[dagnabbitt]

Wow, I have really not been keeping up on this thread. The motor is in.

The engine install has not been without its hiccups: I was chasing a transmission fluid leak and a coolant leak for awhile. We figured those out.

I loved the engine immediately, though, it has so much power: particularly in a little tin can like this truck. It is obvious that I need to put sway bars on this truck, and posi is on my wish list for sure.

Anyway, after a couple thousand miles of blissful driving, it started running and idling rough. It has been difficult to tune and/or time, and it had a whine like the kind you might hear through your radio from the alternator at startup. Then later, it would become a high-pitched shriek.

It was a vacuum leak, and it was surprisingly difficult to trace. After initially thinking it was the carb itself - I swapped the Holley for an Edelbrock I had, and it still happened - we found it was just under the carb: the intake gasket.

We took the intake manifold apart and surveyed what had happened: the gaskets were being sucked right in. The type of gasket used was a layered or laminated one, and it seemed like it was delaminating. I was surprised that they used such a cheap gasket on an engine like this. BPE sent me another set of the same gaskets, but I elected to use Feld Pro ones instead.

Long story short is that the engine is running well again, but I am looking for the correct bracketry to set my TV cable with this Edelbrock carb. I want to give the Edelbrock a try, I did not particularly like the Holley.