What a weekend! I don't care if I sound like a broken record but man I've got some GREAT friends and family. I'm always astounded why these folks continue to support my projects and will be forever grateful.
On to the update for those not in the BH.
Prior to this weekend, I was tasked with dressing the motor but first, I had to replace the bum crank hub seal in the timing cover. In theory, this shouldn't have been a big deal but I have a special gift and ended up putting my face into the throttle body, effectively giving me a nice gash on my cheek. I was pressing the crank hub on the crank snout with a homemade tool. It was a stubborn bastard and one of the wrenches slipped while I was going at it full force. After the bleeding stopped, the hub was fully pressed on and we were ready to continue.
Old seal
A little while later, I finished up dressing the motor in preparation for the big install day. My dad spent hours hand polishing the accessory bracket. He played it off like it wasn't a big deal but I know how long this process takes. It came out great!
While giving the bracket one last hit on the bench polisher, I decided to injure myself again. I was careless and didn't have the polisher bolted down very well. When the buffer hit an edge on the bracket, it sprung free and landed on my forearm. Suffice to say, its still healing....same goes for what little pride I had left.
I figured I would have less chance hurting myself by gapping plugs while watching TV. This was uneventful. I went with NGK BR7EF plugs gapped at 0.28. These are a non-projected, 2 step colder plug.
This past Friday, I took PTO from work, loaded the Yukon and had the car towed to Pal Performance. I arrived while the sun was shining so I gave her a quick bath and we put the bird inside the shop. Adam and I slapped on some Road Wrap product to give the paint a little extra protection (not shown in pic below).
Before getting the engine prepared for install onto the k-member, we installed the new plugs, headers with new gaskets & ARP bolts, coil packs, new pilot bearing, SFI bell housing w/motor plate, McLeod twin disk clutch, etc.
On to the K it goes!
Trans installed as well.
Things went quiet for a few hours as we wrestled the k-member and engine into the car. With my car, its always 10lbs of **** into a 5lb bag. Everything eventually went in. I had a moment where I thought something was wrong with the clutch fork/pull-out bearing but thankfully I was just dreaming.
We were approaching 5PM (started at 8:30AM) and we had a few options. Stop here with much of the major items done, or rally and push towards a potential first start. We decided to keep going....
We got literally everything in and connected. I turned the key for power and everything lit up. Unfortunately, Matt and Adam caught a fuel leak where the regulator goes into the back of the rail. They tried to give it a quick kiss with a wrench but the issue didn't go away. We assume it is a bum o-ring but rather than pull off the rails and attempt a quick fix, this is something better addressed with a clear head. It was now 8:30PM so we called it a night.
Since it was cold, dark and getting late, I decided to get the car towed the next day (Sunday - Today). We got some breakfast, strolled over to the shop and called to have it towed home. The car is now back in the garage and I will tinker with the fuel leak issue likely next weekend or sometime this week.
Overall, I can't believe how much got done in the weekend. I can't wait to get this thing fired to hear that whistle.
