Last Friday through Sunday--- I cut a shaft off an old distributor to use to prime the oil pump; wired the truck instrument gauge cluster & everything essential to start the engine; connected the temperature sender; bought & attached a muffler to my exhaust pipe; installed the mechanical stomp starter pedal; ground paint off the firewall to attach an engine ground strap & I hooked that up; put the battery back on my trickle charger just to be safe; filled the radiator with water & tightened up the hoses; made a temporary strap to hang the muffler & exhaust from; removed & cleaned the ignition switch at least four times; filled the engine with oil & camshaft break-in fluid then looked at the engine for several hours; checked the triggers on my fire extinguishers; poured 5 gallons of 100% gasoline in my new fuel tank; checked timing by watching the valves; primed the oil pump; installed the distributor; installed the spark plugs & wires; connected the battery; removed the distributor, valve cover, & wires again- just to prime the oil pump again & watch to see that oil was at the rocker arms (that's how all this got started); re-installed everything & set/checked the timing again; finally got the engine running Sunday morning for the run-in period; almost had a heart attack when the oil pressure gauge failed at the 14-15 minute mark (we did not know that it was just the gauge at the time); I bought another gauge, connected it, & oil pressure was great.

Brad
edit- my blood pressure just went up typing about the gauge failure- that was not a fun experience

Wrench Fetcher, PhD