Well, it's been a bit since I've had a chance to work on the truck. Some of you know that my dad's been sick for the past year. I went home to be with him in his last days earlier this month. He left us on Dec 13 at 3:20 AM, after exactly 1 year and a day (down to the minute) from the time he was admitted to the hospital.
He was my mentor, my pal, and the person I most loved to work with.
I'm going to miss you, Dad.
Here's a pic of him in 1965 with his brother.
Since I got home from the funeral, I have taken some time to be alone in the shop. Here's what I got done in the past week.
Oil Pan off, showing a fairly solid bottom end, not too much crud, and no major issues:
A different view:
numbering the connecting rods and caps:
The timing chain was so loose it was almost freewheeling on the crank gear. The pic doesn't quite do it justice:
just the bumpstick and a few small parts left to take off:
When I got the freeze plugs out, there was a LOT of sludge built up in the block. I went down to the local car wash and blew out close to 1/2 gallon of rusty gross crap. The machine shop will bake and shot peen the block but i wanted to give them a fighting chance.
The heads are cast with a rectangle on them, showing that they are the stock 8.5:1 compression heads. They'll be replaced with something better when I put it back together.