Working Toward Starting The Engine!

Working on trying to get the engine started on Monday, and I have a buddy coming over to help out for the day. Lots of stuff done, and lots more to go if we are to get it running. Here is a rundown of the last couple of days of what I've accomplished, and a few pics for fun!

I started out the weekend cleaning up the distributor and starter. The distributor (cap, base, wires and all) was painted blue, and where it wasn't blue, it was dirty and oxidized. I disassembled, cleaned and painted it to dress it up. The vacuum advance is paint chrome which give a nice finish. Not really chrome-like, but a nice shine for cheap, and far better than what I uncovered.

The starter was an even tone of oil and dirt covering surface rust. Once again, disassembled, cleaned up, and sprayed. This will sit behind a header, so it doesn't need to be perfect. I just couldn't put it back dirty.

Then I installed the heads and headers. What a pain! I made the headers myself and the passenger side wasn't too bad, but the driver's side was a bear. I had to pull the steering column and drop the steering box to get them in. I also had to "massage" them a bit up around the head as I couldn't test fit the last two pipes without tearing the front end apart, and I was off by about 1/4". No worries since this isn't going to be a super high performance vehicle. I wanted headers, and these should WAY outperform stock cast iron truck manifolds that were on the car.

Last, but not least, I polished up the valve covers I have. That meant wet sanding with 320, 600, 800, polishing with a Mother's Power Ball, and then hand polishing with a product called Autosol from Eastwood. In the end, I got the bright, satin finish that I was looking for. The covers are used, and they have "character marks", but I didn't want perfect, or highly polished.

I hope to be posting more pictures in the next few days that include a running engine,but we'll have to see.