Details 51A....

A bit of midweek progress.... trimmed up the header gaskets to match the Crites individual header flanges.

Hopefully with any luck, I'll get the engine and transmission married and dropped into the car this weekend and maybe even the headers installed so I can keep moving forward getting things installed for the FINAL time.

Stay tuned to find out......

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Details 51....

Well after taking last weekend off to have some medical tests performed, I was back after it this weekend! Another scorcher upstairs but was able to make a bit of progress. Checked in all my goodies from Summit...

installed the fuel line onto the carb...

torqued the flywheel in place...

put a quart of transmission fluid into the torque converter...

repaired the threads in my crank snout and got the harmonic balancer installed correctly (amazing how easily things go together with the right tools!)....

then fought for two hours the transmission/jack/engine/floor before finally calling NO JOY and pulling the engine and transmission back out of the car and hooking them together on the floor.

I'll torque everything together next weekend and install the engine and transmission as an assembly. Hopefully won't be quite as big a battle as this weekend was!

Stay tuned........

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Details 50...

Well today Mother Nature and contrary parts kicked my azz!!!! Nothing more frustrating that trying to roll around a 600lb (??) engine hanging from an engine hoist on an uneven wooden floor in 100+ degree temps...

and then being so hot and exhausted you can't think straight and you have the harmonic balancer 90% onto the crank only to realize you have it on backwards! Pull it back off and then it fights you going back on until finally surrendering and popping it back off to wait for a cooler day!

On a positive note, the engine is in between the frames rails for good (fingers crossed!!) and the fan clutch came out pretty nice....

a bit of yellow zinc chromate on the center section section and some black on the spring and rear mounting foot and she'll look like new!

My butt was draggin' and there were a couple cold ones in the fridge calling out my name so I called it a day before I passed out from heat stroke!!!

Until next time....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Details 49....

A bit more progress today.... located my hard heater lines and pulled the retaining clip off so I could paint them

along with the engine oil dip stick, painted the harmonic balancer...

and blasted and cleared the aluminum section of the engine fan clutch.

I installed the engine mounts onto the block and then set about dry fitting the MT valve covers still trying to figure out how to spread them to fit correctly), Holley carb and spacer, oil filter and the Crites headers.

Looking pretty good in my book!! Next weekend I'll install the harmonic balancer and fuel pump, pop off the headers, carb and valve covers and set this baby between the frame rail for good!!

Stay tuned....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Details 48...

Well a day of regression.... was getting my all my stuff together to mount my harmonic balancer and guess what I found in the Ziploc bag will all the hardware and woodruff key? The damn oil slinger for the timing chain! Jumped on line to see if it was a necessity and a couple of the sites I trust both said "don't forget to reinstall the oil slinger", so two weekends of work went out the window as I broke everything down to access the timing set!

At least I know things are in order, LOL, and there will be plenty of paint on the 460 by the time it gets installed!!

I also rebuilt my AC idler pulley because the bearing seized up when I blasted it.

I was surprised that the original bearing said JAPAN on it...

but I guess by the mid '70s things had already begun to move offshore.

A bead of RTV to seal the outer cover back on and I will do a bit of beautification on the visible side to make it more appealing before spraying it satin black to match the other pulleys.

Next weekend, I plan on installing the engine mounts, rolling the engine over and touching up the top side before dropping the 460 into place.

Wish me luck.........

Until next time,

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Details 47....

Decent progress today after a couple slow weekends... Last weekend, water pump nipple opening threaded and and back side of water pump painted...

and intake painted.

This weekend, bypass hose nipple installed, intake dry fit...

intake installed....

bypass hose and clamps installed and masked, water pump reinstalled then top side of engine painted...

finally, distributor installed and carb dry fit before calling it a (sweltering!!) day.

Until next week........

ZEBRA 3 OUT