Nice Deal!!!

 

They actually sent me a link to their Ebay store item number, so it was very simple to do the purchase!

 

Lots of cleaning and painting today, and a little assembly. Got the oil pump pickup welded on, and assembled, plus the pan and timing cover. So painted them up, and cleaned and painted the heads too.



Checked the block casting number, and it comes up as a 1969-79 Vette or truck 2 or 4 bolt block, 185-370 hp. So does this mean I can tell everyone I have a "Vette motor!

 

As of today, no it doesn't work with my fabricated valve covers! It would work with tall, but the width of my fabricated covers turned out to be too wide, and the width was an issue.
Dropped the engine into the chassis this morning. A real battle to get the cross bolts back into the mounts for some reason. It's almost as if the bosses on the new motor were taller, as the mounts were too close together! Never ever had this problem before! I ended up having to drill out the holes in my Moroso mounts to get it to fit. Could have gone to smaller 7/16" bolts maybe, but didn't have any long enough.
Set the heads on and ran the bolts in, but no torqueing yet. I wanted to sit the intake on and see if my fabricated valve cover would fit, and they wont. One more thing that I'll have to hunt up now. I have a pair of black, and an old pair of chrome, but neither looks good, so I am looking around for something vintage. Hopefully find a pair at the swap meet in April. If I have to I'll toss the crappy ones on until then.

 

Got the trans buttoned up to the engine, and converter bolted up. Then torqued the heads down, and set all the lifters. Primed the engine with oil and my priming shaft. Might have to do it again if it sits too long until I start it, but wasn't sure about room to do it later. I set the intake on and started putting bolts in all the holes, but the hardest bolts to get at had to give me trouble lining them up too! Fought those two under the plenum on each side for a couple hours, and finally was able to get them started by grinding a taper on the end of the bolts so they could find their way into the hole easier. Wrenching them down is easy with a flexible end ratcheting box wrench, but I thought I'd never get them started!
At least it's on there now, and I can move on to other pieces!

 

Just got a call from a friend who gets the local newspaper. He said the paper did an article on the Portland Roadster show Friday, and used the picture of the Austin that they took last year at the show! Thought that was pretty funny. Guess they didn't send a reporter to cover it this year! He cut the article out for me to save.

 

Very cool!

 

Dropped my headers off at the blaster this morning and had them media blasted to prep for repainting. Only took them a short while, and they were ready! Brought them home and shot them with VHT ceramic base paint.


Got a few little things done on the car, but not much. Picked up some vintage Mr Gasket finned aluminum valve covers from Fleabay last night for under $50. They need cleaning and polishing, but should be a snap compared to the intake! The black ones are just to keep the dust out for now.

 

Coming right along. And lucky you, some more aluminum to polish. Are you going to open up a polishing side business? I have some stuff............

 

As I told one of my buddies who mentioned the same thing. Let me know when you're headed over, so I can be sure I'm gone!
The valve covers are old polished, so wont take but a few minutes with the rouge and buffer to look good.