I have looked everywhere but I can’t find the damn hold down. It looks like I am going to have to shell out $78 for a think piece of metal that I managed to lose. I remember showing it to Tres as it had a 1/2″ of gunk on it. Hmm, where would I put something that needs cleaning that bad? BINGO! It was sitting on the bottom of the parts washer. The cleaner is so filthy you can’t see through it. Well, at least I don’t have to buy another one.
I spent 15 minutes on the wire wheel getting the last of the gunk off it and took it directly over to the block along with the lifters, retainers, and bolts. I lubed up each lifter and set them in place adding an alignment retainer on top of each pair. With them all installed I added the retainer plate and bolted it in place. Almost immediately I added the two head gaskets and then placed the heads on each one.
Woah buddy, this is starting to look like an engine! I grab all the bolts and oil them up as I insert them. I fee good about knowing all the bolts are new and the threads in the block have been cleaned out. I know how important this step is, so I review a video of a guy torquing the head bolts on his block. I follow the pattern and the torque settings. I literally can’t keep track on what I have torqued as I go round. Then I remember I bought a paint pen for just this sort of thing. I grab it out of the toolbox and make a small mark on the bolt head after each torque step. I know I have it right now. And just like that, the heads are installed. Now I take my wooden bucket of rocker and push rods and transfer them into their rightful places in the block.
I didn’t get any action shots but I put the old plugs into the heads and painted them with the foam brush and that beautiful red paint. I did mask off the parts that weren’t going to be painted. So by the time I was done I was sick of being there and skipped the pictures. I did manage to get a couple of shots of the valve covers which I decided to go with the wrinkle paint. As a first attempt it was cool but frustrating. There are a couple of places that I gave a single coat and it wrinkled and some where I gave it 5 and it didn’t. Most of it took two good coats to create the effect. And being black and under cables and hoses it will be difficult to see anyway.
After the valve covers, I shot the harmonic balancer and the pulley with some gloss black and decided that with all the paint fumes and heat it was time to go up to the house. Great day and lots of stuff done.
