After much whining, scraping/cleaning/painting parts, getting wet,spending $ ("oh it's too nice to use THIS alternator now...")
the .040 360 hydro-roller is IN the Wifes car.
Got her started up without too much drama,barely gets down to say a 1500 idle, then dies suddenly,hard to restart.Tried different carb, same results,different distrib, same results.(worth mentioning ALL parts are known running stuff from old motor just 4 weeks ago)
Dies completely when I drop in gear (TF)

Now the confession...
Seems like the block and/or heads are milled a wee bit, bolts on the old Torker would not line up.(intake at least 1/8" high maybe more).
As the intake was free,and had some thread issues, I did not feel bad about egging out the holes 1/8 plus DOWN, then Hylomar'ed everything in place and bolted her up.
We also painted the engine bay, and as I was very reluctant to scrape all the grounding areas, I ran 12 gauge ground "jumpers" with ring terminals from the braided block ground at the ECU to voltage regulator and starter solenoid, and all that jazz seems OK.
Again, smooths out around 3 grand, but still ragged, shot timing at about 35 total (what should initial be ?)still hard starting, dies off hard to restart.
Obviously I'll end up pulling the intake,and having one cut for this motor,but I'd sure like
to be sure I'm on the right track before making more work for myself.
Please help, please round table discuss?
I am in no position to discount ANY theories just yet...
Thanks, Casey