Another late night, or early morning, whichever you want to call it. Finally called it quits at 4:30 this evening, er morning, but not before I managed to knock out everything I needed to finish, with the exception of a couple minor things. All that's needed to start the engine is to put on my fuel line from pump to carb, fill it with antifreeze, fill the transmission and fill the gas tank.
I went over several details that I just didn't like, like the scrawny factory starter and battery cables. I made new cables with heavier gauge wire and soldered ends. While I was at it, I added a second ground from engine to chassis. You can never have too many grounds. I also managed to lose a torque convertor nut, and since I don't mess with automatics, of course I didn't have a spare around. With the holiday, the soonest I can get one ordered in is Wednesday or Thursday, and that was too long, so I found a 3/8 24 nut and put a grade 8 flat washer and lock washer on it, along with using red loctite on all of them. That should work ok. I should be firing it up tomorrow, er, today....whatever
Since there were a few pits on the deck between cylinders 1 & 2, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the head gaskets will hold water and compression at that spot.
Here's a couple shots of the engine, ready to go, except for the fuel line I mentioned. I also managed to lose one valve cover bolt, so I have to hunt one of those up tomorrow so they match.
I double and triple checked everything under the car, greased up the front suspension and steering, topped off the rear differential lube and got my transmission lines ran, so I'm ready to throw on the front tires and and finally get it back on the ground.
Here's a shot of the gauges I added, for some peace of mind, and so I know what kind of RPM's I'm turning. With the stock bottom end, I think I'll limit the RPM's to 4500, but I might go up to 5000 if everything seems to go smoothly. Hopefully there won't be much tuning to do since the only thing I changed that might influence it was adding the RPM intake. I think the Autolite carb jets are different than Holley's, and I don't have different sizes on hand, so if it does need some tweaking, I'll have to come up with a band-aid solution on that.
Time to get a few hours sleep, then back at it.