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11/25/20: I took her out for a road test today, first a few miles in order to test out the shift linkage and second to heat her up enough to re-torque the head and the manifold. It shifted beautifully and the tranny stopped all of its whinnying. LOL. So, the rebuilding of the tranny was a success. There was also no clutch noise which I originally had when I was in neutral with the clutch released. That was a bad pilot shaft bearing.

Re-torquing the head was easy but trying to get 20 lbs on the outer bolts and 30 lbs. on the inner manifold bolts, near impossible unless you have a crows foot and an offset torque table, something I haven’t used since I left the Nuc industry. I guesstimated.

So now that I had all of the work done, it was time for play! I took my wife out for lunch and we made a few stops along the way. We put about 34 miles on her today and the engine ran great. Maintained 30 lbs. oil pressure and a 180 degrees throughout the trip.

A few minor issues:

First, the oil bath air filter has a tiny rust hole so it was weeping oil. No big deal. I can braze it from the inside and repaint.

Second was it was still pretty noisy at 40-45 MPH. Mind you, I have no insulation or sound deadening material so I’m sure that might help to silence her a bit.

Third, there was a bit of vibration in the steering wheel at 40-45 MPH which might be contributing to the noise,. It seemed to be while it was under load as it also occurred in first going up a small hill on the dirt road going to my house. I’m going to post this issue in the driveline forum.

Overall, I’m real happy with the results!