I'll be taking my first shake-down cruise today.. The motor is back together, all conditions are normal and I'm darn well ready to let her rip.
First off, I can't give enough kudos to Barry at Survival for stepping up to the plate and helping me out. He has access to one of the best tig welders in the Detroit area. They completely rebuilt the front driver's side of the intake, in the pushrod hole/water jacket area. Barry had his crew do a bunch of other machine work too, while he had it. After all the welding, machining and series of pressure checks the intake's now rock solid, unable for one to tell it's ever been repaired. I had to threaten an a$$ whoopin' to get Barry to accept money for all the work he and his people did.
Now that's customer service!
The intake went on the engine with zero leaks and freshly clearanced pushrod holes. I ran her for about 30 minutes before I dumped the first batch of
oil and filter. I adjusted the fan thermostat a little warmer to "cook off' any remaining moisture that might be in the engine and to get some good solvent action by the current
oil. There were no coolant or
oil leaks and the oil pressure is where it's always been since the engine was new. Ya gotta luv an accusump for pre-lubes during fire ups.
I dumped that 11 quarts of oil (which was pretty clean) and installed the new K&N oil filter and 11 fresh quarts of Rotella. As I said, I'll be taking her out this afternoon for the acid test. It'll also be the maiden voyage for the new pin-drive Vintage wheels. Let the fun continue ...
Dave