Yeah, they're Pacesetters. Got them for $285 slightly used, noticed the flaking about a year later. Stored winters, never driven in salt/snow since I've had them.

 

and I am +1 boat anchor

 

Made some decent progress tonight. Got the intake manifold and valve covers switched over. Next up is the timing cover.

 

installed the timing cover tonight. next step: optispark and water pump.

 

woh do you only get an hour or so a nite?

 

Usually I can spare a bit more than that. After work I drive 20 or so minutes to the shop, work for 2-3 hours tops, then drive 25 minutes back home. Tonight took a bit longer because I had to make an extra trip to pick up some thread locker for the cam sprocket bolts (of course, it's never at the first place you stop), and I was kinda confused about the CPS reluctor, so I had to spend some time researching that.

 

Things are coming together slowly but surely. Did some work on the accessory bracket.

As it looked coming off the car:


After cleaning it up a bit (sorry for crappy pic, but you get the idea):


Painted up:


It will be going on the new engine on Monday.

 

Getting there....



Looking at October 19 for the drop-in date

 

Getting closer and closer! My dad made the trip from Wisconsin this weekend to help me out, and we made some nice progress.

Got the trans installed, swapped over the wiring harness, and a couple other things. Pretty much all that's left is to coat and install the longtubes and to put on the balancer/pulley (didn't get the threaded rod from McMaster-Carr in time).



Found this hole melted into the wiring harness. Must've been touching the headers. Miraculously, it didn't melt through any of the wires.



We also installed a 1LE sway bar. Here's why:



We were also going to install an LS1 steering shaft, but I didn't know about the fact that it's oriented slightly differently than the stock steering shaft. I didn't have time to pound it out and separate it and reindex it, and I didn't have access to a welder. This and the fact that there was zero play in my rag joint, so I put the old one back in. Still on the fence if I'm going to install the LS1 one yet or not.

So pretty much everything's ready for the engine to go back into the car. My next free Saturday is the 19th, so I'd like to do the install that day.

 

So last night, I removed the oil pan from my old engine, just to see what it looked like inside. Surprisingly, I didn't see as much carnage as I was expecting. I did find this piece of aluminum:



And this piece:



Couldn't tell where they came from, though.