Got my parts today, took half a day off and made some real progress, and for once everything went pretty smooth.
I ordered Comp Cams seals this time, instead of the Cranes that I ordered last time, and don't ya know it....they came with that little plastic installer! Using that, along with the tool I ordered to help seat the seals, I flew through the heads in no time. Got them installed, threw in a couple of lifters and one rocker shaft assembly and measured for pushrod length. I went to my stash of parts and found a set of Crane chromoly pushrods that I had that were darn near the perfect length. My adjusters are bottomed out and I'll only have to back them off about one and a half turns to get proper lifter preload. I felt like I hit the lottery today
Anyway, after that, I wiped down the stock lifters, lubed them up and dropped them in, installed the valley pan and checked the RPM intake for fit. It fit perfect, so I laid it on, stabbed the distributor to locate it, and buttoned it up. Next, the water pump went on. Making some real progress now and I hope to have the engine completed and ready to install by Saturday. My stash of thermostat housings are all pretty ate up, so I had to order a new one. All the other parts are lined up and ready to bolt on.
A couple shots showing where I ended up by the end of today. Not bad considering the heads were still apart as of noon today.
Since this car had sat for about 10 years before I bought it, got drove for 2 years, then sat the last 8 years, I was a little concerned about the stock valve springs being on the week side, so I made the decision to use the Crane dual springs that I originally used on my old 390 with these heads. They never sat compressed for any length of time. I have some doubts as to whether or not I should have used them with the stock cam and lifters, but they were spec'd for a pretty mild solid cam with only .520 lift, so I'm hoping they won't cause any issues. I guess I'll find out.
I also got my 7" rims and slicks yesterday, so I just need to paint the rims and get them mounted. The 26" slicks are actually a little shorter than the stock tires that will be on the car, but I figure, if nothing else, it'll help with the stock rear gearing and getting the car off the line. It might have a little nose up attitude though. Either way, it'll look old school with the steel wheels. If you can't be fast, you ought to at least look cool while being slow