Yes, it's on a run stand in the shop, not running yet, but soon. There's a broken oil line to the rocker arms down inside the side cover that needs to be spliced. After some soaking with Kroil, the engine turns freely and the compression test comes out pretty good. Only one cylinder has more air leakage on the cylinder leak test than I like to see, so it's probably going to run pretty good. It's also getting a HEI distributor adapted to it.
I prefer to err on the side of caution about painting brake parts. If you feel it's an absolute necessity to look cool instead of be safe, there's a spray-on cast iron coating machine shops use on cylinder heads and blocks that gives a uniform dark gray color and inhibits rust. That might be OK, but I've never tried it.
Jerry
