67 SWB First Build

[Scurry67]

I spent a lot of evenings over the past two weeks chipping away at my engine to-do list. It was mainly prepping for starting the engine. I double checked my timing and made some small adjustments to my distributor. I verified i had good oil pressure while the distributor was out. It had great pressure (once i plugged the hole that I missed).

Next, I dumped two gallons of fuel in the tank and hooked up a gauge to my fuel regulator to make sure i had the correct pressure. During that check, I found a couple of small leaks that I had to fix. Same thing happened when I filled the radiator with distilled water. There were a couple of small leaks in the hose ends , but nothing crazy. Took a few minutes to fix it.

Installed my oil dipstick. I forgot I had a larger capacity oil pan so i had to add a couple of quarts. It’s all loaded up with some break in oil.

I went for my first start and found out my starter was too tight to the flex plate. It was catching and not retracting. I used a couple shims that i kept from the box.

Attempt #2 went much better. After a couple of cranks, the engine started. It only ran for a few seconds, and oh boy was I grinning ear to ear.

I’m hoping to do the break in at some point this week. I’m about done fabbing up some exhaust pieces to connect to the ram manifolds. I figured I don’t want to be throwing flames in the engine bay

[raggedjim]

Always exciting (and a bit nerve racking) doing a first start! Nice job, Rg