I drove the '56 this evening with the new Goodwrench 350. It took about 3 weeks to change it due to this, that and the other but.......It lives!
Why did I pull a good running 350 and install a new one? Here's the story.
I installed AC before the trip to Kansas City. When installing the compressor brackets I discovered the PO had stripped the threads in the head for one of the intake manifold bolts. Then he stuck a larger bolt with fine threads in the hole. It worked fine until I put a bracket there. It developed an ever so slight coolant leak there. It wasn't more than a seep and I drove it to KC that way.
When I got back, I tried to fix it with a longer bolt. That stripped it out good and I had a major leak.
I debated what to do. Fix this head with an insert? It already has 2 inserts in exhaust manifold bolt holes. The guy must not have owned a torque wrench. Find a set of replacement heads? Either way I'd want to do a valve job while I had them off. But the last time I did that to an old engine it started smoking soon after. So I'd want to do a ring job too.
Then it hit me. I have a boat I let freeze up and bust the block a few years ago. Why not put this engine in it with the boat engine heads and get a new engine for the '56?
And so it went. For the most part a direct bolt in swap. But they forgot to drill and tap a hole for one of the exhaust shields. I drilled a hole for it and broke a tap off in it. I couldn't find a tap extractor locally so I ordered one off the Internet and had to wait for it. Tuesday night I had it all together and filled it with coolant to fire it up. Uh-oh. I put the heater hose fitting in the water pump too tight and busted the casting. So Wednesday I got another new pump and painted it. Installed today and fired it up. It ran a few minutes then died. WTH? The terminal broke on the ignition wire to the distributor. I soldered up a longer wire and she fired right up again. Then the test drive.
I still have some finishing up to do but that's the easy part. I'm happy to have this thing drivable again.
