New Year 2010

First day back at work for the new year of 2010! For many, not such a day of excitement, especially if you don't care for your job. If, however, you are self employed like me, there is a better chance that you are doing work you like, so the fresh new year of work ahead should make for a good day.



But I must admit, as I came in this morning, it was with anything but an attitude of expectation. In fact I was not looking forward to it at all, and I knew the one reason why. Taxes. And not even the amount of the taxes; after all, I have been paying in estimated taxes all year, so its not as if there is a "big hit" coming other than the normal one that comes with the 4th quarter payment.



No, the discouragement was due to the vast amount of time that will be spent preparing for taxes. First there is inventory. Every part I have in stock had to be counted. Now the cost of all those parts has to be looked up and recorded. Hours upon hours will be spent going over records to be sure every receipt was properly categorized and then entered into the correct space on so that some time before April 15th an accountant can spend less than an hour transforming all of my figures into something that only he and the IRS can decipher. I estimate that I lose at least a week of production every year preparing for taxes. In other words I work a full week (or more) with no pay just to determine how much the government will take from me. No.... doesn't put me ion the best of moods.



However, things took a turn for the better when I put a set of heads on the flow bench this morning. Just before closing up on new years eve, I had put the finishing porting touches on a set of Iron Sportster heads. For years I had avoided porting these heads like the plague, because the grinding dust from the cast iron would make me sick for the week following any venture into modifying them. Live and learn though; a year or so back I realized that if I used a mask while porting cast iron heads I could avoid such a reaction (DUH!)

On this set of heads,I reached a new personal best for Iron XL, with the intakes flowing 259 cfm at .600" valve lift (@28 inch test pressure). That also happens to be the same cfm that the dedicated manifold that I use for Shovel/XL heads on the flow bench is capable of flowing by itself. In other words, the heads have reached the flow limit of the manifold testing through said manifold. Not too shabby!



If I am not mistaken, that adds up to three porting "milestones" for 2009. Earlier in the year I reached the same results on Shovelheads, with the heads flowing as much through the manifold as the manifold will flow alone. The third was reaching 300 cfm on a set of '06 and later stock Twin Cam head castings (304cfm @ .600 lift to be exact).



Looking back at these accomplishments managed to take the sting out the Government waste that is our tax system. Well, ....at least temporarily.