Hopefully Firing It Up This Week

Almost everything has been sorted out to fire this up (finally!)

- Oil is in and so is the coolant, and no leaks either place.
- Brake lines are run, and the new disc brake block is in place.
- The new transmission lines have been run.
- The inner fender wells are hung so I can mount the battery and new ignition.
- Power steering lines are run, and the return line has been modified for the Eaton pump.
- Radiator hoses have been run (had to do custom steel flex-hoses ... yuck!)

Left to do before starting the car...

- Finish cleaning, repairing and retaping the engine compartment harness.
- Hook up electrical in engine compartment.
- Finish running fuel line and fuel pump.
- Add trans fluid and check for leaks.
- Hook up Jacobs Electronics ignition.

- Turn key and hope is starts!

I will post more info after turning the key.

New Throttle Cable Installed!

The old throttle cable was in very poor condition, so as I work at putting things together to fire the motor, I added replacing the old one to my to-do list.

I ended up picking this up off the shelf from O'Reilly's Auto Parts for $25. Not too bad, all things considered. After removing the old cable, I cleaned up the stock bracket and bolted it in place on the intake. A couple of tweaks with the Channel Locs squared the cable up with the throttle arm on the carb.

The mounting post came in the kit and just replaced the ball-and-socket style that was on the carb. Using the existingthrottle cable hole, I mounted the new cable in place putting a couple of gentle bends in place to work around the valve cover and leave a little slack for any movement of the engine.

After measuring 37 times, I attempted to cut the cable casing with a hacksaw, as stated in the instructions. This left frayed ends on the stainless jacket, and made zero impact on the spring steel wound inner core after more than 10 minutes of cutting with a fresh blade. So, I grabbed the angle cutter with a cutoff wheel and finished the job in seconds leaving a very clean cut.

Once again I mounted up the cable casing to prep for adding the inner cable. Originally, on my vehicle, a 3/8" diameter pin was used from the factory to hook up the old cable. After about 30 seconds of drilling I realized that it was hardened and I needed a different approach to the pedal mount. I finally opted to drill the pedal. It took three tries to get just the right angle so the cable didn't drag along the lip of the aluminum fitting. No worries.

After that, it was simply a matter of inserting the steel cable, measuring, removing, cutting to length, adding it back, feeding it into the eyelet assembly and setting the set screw. I did opt to use the clunky plastic end piece that came with the kit and is supposed to be used with their special bracket assembly. I just used a small hose clamp to hold it on the end so the cable fed through the center and didn't rub on the spring steel inner core.

The finished product looks good and works great. I just need to spray a little lithium grease up the tube to keep it lubed. Probably should have done that before installing it. Oh well.

Radiator support is installed ...

Putting the front end together so I can fire the motor.

Adding a 460 serpentine set-up to my 429 engine...

I cleaned up the pullies and brackets and added them to the engine today. The other picture is what they looked like before cleanup on the donor 460.

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.