one key way on the crank and harmonic balancer will not handle the stress of the supercharger, so he would machine both to add a second key way. This is all my interpretation of what he suggested.

He's going to stop out next week after Christmas to look at the engine and setup, but it appears that the engine will be exiting the vehicle soon.