Where to start? Well this whole passed week and a half has been a crazy busy week for me out at my shop. It all started with a general ignition tune up at the beginning of last week. While I was in there doing the tune up I went ahead and installed the basic tach I have had sitting for months on my shelves waiting. I went to dial in the carb after the new ignition parts were installed, and I saw that the gasket between the carb base and fuel bowl was leaking pretty bad. So a rebuild kit was ordered. Meanwhile, I have always been aware of an exhaust leak at or around the manifold, so naturally I assumed it was the donut that sealed the downpipe to the manifold. At the same time I picked up the carb kit, I grabbed a new exhaust donut. After completing my carb rebuild, I took the exhaust pipe off the manifold only to have the pipe crumble from corrosion in my hands. So i went back to the parts house, picked up a stick of 2", a glass pack, and some misc supplies. stopped by the local exhaust shop and had them bend up my new down pipe, and my $65 exhaust kit was complete. Got all of that installed and was just putting on the finishing touches tonight when my buddy and I decided to swap out to my new HEI distributor. No big deal except I only had an hour and a half to work before I had to start getting ready for my regular job.... Turned out ok though, because the battery died from cranking the engine over and over through all the day's events today just 15 minutes short of my having to leave. So for now she sits, still not quite running but very close...hopefully tomorrow night we can get her dialed in and running tip-top. Oh, and that exhaust leak turned out to be a missing bolt in the manifold.....if you look at the picture that shows the new HEI distributor, you can see the stud we put in just in front of the carb (it is the bolt that is more rusty than anything else). The new exhaust does sound sweet though, love that glass pack on there.
Here are a couple shots of how she sat when we finished up for the day. In the more side view you can see my new exhaust pipe poking out from under the bed. I'm pretty stoked about my cheapie exhaust. I need to take the down pipe back off and take it back to the exhaust shop to have hime cut a couple inches off the top and re-flare the pipe because it hangs a bit too low for my taste.
Current engine shot. Once we are done with all of the dialing in I'm going to see what I can do about detailing the engine up a bit, I'm getting tired of the nasty engine compartment.
Most of my $65 exhaust kit:
And what was left of the old one still on the truck:
