Actually ahead of you there. I looked through all the feeler guages I have at home and could find at the hardware shops\home depot\auto parts etc and none of them are wide enough. The best fit was almost 1/4" too narrow. I'm still a little leery of going with metal. After seeing the cracks in the one I made I don't want to risk the engine with a homemade one. If I go with metal it'll be a stock piece.

I'm planning to go to a bike shop sometime next week and see if they have a reed that I can use with little trimming. Had to put this project on the back burner for a while. Too many projects to do around the house and I finally have the weather to do them...at least my wife thinks so.

I've got some vacation time coming up in a few weeks so I'm hopefull to get it done then. I still have to finish the project this engine was intended for anyway so it's not like I'm in a real hurry to get the engine done.

And now I picked up (yet another) engine that looks like it'll need less work but I don't think it's going to have the power I need so I'm debating if I'm going to put the time in yet.

All this is for a 21lb airboat so I need to have enough thrust to pull it from a dead stop on grass. I don't think the newest engine will have what it takes. I don't intend to be running on grass but I'd like to make sure I have the power to move regarless of the surface I'm on.

I'll post more if\when I finally get things moving.

Thanks all for the ideas.

Richard