got out to my dad's late friday night. me and cassy stopped at in n out and got loaded on so cal goodness. we woke up saturday and got to work!
as you can see below we got the radiator back in, and the hoses on. we also got the transmission cooler mounted:
we cut a hole for our transmission lines to run through:
next we ran copper line in for the oil pressure gauge:
i also hooked up the gas pedal as you can see.
my dad ran the copper line through a clear plastic tube for protection:
next we started playing around with the fuel lines:
we custom bent a bit of brake line for a fuel line (not sure how well this is going to work, as it leaked later on):
we also bent up some more brake line for a vacuum tube to our modulator from the back of the carburetor
more pictures of the fuel lines:
i got all the spark plug wires out and ran everything:
that night we spent FOREVER trying to figure out a good way to run our transmission lines:
we ran them pretty close to the block all the way back. actually getting them in was a bit of a pain.
we used a right angle bend on the forward line, and went into a 90 fitting for the rear, for anyone wondering:
hooked up!
my dad pulled a TON of wiring apart that night, and we ended up going to bed around midnight, this is how we left the car:
the next morning we pulled the transmission pan, and put in a fitting so we could mount a temp gauge. we got a rubber gasket, which ended up leaking later (SUCKED), but oh well.
i also picked up a few things, and took a picture of some 289 emblems my dad got:
performance sway bar ends?
289 emblems to make the car look even funnier.
now here is where we MESSED UP. turns out you are supposed to install the oil pump shaft when you assemble the motor. well ours didn't have one installed, so we really sort of forgot about it until now. we had to pop the collar off of it, and drop it down the hole VERY carefully. we luckily got it into the pump using some hose to hold it, and a rod to push the hose off. this was a pain in the ass, but it is very nice we got it done.
there is my dad concentrating very hard.
now i don't have much pictures from here, but this is where the night got INTENSE:
wiring the motor up (hot wiring i should say). my dad put a toggle switch in so we could kill the coil at any time, in case the motor was running wide open/etc...
wiring the distributor up.
wiring finished!
now here's how the rest went. we got everything wire up, and fired the motor a few times without spark to build some oil pressure. once we felt like we had oil pressure (our gauge inside wasn't reading for some reason), we hooked up the spark, tossed some gas inside the carb, and crossed our fingers!
she ran! of course it was only for a few seconds each time we threw gas in, and it was moderately rough at first, but it was GLORIOUS. now we got a bit concerned because we weren't seeing any oil pressure on our gauge. so this prompted us to take off the distributor very carefully, and hand run the pump. we didn't see any pressure at first, but due to being zealous and making mistakes, i completely forgot that the oil guage probably had a lot of air in the tube, and it was preventing oil from reaching the gauge (after all, it's an oil pressure gauge, not an air pressure!). well after i unhooked the gauge to let the air bleed out (as well as a little oil on my carpet, doh!), we saw we were getting 75-80 lbs of pressure, not bad, and i think compliments of our high performance (high pressure, high volume) really helped that.
we ended up rehooking up the fuel pump to a gas can via a line, and got the motor running/idling for around 15 seconds! very steady oil pressure, and SO nice. with the open headers, it obviously sounds VERY loud, and i cannot begin to describe how i felt. biggest smile on my face, you have no idea.
after that we really just tidied up and i went home. i can't wait for next weekend!
