Cracking plant runs No. 40 and No. 41, essentially recycle delayed coking operations, were conducted during October 1951 for several purposes. It was desired to obtain further data concerning the production and properties of approximately 700 F A.S.T.M. end point coker distillate from both raw and visbroken crude shale oils, and also, during a part of run No. 41, to investigate the possibility of producing a quantity of high softening point pitch by means of continuously removing the material as a liquid from a coke chamber. The test periods of runs No. 40 and No. 41 which were devote primarily to the production of coker distillate, were similar in operational details to several previous recycle delayed coking runs except that fresh feed was introduced to the flash chamber instead of the heater coil as had been the practice in the past. No particular advantage was realized by this change, either in yields or properties of distillate product. The part of run No. 41 devoted principally to continuous withdrawal of pitch from the system was the first entirely successful method of pitch production devised in the Rifle shale-oil refinery. It was found that pitch of any desired softening point could be produced by such a means, and that the process was flexible and easily controllable.