The engine is now back together as well. I had the heads looked at by a machine shop. The valve seats left a lot to be desired so they ground those and machined the top of the guides for positive valve seals.

I also had them machine the intake face of the heads. The heads have been worked on a couple times and the block has been decked. This added up to having intake fitment problems. Having the heads machined should have let the intake sit down lower on the engine. Previously, the holes in the intake were too high and it was hard getting the bolts started. After having the heads machined, the intake still didn't fit. To make a long story short, I tried two different Edelbrock intakes with the same result.(Air Gap and a Performer) I tried a Weiand X-Celerator and it fit perfectly. I ended up having my Air-Gap machined to fit the engine.

I bought a new set of rocker arms/shafts and reinstalled the cam block-off plate I had made years earlier.




Before I installed the intake, I bought a Pertronix distributor and checked to see how it fit. After reading multiple posts on this site, I made some changes. First of all, there was a lot of up and down movement in the dist shaft. I took the collar off the bottom and added another shim. This took most of the movement out but still left a little bit for thermal expansion.


Next, I looked at how the drive lug fit into the intermediate shaft slot. There was a LOT of slop between the two. I noticed some wear on the edges of the intermediate shaft slot so I bought a new one. The fit was slightly better but there was still way to much slop. With advice from this site, I peened the four corners of the dist drive lug with a punch. This expanded the metal and tightened up the fitment. Lastly, I installed a shaft collar onto the bottom of the dist shaft to keep the gear from "bouncing".


Then, I installed the intake manifold. At this point though, it had gotten cold so I couldn't paint the engine. I test fit my TTI headers and ran into a couple issues. The main issue is that my 360 came from a truck. The truck blocks must have an extra boss on the PS that the car blocks don't have. This extra boss interfered with the center header tubes. Some work with my angle grinder took care of the interference.




On Saturday, it was finally warm enough to paint the engine. On Sunday, I attached the trans and dropped the engine onto the K-member. I'm tired of seeing orange engines.(unless they are in stock restored cars) It's kind of like seeing a small block Chevy in every hot rod. I decided to go with a cast iron looking paint. I'm not 100% sure about it yet but I think it will look good in a blue engine compartment. The natural aluminum valve covers don't look the best IMO. A friend of mine photoshopped them black for me. I think they look a lot better black. I plan on running black accessores as well so it should all tie in together.






The trans cooler lines interfere with my aftermarket shifter bracket and the TTI headers. I think I'll need to make some custom cooler lines out of braided hose. Once I get the radiator fitted, I'll be installing the engine to test fit some things. I think the headers will be too low. If that's the case, TTI makes a shorty header that should give me more clearance.