Engine Assembly

Today was a busy day! All in all it went fairly smooth, but not without problems.

Started the day cleaning up the intake manifold. Scrapping old gasket and making new ones and a little touch up paint.

After getting the paint on the manifold I made a water pump to head gasket and put some Perematex on it and stuck it to the water pump outlet.

Then I installed the head on the right (Drivers) side no issue. I then put the rocker assembly on and proceeded to break on of the 2 studs that not only help hold the rockers on but the right side of the valve cover (first pic below) .... grrrr Fortunately, there was enough thread left to still work. I will be looking for a replacement! These are hollow and have a hole about half way up, I assume to let oil in.

After installing the head I put the radiator hoses back on and tightened the clamps, installed the alternator bracket, alternator and belt.

Then I put the intake on and the carburetor and hooked up the gas lines and heat and oil pressure sensors.

I then installed the new distributor cap and the plug wires.

I think that covers the engine .... now I hooked up the exhaust. I had a bit of trouble here. They came off easily but were a pain to get back on ..... I still do not have the passenger side tightened down!

Added some water and checked the oil. The I put the steering column back down and bolted it tight ...slapped on the steering wheel and was ready to go!

Hook the battery back up and disconnected the coil. Turned it over a few times to pump up some gas and listen for major noises .... nothing heard. Put the coil wire back and fired her up. Other than being a bit loud and needing to warm up, she pretty much fired right up.

That's about all I had time for today. I had to clean the garage up and move the truck back to the wall so I could get another car in there.