Safely Orange

The engine is orange now and will spend the week curing in the shop.

Cleaning the engine took most of the morning, but eventually it was free of engine oil and bits of paint so it could be primed and p painted.

The Eastwood 2K engine paint was used for the first coat, but it was clear that it was not going to cover very well, so the good old Motor Coater pint was loaded in a paint gun and used to get everything slicked in.

Stripper

A chemical paint stripper was used to remove all the rattle-can engine paint from the shop that reworked the heads, a messy job to be sure. This is ready to be degreased, primed and painted tomorrow.

Finally together

The engine is all together with all the parts on that were on the engine when the factory painted engines for these cars.

The push rods went in and the valves were adjusted in a way that should allow the engine to run without opening the valve covers to revisit that adjustment.

Now the engine needs to be prepared for paint. This will require the rattle-can paint to be chemically stripped from the heads and the paint on the oil pan to be prepped before the entire engine is stripped of any oil and painted Chevy Orange.

Way ahead of me

Rockers were installed this morning and a push rod checker tool was used to figure out the correct length push rods that are needed. At 7.144 inches, the wear pattern made in a Sharpie mark on top of the valves was centered and narrow.

The Howards cam and lifter kit didn't come with push rods, but it didn't take much digging to figure out that Howards offers a 7.144-inch push rod set meant for this conversion.

It was nice to see that the measurements taken were good and everything has gone together as it is supposed to, but it probably would have been easier to have purchased this all at once and trusted that it would all work together.

Clearance

After finally finding the best way forward to deal with controlling the cam button, the engine was largely assembled today.

This double-roller chain was a really great find and allowed for the cam button to be installed without any modifications.

Many engine builders say that a double-roller timing chain will locate the cam and reduce or eliminate the need for a cam button, but both together seems like the way to go to be sure the cam stays put.

The button was machined a bit to achieve the desired end play for the camshaft and everything was put together save for the intake manifold. The timing cover and oil pan were both installed, making this look more like an engine again.

Next on the list is to begin the process of measuring for push rods. This requires a push rod checker and a caliper long enough to measure it. The one I have had for years is only six inches long, so an eight-inch caliper was ordered.

Put a stamp on it

The only thing obvious standing between this $40 reproduction idle solenoid and a Delco-Remy original is the part number stamped on the GM part - and about $150.

So we made a rubber stamp for around $10 and presto! Looks great and seems to function really well.

More small stuff

This oil gallery plug right above the oil filter housing was removed by the machine shop to clean the block and then replaced with a modern plug.

The original is a 1/4-inch square-drive plug and it looks distinctive, so an NOS plug was found and purchased. This will have to do for a while until the cam button comes in next week.