One small thing today

With parts still on their way, backordered and the heads still at the shop, the only thing to do today was to restore the distributor clamp. Pretty boring, but we're at a stage that will be slow to see progress.

The last of the tasks

The final three freeze plugs and the head dowels are out of the engine block. It was a struggle, but worth it to save some labor at the machine shop.

A few parts, including a clutch inspection cover and intake manifold bolts, came in as well.

Timing

The seal for the timing cover is in. It, along with the reproduction bolts and the timing tab, will go into storage until the engine is ready for assembly.

In the middle of the road

About 10 years ago, this Snap-On piston hammer was laying in the middle of the highway before this guy scooped it up. It's not seen much use until today, but it came in clutch to drive out the pistons from the block.

These pistons will be set aside until this engine is being rebuilt since I would expect that the rods will be fine to reuse.

There is a little more scoring evident now that the pistons are out, but nothing very deep. The machine shop should be able to take care of this and get this block ready to rebuild.

Better than predicted

The intake manifold, once rusty, looks brand new again after a few days in acid and a little bit of elbow grease.

A die grinder and a few tools with wire-wheel attachments took of the remaining engine paint and left this looking shiny and new.

This will get a light coat of rust converter before being set aside.

Can't wait to see this under a shiny coat of orange paint.

Out of the bath

The intake manifold is largely free of rust and looks great. What is left is mostly the remnants of the engine paint and the rust that it is covering up. A quick once-over with a Dremel tool and this should look brand new.

This weekend, this will be cleaned up and rust proofed.

Rust

The intake manifold is correct by date and casting, but it's really rusty. Since this cannot be sandblasted, it's spending a few days in a tank of acid to remove the rust without risking putting sand into a freshly rebuilt engine.

Overnight, it already looks better with about a third of the rust gone.

A few days from now, this should look as good as new.