Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

the harmonic balancer went on, the crank shaft pulley went on and this thing was beginning to look like a long block

[Gregski]

nest it was time for the mandatory Vortec style intake manifold to go with our new(ish) vortec Cylinder heads - the V cut is different in traditional Small Block Chevy heads valley than the Vortecs

we used some nice thick Fel-Pro gaskets on the heads and a nice 1/8 inch bead of Ultra Black RTV gas maker on the China walls in the front and the back of the block, making sure some went down into the three pre drilled holes for better anchoring

[Gregski]

next the brand new Thermostat housing went on minus the thermostat (not recommended for engine break in) and the Fun Level spiked back up to 11.0

[Gregski]

the water pump and the distributor found its way to the engine, and man doesn't it look great!

(The Greg was getting excited at this point, all that hard work paying off)

check out how Awesome that crank pulley turned out, and how clean everything looks, I will post some before and after shots of the dirty engine compared to the clean one, man its so much nicer to wrench on now

[Gregski]

put the valve covers on just for fun

[Gregski]

Headers go on - YEAH BABY!!!

Don't you just love the new darker Cast Iron paint on the headers better than that white looking silver I had on them before?

The stock Vortec style spark plug wire brackets don't fit with the headers, the headers get in the way, no big deal but just letting you know.

[Gregski]

carburetor went on just for fun and we began routing the spark plug wires, better to figure them out now than while the engine is in the truck

I think these are just the dime a dozen Duralast plug wires from Autozone, so I may buy another duplicate set and between the two sets I should have enough right length ones to route them all under the headers and around the back of the motor (plan on using the wire socks on them to circumvent the heat off the headers, plus those booties will be hidden out of sight)

[Gregski]

put the 3" inch Mr. Gasket air cleaner on the carb, and I think it looks whimpy and flat as a pancake, plus I have enough threads on the sticky stick to go at least one inch taller, so I may just buy a new one, ha ha

[Gregski]

now you may be asking yourself why put the air cleaner on when you may have to take it all off to drop the engine in the truck, but I tell you it is so nice to mock things up outside the truck, and sure enough after adjusting my plug wire order one over, counter clockwise so that #1 points at the #1 cylinder (not mandatory, but I prefer it) my air cleaner hits the plug wires

so I think one of them 1 inch Phylharmonic carb spacers is in The Greg's near future, hee hee not only will it gives me the clearance I deserve but I think the fuel air mixture will be colder, denser, and more happier - I hear them spacers really make a difference, any of youz runnin' them?

[Gregski]

then it was time to try something I've been dying to try - the Alan Grove style mid mount alternator bracketry

and I love where it sits now, and although it came with its own 3" spacer I prefer to use the stock one as it is more than just a tube it has a bracket that bolts to the back of the alternator, so its much sturdier

[Gregski]

however now the stock 44.5 inch V belt part number 15445 is about 2 inches too long, so a trip to the parts house will have to be made for a shorter belt, as I do see they have a 15425 part number which translates to a 42.5 inch long one

[flashed]

Looking great .

[lkfldredneck]

Great looking engine man! love it when you can see a pretty sbc sittin there ready to go

[Gregski]

another issue I may have with the relocated alternator is the location of the electrical plug, I may have to clock this bad boy over to a new location or procure a new one

now there was a gentlemen on here who knew all things alternator and explained the part numbers of ones that had the plug in different spots, if you are that gentlemen can you give us a refresher, if not and you know who it is, could you PM me or him, thanks so much

[Gregski]

Forum mates, one last issue and that's about all the problems I have encountered so far

My water pump is eating fan/pulley bolts like their going out of style, do you guys know if these newer water pumps come with METRIC threads or something? cause as you can see the fan is only held on with two bolts that made it in ok, or did they?

[Gregski]

Well that's it for today gentlemen. I swear I want to cuddle up with that engine and sleep in the garage tonight, lol.

I will either take tomorrow off ( Easter ) or start cleaning the engine mounts, cross member and frame rails for some POR15 action. The last thing we want is for this freshly assembled enjin to just sit there in my garage, it needs to go vroom, and the sooner the better.

[enaberif]

1) I ran a spacer not sure if it made any difference but the truck ran good
2) Retap the holes or up size the bolts you will want 4.

[Jake Wade]

If you have a set of factory Vortec wire retainers, by all means use them. I have used them many times with headers, they are great. All it takes is some minor clearancing of the header flange where the looms bolt to the head.

You can buy air cleaner spacers for cheap available in various heights if you didn't want to go the carb spacer route.

Did you set the valves?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Jake Wade

Did you set the valves?

Did you mean adjust the valves, if so than yes, no wiggle plus a 1/4 turn. That's a starting point anyway, if they chatter they can be readjusted.

[Jake Wade]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Did you mean adjust the valves, if so than yes, no wiggle plus a 1/4 turn. That's a starting point anyway, if they chatter they can be readjusted.

As long as each lobe was on the base circle when you did it.

I use the EO/IC method. Never have to pull the covers back off.

[rusty76]

Is that a clutch less fan? I changed the water pump out on mine a few years back�� And had no problems.

[Gregski]

Good morning and Happy Easter everybody (who won't be offended by that these days, the rest of you don't read that, ha ha)

So as I sit here on a Sunday morning enjoying my Kona Hawaiian coffee I figure I would do some Spark Plug Wire Math - SPWM.

Last night I took off all my existing current stock AutoZone Duralast (I think) plug wires and laid them out on my workbench. Then I sorted them by length and measured each one, here are the results.

3 @ 22"
only 1 @ 26"
3 @ 32"
only 1 @ 40"

I entertained both routes: under the headers as well as simply over them the traditional way, and you may have guessed it by now, the wires I need the most of are the 26" and the 40" LOL

but here is a Fun Fact for you all - if we assume the standard 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 firing order with #1 on the dizzy pointing at the #1 cylinder, there are two, and exactly two problem wire runs, #2 and #3 are opposite on the dizzy to their respected cylinder head, those be the ones requiring the longest run, if we are to run them neatly around the backside of the dizzy, using the 40" wire(s) if we only had two of them, ha ha, The Greg may pick up another identical wire set, nothing like buying 16 wires to get 8 good ones out of them, or The Greg could put his Bib Boy Pants (BBPs) on and make his own darn wires.

heres a really cool simple wire run diagram, I like how they run the #2 and #3 wires through and across the dizzy instead of around it, now why didn't I think of that?

[rustyescott]

google madsen hei dist cap

[rustyescott]

crossfire dist cap

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Jake Wade

If you have a set of factory Vortec wire retainers, by all means use them. I have used them many times with headers, they are great. All it takes is some minor clearancing of the header flange where the looms bolt to the head.

Thanks Jake, motivated by your comments, I fandangled with the passenger side (the easier side in my case) using the stock Vortec head retainers and clips, and though I used them in an unconventional way by attaching them using the valve cover bolts, this might could work, after I get the proper wire lengths sorted out, also being a perfectionist I may trim off that piece of each bracket with the hole punch hole in it, not sure what that was for anyways, probably will find out as soon as I cut them off, lol

now gentlemen, please don't t think I am obsessing over this, though it may seem that way, all The Greg is trying to do is put off the cleaning of the engine bay, ha ha