A lot has happened since my last post. First thing, had the starter looked at. It's a rebuilt Napa one, but the guy said it was in good shape. He replaced some bushings and such, so it should be good to go.
Next, I finished up getting the car ready to accept the engine and transmission. New battery cables ran with an additional battery cable for the new electric fans, transmission kickdown, and electric water pump. Finished painting the engine bay. Fixed up the vapor canister bracket and made some new lines for it using stainless AN fuel line.
With the new wiring ran, I was able to install the new transmission tunnel insulation. Installed new clips for it by drilling out the old ones. Used an aluminum riveter to install the new ones. With that, the engine was ready to be put in.
My dad came over and helped me get started. First we got the engine onto the engine hoist and installed the flex plate. We had to fill the torque converter with a quart of transmission fluid and then install it carefully on the transmission. Then I used my dad's motor cycle jack to get the transmission up to the motor. Had to use a regular jack to level out the engine. My wife and I then proceeded to bolt the transmission and engine together. Getting the flywheel and torque converter was a treat.... Few more steps and the engine assembly was together and ready to go into the car.
Got some of the accessories installed on the transmission. The shifter kit went on easy, so did the TV cable. Unfortunately the dipstick was broken inside the package. Contacted the manufacturer, Lokar, and they had a new cable to me in two days. If you've never dealt with Lokar, I highly recommend them. Both times I've talked to them, they've been really helpful. The last bracket to put on ended up not working. It's for the steering column lock cable. Turns out that's something that always doesn't work and people just make their own. I'll be making my own, but have lots of other stuff to work on first.
So the engine is finally in the car!!! It honestly looks really good. Unfortunately I have a few issues to work out. First, the serpentine belt touches the passenger side upper control arm. Luckily it was an easy fix. All I needed to do was get the A/C compressor to be closer to the cylinder head covers and March Performance has shorter rods that I can get (unfortunately not exchange for, oh well). The second problem is that the carburetor covers up the vacuum port on the intake manifold. The carb manufacturer, Quick Fuel, said I should connect my brake booster to that port instead of using the port on the carb itself. I'm able to solve this problem by adding a 1/2" carb spacer, which leads to another potential problem. The air gap intake manifold adds a lot of height. Luckily the new carb is shorter than the old one and my air cleaner base is a drop base. However, it was going to be very close to hitting the hood without the 1/2" spacer, we'll have to see what happens there (just ordered the spacer).
The next problem is really annoying. The position of the dipstick changed on the new engine. It's now on the drivers side and it's horribly difficult to get to because of the brake booster. It sucks, but it's usable so I'm leaving it for now. The last problem is the lower radiator hose. I have no idea how to route it around the serpentine belt. The hose I have can't make a 90 degree turn and then angle back to avoid the belt. Not sure what to do here yet, but I think I'm going to wait until the radiator is in to figure it out.
Several issues can be fixed with one expensive upgrade. If I replace the brake booster with a hydroboost system that runs off the power steering pump instead of the engine vacuum, then I eliminate the need to have the need for a fitting in the intake manifold which means I don't need the carb spacer. If I don't need a carb spacer, there's less chance of hitting the hood with the air cleaner. The other benefit of the hydroboost is that it's much smaller. This means I wouldn't have issues with the dipstick or getting to the windshield washer fluid tank and alarm wiring. Going to a 383 stroker engine with a larger cam likely reduced the amount of vacuum the engine produces, so going to the hydroboost is also less risky in that aspect. Could also switch to electric lights to remove some of the drain on the vacuum, but that's more expensive (have someone getting me specs for the McSpeed bracket kit). I think the right answer is to get the hybroboost system. For now I'm going to get things working like this (I can deal with the dipstick issue), and if I have brake and/or hood clearance issues I'll invest in the hydroboost system with money from selling the old parts.
While I was trying to figure out the steering column lock cable bracket, I decided to work on other parts of the car. I got the passenger side door pretty much put back together. Got all my ducts modified for the new A/C system and installed the A/C control electric conversion. However, I ran into a large problem with the Vintage Air SureFit System... The evaporator doesn't fit. There's a bracket for some additional braces on the convertible models that included A/C that prevent the evaporator from being installed correctly. I've contacted Vintage Air and they said they're aware of the issue, but haven't given me any information on what to do to fix it. In my opinion, the best answer is for them to exchange my evaporator for one of their smaller universal units and then give me the tubing to hook it up to the kit I already have. I have a feeling they're going to tell me to cut the bracket out (which I do not want to do).
