Thanks! The covers may have fit but I didn’t like them. Tossed them out.
I started on the tune up today! I ordered iridium plugs, wires, cap, rotor, PCV, silicone vacuum hose for the choke tubes, valve cover gaskets, new belts, AIR delete plugs, a degrees balancer cover, ceramic plug wire boots, and MSD recurve and vacuum advance limiting kits.
I started off by removing the AIR pump and cleaning the block from the badly leaking valve covers.
I removed this as I couldn’t seem to figure out exactly what it was for. It was bolted to the intake just in front of the distributor, tied into the +12v and Tach wires on the distributor, had a ground wire running to the rear head, and a 2 pin plug that ran up near the front of the drivers side of the engine. Nothing around for it to connect to. Nothing that I’ve ever seen on an SBC before. Anyone?
I’ve been having suspicions that the timing wasn’t right. The new exhaust manifold looked a little hot and the heat under the hood seemed higher than usual. I figured the balancer may have slipped, so I bought a balancer cover to eliminate that question. However, I removed the power steering for access and this timing tab didn’t look correct. However, the balancer was spot on, so I set the balancer at TDC on this timing tab, then went out and bought a replacement just to be sure.
So it turned out that my gut feeling was right! The timing was indeed off…I just didn’t expect 14 degrees AFTER TDC off!
That old timing tab was definitely off of some other engine, who knows what at this point. Oh well, problem solved!
New balancer cover
I also had to buy a new balancer bolt for…reasons
Cover and crank pulley installed!
Next up, valve covers. I had a new set off of a crate engine that I’ve been sitting on forever. This seems like the perfect truck to put them on! I’m very happy to ditch the leaky, mismatched chrome covers. Also installed new grommets and PCV valve in them.
New gaskets glued in place!
Passenger cover installed!
Driver cover installed! You can also see that the manifold’s AIR tube has been removed and plugged, the new belts are installed, and the power steering pumped has been shimmed for better belt alignment.
