Chicagoland Chapter is blessed with a number of great vendors. ANS Engineering and Performance hosts our annual March meeting, technical session and chilli cookoff. That is a great combination on a cold winter day.

This year we featured Paul Ferry with HRpartsNStuff and Mike Phillips with Automotie Machine & Performance. These are great vendors as well with a wealth of knowledge that readily share. We all had an excellent time.

Sunday; February 8, 2004;

Technical Session

Brad Crowe's shop Franklin Park, IL

Feb. Meeting and Technical Session "Review" By….Krankshaft Kenny

Club member Brad Crowe hosted our Feb. meeting & Technical Session at a convenient & easy to find location in Franklin Park once again - his 2nd year in a row. Thanks, Brad! The ceiling mounted gas heater kept us all nice & comfortable on the cold Feb. day. And, the food provided by the club and various members was great - 3 different kinds of soups, multi-layer sandwiches, coffee, pop, cookies and sweets! Jeez! It all was good. Frankly, as I see it, there is only one down side to being part of this club - my bulging waistline, due to all that great food this club provides at many of their meetings. The Tech Session was excellent, and not to be missed. If you missed it, shame on you. What were you doing, that you could not come? Watching numerous replays of the Janet Jackson 'Half Time' dance? Powder coating some under-the-hood parts? Taking a paid tour of Mr. Chrome II's trophy room? Here's some highlights of what went on…

Richard Sliwinski of Precision Engine & Machine ……847-903-9585 Located a little north of Elgin, in Sleepy Hollow, Rick seems like he really knows his stuff about engines and cylinder heads. He brought with him a sample of a V6 head, with one of the chambers and its intake and exhaust ports ported and polished by him, in stark contrast to the other 2 chambers and their ports as untouched, from the factory. What a work of beauty he performed on that one chamber and ports. Rick talked extensively on all the theories and physics of air flow in, around and through a cylinder head and its valves….and also on valve types, sizes, grind angles, spring technology (both old and new), lifters, cams - ramps, lobes, bearings, clearances…..oil types & compositions & weights…..and at least a dozen other things. He was a wealth of info, and provided a hand-out sheet describing his services and pricings. Rick will be glad to answer any of your questions.**** Four star presentation

Chris DeMik of DuPont Performance Coatings ……815-263-5937 Chris has a long history working for DuPont and is quite the authority on "all that it takes to take a piece of raw sheet metal to a painted thing of beauty". It was almost unbelievable to see his demonstration of how to get back the beautiful shine on a scratched base coat/clear coat painted auto fender. He started with a wet sanded black painted fender - the wet sanding left a milky white haze on the clear coat. In demonstrating the proper liquid compounds and proper buffing wheel materials and speeds to use, in a matter of moments he brought back the perfect glossy black shine, completely scratch-free. It was amazing! This is a guy that knows his stuff! He talked about the typical thickness (in mils) of the various coatings in a paint job - etcher, primer, base coat & clear coat. He even had a 'gizmo', that when placed on the surface of a piece of painted sheetmetal, would measure (in mils) the total thickness of all materials painted on the metal. This, he said, was very important to know to properly choose what cutting and polishing compounds to use on the surface, without causing damage. Feel free to call Chris with any questions.****

Jim McGowan of The Quad Shop……815-874-4884 For all you NA (normally aspirated) guys, who live and breath carbuertors like us turbo Regal guys live and breath turbos, Jim's wealth of knowledge about QuadraJets was impressive. In addition to having several carbs on display, Jim presented many facts and info via a slide projector as Brad Crowe darkened the room. Starting at the beginning, with the decoding of the numbers stamped on QuadraJets, Jim showed us how the numbers translated into what motor division (Buick, Olds, Pontiac, Caddy, etc) the carb was built for, what series of years it was used in, what day and in what year it was manufactured……and, armed with this knowledge, any of us could browse a parts swap meet and instantly know what used or refurbed carb we might pick up from a vendor's table. Jet sizes, flow numbers, accelerator pumps……you name it, and Jim talked about it. He's located not far from all of us, in Rockford, IL and has been a long standing source of stock rebuilds as well as power modifications on QuadraJets. He also buys used QJ's. Another **** Four Star Tech Session presentation. Give him a call with your needs.

Sunday; January 11, 2004;

Technical Session

Casper's Electronics Mundeline, IL

John Spina hosts one of the more heavily attended meetings of the season. This was not exception. The technical sessions featured John with the latest developments in Turbo Regal electrical system improvements, and Jimmy Hussion presenting the latest evolution in transmission technology to hold up to our little six cylinder engines.