Glad you are OK. If you do the dowel in the plughole thing make sure the dowel is long enough that it won't fall all the way in at the bottom of the stroke. It is way easier to get something into the cylinder than to get it out.
I agree about the 3.08 vs 3.55 gear ratio. 3.55 will trim some off your top end but at this rate you won't get up there any way. Everywhere else the 3.55 will be more responsive. But I think you need to check all of these other thing out. It's just part of the pain of making something run right.
