[caseyjones]

Originally Posted by mattbert56

Just went through both of your builds. Really enjoyed the documentation of both. Very good read. been wanting / missing my old c20 befor I built it into a k20. Your builds just made that so much worse. Much appreciated.

Thanks! I've been pretty bad about updates - The motor went back together without surprises. Fired it up and the gauge stilll read low/no oil pressure...bought a mechanical gauge and pressure was fine. Probably would have been ok with the old bearings but who knows for how long.

Started driving it around to debug it and it seemed like it had some kind of lean cruising issue. Bought a carb kit from a Quadrajet guru and started dialing it in and it started having the problem again...thought about it for a while, and decided to go through the (new) ignition just to make sure it was OK...found that the cheap points in the new distributor didnt seem to consistently open and close, like they were getting hung up on each other. I think it might have been getting worse as they heated up. Swapped in a set of Standard points (with obviously better construction) and haven't had that problem since. Still tuning the carb to try to bump up mpg but overall runs really well.

I've been fighting leaks at the back of the motor since my first drive...i used the 4-pc oil pan gasket that came in the kit, and it was dry for the first few heat cycles, but then got a bad leak. The pan bolts were loose, and i think once it broke the seal on the back of the pan it was all over. The pan was beat up anyway so I bought a new Dorman pan and a new 1-pc gasket...leak was still awful. The Dorman pan has a wider rear u-shaped sealing surface than a stock pan so the Fel-Pro gasket doesn't properly seat on it. So, I reverted back to the original pan, straightened it out as much as i could, and the correct 1-pc gasket for it, and the dang thing still leaked! I thought maybe it was a bad rear main, but that looked dry, so last night I reinstalled the pan and gasket using a bunch of Permatex #2. So far it looks like it might hold.

Edit: oil leak is just as bad as before. Still doesn’t look like rear main but don’t know what else to do at this point.

I added a factory fan shroud and carried over the fan clutch from the V6. I also upgraded the alternator, and used factory or reproduction brackets for the short water pump setup in prep for the next big upgrade - ordered a Vintage Air kit for the truck. I had been thinking about it, pricing out the kit and literally that afternoon the heater core started leaking - I took it as a sign

Here are some pics of the engine bay as it sits - hoping the AC shows up in the next week or so.