Swap made in heaven continued.....
After another bot'el of fine wine Larry decided that the tractor was just the thing to get the truck and engine out of the barn. Only thing was is that the battery in the tractor was dead too. We eventually got the tractor going, the truck out, and the engine squeezed into my trailer (I'm recalling now several year later that it wasn't that simple and will return to tell the real story.)
We said our good-bys in the escalating ice storm and I tried to head up the icy hill with my truck and trailer. That wasn't going to happen so Larry ended up towing us up with the tractor. Oh sunny Florida where are yea?
After getting the engine home I hung it in my shop for about 15 months or so, without so much as giving it a glance. After much thought and pricing of parts I realized that I wasn't going to overhaul it myself so I trucked it over to Orlando to National Cylinder Head. At first they just shook their heads and said no, we don't want to job. I finally talked them into "remanufacturing" it for me. As it wouldn't turn, getting the powerglide off was going to be a problem. I told them not to worry if they need to use a sledge hammer as I wasn't going to use the tranny anyway.
They then reminded me that the "normal" long block they get in didn't include the tranny, oil pan, water pump, hoses, etc. and that it was going to cost abit extree to remove all of that junk. I said "that ain't a water pump, it's just a blob of petrified clay, anti-freeze, and carpet from Ruth Ann's double wide, where the skate boards were bouncing off the end prior to hitting the fan."
In the end the remanufacturing cost me $2006. I like to forget what I paid RuthAnn for the dang thing in the first place and haven't made an effort to go back in my records to find out.
I would be very reluctant to buy another engine, site unseen on e-bay, or anywhere else for that matter. Take the advice of the other guys - hear the engine run first, unless you want some good material to write a missive about here on the 'bolt.
You can see the engine on my '41 WIP album.
