Friday, May 27, 2011

Honey do list done and still some progress to report.

Well, I spent half the day doing some honey do projects that I started last weekend. I figured I had better get them done so I can get the ladder out of the dining room before we have guests come over for Memorial Day and Isaac's Birthday. Dixie found some lights that my parents had given us and decided she liked them so I put them up. Well that turned into wanting new lights for the hallway. We couldn't find some that matched. We found the style we wanted but not the right color. I told Dixie I could paint them to match and so we bought the lights and some paint and that's what I did last weekend. Well, we like the new lights so much we decided to paint the chandelier over the dining room table and the ceiling fan to match. The chandelier has a few runs in it but you can't really notice them and the ceiling fan turned out really good. That one was a pain because I had to take it completely apart so I didn't paint the fan motor. Anyways on to the fun stuff.

I had the whole day to myself so after I finished the lights I went out into the garage. I was able to get the R/H exhaust manifold on completely. That was an ordeal because of everything hooked to it. I had to go and look at some pictures I took before I pulled the motor out for a blueprint to get it all back together. Luckily I take a lot of pictures. My buddy says I would be 10 time faster if I didn't take so many pictures. Well, it helped me out this time!
 Here is the R/H side exhaust manifold. As you can see it has the A/C on it and some EGR valve hooked to it also. It wasn't nearly as easy as the other side.
I had a small worry in the back of my mind the whole time because of the dipstick. With everything going on on the right side I was concerned I would have problems with it being in the way. It worked out perfectly and even looks like it was made to be there. One less thing to worry about.
 It is even easy to pull out so you can check your oil. I will say it once more, (CHECK YOUR OIL REGULARLY!!!) yes I am talking to you Larry!
 My other worry in the back of my head was if the belts and pulleys were going to line up with a different harmonic balancer on it. I decided to temporarily install most of the accessories so I could make sure they lined up before I got it into the car. They lined up great.
 Here is the other side. As you can see I have not got the spark plug wires run yet. That's because I decided to change my mind again. I was going to run them over the top of the engine but I don't like how they lined up especially on the right side. So I have again decided to go back to the original way Chevy did it and hope I never have to change a plug wire. It is definitely the best way to run them for the exhaust but it is not very user friendly.
 Here you can see the timing tab I added and the line I put on the balancer. I think it will work great. There are only 2 major things left to do before I install the engine. I need to get the spark plug wires routed and I still need to clean the engine bay. I am really tempted to get a trailer and haul it down to the local car wash so the mess stays there and not in my garage. I haven't decided what I am going to do yet. Hopefully next weekend this car will come back to life and maybe even burn a little rubber. I will have to start looking for a 2nd set of hands to guide the motor in. For some reason I don't think Dixie will want to help with that.

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