Everything came together on Sunday. After installing the exhaust and wiring the choke, and installing the new distributor, we checked all the fluid levels and it started right up. I cant wait until everything seals and I have time to tune it properly.

 The only problems I had were the Tranny shop gave me the wrong torque converter so I had to put the old one in. Installing the exhaust was more of a nightmare than anticipated. Having to replace the harmonic balancer. And I had to buy a stock distributor at the last minute, not my first choice.

 Over a year of buying new parts and bolting everything on to my tired old motor. The guys at the the machine shop were taking bets on when I would blow it (not a very optimistic crowd). Finally being able to pull the motor and having it bored .030, new pistons, balanced and finally putting it back together.

 And then hooking up the battery and turning the key, and it came to life on the first start.  After all the time effort and patience, frustration (wrench throwing) it was all worth it. Thanks for all the help.

Andy

 Good goin Andy, may it live long and prosper!

Dave

Next is the first two black stripes down the driveway...now thats a reward!! 

Atta boy, Andy!! Now, park it and never start it again! (jes kiddin!) Congrats!

thats the hobby !  and now tuning... i also worked more on the car than driving it... why not , the pleasure counts ! let that summer come for our babys to smell asphalt...

I'm taking it down today to have the exhaust welded. Right now it and sounds like I threw a bucket of clamps under the car.

Next week it goes to the tranny shop for a leak at the filler tube.

Then it will be done until I start the suspension. Cant wait

 

Andy

The filler tube should just be a press fit.  Just pull it out and clean the internal mating hole and the external tube surface with some laquer thinner, then whip off the surface again  with some acetone.  Smear some clear silicone sealer around the outside of the tube and push the tube back into the hole. 

We were installing the pully that attaches to the balancer and realized that one of the pully bolt holes on the balancer was stripped. I pulled the old balancer off, bought another identical one and installed it. I had to stay with the stock balancer because the motor itself and all the parts in it were balanced with the the stock harmonic balancer. I installed it myself with a puller/press from Pep Boys. I had some good advice from Adam's Apple and a few others on what to do. The old one came off real easy and the old one went on in a few minutes. Because of all this I had to wait an extra two weeks to stab the motor. But it was worth the wait. The difference in horse power has been dramatic. 

The motor is the original and I dont think it was ever re-built. So the bottom end of the motor was tired. After bolting on the heads,intake cam and carb. It went downhill real quick. Thats when we pulled it and had the long-block done. I dont recommend testing new parts on an old block. As time passed the oil slicks under the car got bigger and bigger. As I think back, I definitely wouldn't go about building the car the same way. I could have damaged my original block to the point of no return.

 Now I'm looking for a chasis dyno. I think there is one here in Colorado Springs, I really want get it dialed in and find out what I have for horse-power.