Painting of the block. I used Cummins Beige paint on this. It will go with the whole color scheme of the truck. I think anything else other than black is going to be a PITA to keep clean so i might as well go with what looks good.
Installing the freeze plugs, funny story actually, do not use a socket that fits snugly on the plug. You WILL have a heck of a time getting the socket unstuck from the plug once its in and do ALOT of cursing--and possibly some broken tools. Use a socket thats a little loose on the plug--i knew this but got excited when i saw how nice the first socket fit---DOH!!! I use a little "Indian Head" around the freeze plugs---its just something i always do.
I then installed the screw in plugs. I like the "pretty" aluminum ones, LOL.
Next i installed the cam bearings (sorry the pic got all fubared so i can't show it). I then slid the cam in to make sure all was well and it turned freely as its supposed to. This is always a good idea to do in the pre build as one time I had a cam that was machined wrong on two bearing surfaces and it would not go into the block (won't mention the big cam companies name of course).
Sometimes I do things because I feel better doing so, this is one of them. Hard to see, but I radiused the oil hole in the rear main cap and smoothed out the rest a little bit. Does it help, who knows, but like I said, I feel better doing it.
