Since I was a month old

Judging by the date on the package, this spark plug wire guide has been in this GM package since I was less than a month old. It wasn't cheap, but it's perfect and will be one of the countless little things that makes this car great — or at least as great as I can make it.

NOS

There are four brackets that support the spark plug wires and the ignition shielding on this engine. Everything related to this huge collection of parts are reproduced in the aftermarket, but having new old stock parts where it counts is important. These have to be installed as the engine is assembled, so we're getting them now.

One last bracket has been found and ordered to complete the set.

Lost

These two NOS temperature sending units took a month to get here from California, but they finally arrived.

NCRS

Say what you will about the National Corvette Restorers Society and the insufferable minutiae that they pedal in, their judging manuals include information that is not contained anywhere else. Not even the factory assembly manual has information about assemblies like the engine, transmission or radio that arrived at the assembly plant ready to put on to the car.

Case in point is the ignition coil. The assembly manual is not at all helpful in figuring out what ignition coil came on this car originally, but the NCRS judging manual goes into all sorts of detail and it solved the riddle. This is a genuine Delco part that is now reproduced under license from GM. It was not cheap, but it's an identical part since it was made using the original molds.

Inside and out

The heat shield on the bottom of the intake manifold was hiding a lot of grime that needed to be cleaned out. Any of this could possibly have ruined a freshly rebuilt engine.

The heat shield was riveted on, so those rivets had to be ground off.

Once the heat shield was separated from the manifold, both were run through the media-blast cabinet.

The results look so much better.

Rather than drilling out the rivets and taking the risk of having the new rivets not hold well, the heat shield was welded to the remains of the old rivets, making this a simpler and more secure repair.

Everything was pickled to prevent surface rust and this will be set aside for reassembly after the engine is put back together.

Ordered both

This set of ARP flywheel bolts are listed for 1987 and up engine with a one-piece rear main bearing seal, which should not fit this car, but they are closer to the originals.

Both this and the set that are advertised to fit this car were ordered. It's a luxury to do that sort of thing, but it's the only way to be sure to have the best solution available.

NAPA

Our local NAPA store offers flywheel machining service through a local person with a flywheel grinder - who knew? Turned out really well.