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Yeah, me too. RB

Trans fluid showed up today, loaded the converter with roughly 1 quart and seated it into the trans.

Valves are done, fuel pump rod is in and with the converter installed the plan is to put the engine back into the truck tomorrow.

Got some wiring tidied up after adding the Afr gauge. Changed out the copper oil pressure line with a new braided line.

Once the engines back in, I’ll change the trans fluid, filter and add the new b&m deep pan.

Long day getting the engine back in᠁ gets longer when you drop a washer into the valley and here it go “clink” against the oil pan. Lesson learned, laid a couple of shop towels across the valley

At least I remembered to put the flex plate on Used loc-tite and torqued the bolts to 65

Pain in the but with the grill shell on᠁ have to put the engine in sideways and then turn it lengthwise. Anyway it’s back in once again.

Tomorrow’s plan will be to reconnect᠁ everything else

Elvis has left the building᠁ again. Not the greatest morning working on the truck. I now have a two piece th400᠁ sigh

Engine is in᠁ transmissions on the way out. Not sure what the solution to this will be. Pretty sure it’s beyond JB weld.

Ouch! Was something mis-aligned as the bolt was being tightened?

I think a competent welder could fix that.

Pretty much᠁ it looked pretty well aligned and every other bolt went in fairly easy. Real world disagrees with me on how well aligned things were.

I did think about attempting to have it welded᠁ but not sure I’d be happy with that or if I’d fully trust it.

On the other hand, trans fluid came out cherry red and clean as a whistle. Plus the trans shifted well and has some decent parts in it᠁ trying to save it wouldn’t seam be the worst idea.

I agree. It's what I'd do.

RB

Ask Duncan Iron Works about the welding. I'm pretty sure that they will be honest and won't do the work if they can't do it properly.

Hi Gord, thanks for the tip. Actually got the trans out today and stopped by kolk machine shop and advantage fab᠁ neither one would touch it. Kolk b/c it’s outside their realm and advantage had liability concerns.

Present options sit around rehousing the current parts into a used case, taking chances on a Facebook/Craigslist “rebuilt” unit or ᠁ bite the bullet and go with a new unit. Looking at the FTI th400’s.

Got the intake on and torqued down

Doesn't hurt to ask. I would like to hear about your luck tuning up that Holley type carb.

Forgot 1 potential option. Purchasing an aftermarket bell housing and cutting the original bell off᠁ some how that cut sketches me out

I’d keep checking other welding shops. There’s somebody up your way who can weld that & do a good job for you

Made a decision last night᠁ ordered the ATI bell housing.

A cutting we will go᠁ I’m looking at it as making lemonade out of lemons

Spent some time redoing my fuel lines᠁ for what feels like the 32nd time.

Need to cut one more piece of stainless᠁it’s a short piece so hopefully it will still fit the flaring tool

Finished the fuel line and not sure I’m happy with it

Crank bolt showed up last night. Was waiting on it, so that I could bolt the water pump back on. Got 2 rad hoses on as well. The lower is a complete pain so it can be a tomorrow problem.

Note to self᠁. Remember to tighten the hose clamps.

Bunch of small things marked off the list᠁Torqued the water pump bolts, tightened the rad hose clamps, bolted the carb down and finished of the fuel line. Also put the alternator back on and added the damper pulley᠁ which I meant to do before putting the water pump on.

New rear tires showed up for the 15x7 torque thrust’s that have been sitting in boxes for 6 months. Tires are not super ideal as it’s either white letters out or snake logos on the black wall side᠁ but the size is what I wanted and it means I have the same brand front to back

Luckily I have a spare th400 that’s pretty much junk. So it’s become my first victim of destruction.

I can’t cut a straight line to save my life, so after marking the first cut, drilled some holes along the path to keep it somewhat straight.

Lessons learned so far, When I do the “real” trans it will require more drill sights and aluminum metal shavings get everywhere. ATI suggests doing the cut on an empty case.. I’ll be doing it on a full case so sealing entry points will be critical.

Finished the raw cut and was waiting on the bell housing to arrive before grinding down the trans᠁ low and behold the bell housing turned up.

So the bell housing bolts on to the tranny with the existing bolts in the front of the tranny? It doesn't look like the pattern matches from your pics.

[on edit] Maybe it's only on your "practice" tranny, that the bolt pattern is different.

The aftermarket bell housings are designed to work with 6,7 and 8 bolt pumps. This one also fits sbc, bbc and Ls. The top housing bolt mount is what allows it to work with the Ls.

My working trans is an 8 bolt pump so it will bolt right up to to the bell housing as is. If you have a 6 or 7 bolt pump it requires some tweaking.

Finished cutting, grinding and test fitting. Have a pretty good idea now on how to cut my working trans.

Rained all day today so no outside cutting. Worked on the driver side header, needed to raise the engine and shift it slightly. Also noticed the header wrap got wrecked when moving the headers around to pull the engine. Got the passenger side done and ordered more wrap for the drivers side.

Alternator’s hooked up and the fan belts on.

Got some work done on the truck. Started this morning with getting the new tires mounted᠁ more on this in a bit.
Next up was drilling, cutting and fitting the new bell housing to the trans.

That actually turned out pretty well. Pump bolts have loctite and are torqued to 25ft/lbs.

Now the saga that’s my life with this truck. Roughly six months ago I ordered a set of 15x7 in a 5x4 3/4 bolt pattern from Jegs᠁ never bothered to check the rims᠁ they’ve been sitting in the original boxes. Got the tires and rims mounted today and went to put them on the truck᠁ passenger side went on without any issue᠁ driver side however didn’t want to line up. Took the wheel and gave it a quick once over ᠁stamped on the back is 15x8 and the bolt pattern is 5x4.5

So I know need to order another 15x7 wheel in the right bolt pattern, head back to the tire store have the wrong rim dismounted and get the tire put onto the correct rim.

A person close to me suggested that I sell this thing once it’s up and running again. I dismissed that idea with a paraphrased convoy quote᠁ don’t ever talk about my beautiful black truck like that again.

Perhaps they were on to something

Thought about setting fire to the truck᠁ didn’t have a match handy and it was to much work to find one᠁

My initial plan was to try and strap the trans to a piece of plywood and place it on the jack. Turned out with the bell housing height I couldn’t clear the truck with my contraption.

Instead I jacked the truck up to a sketchy height , dragged the trans under the truck and then lowered the truck down to a more manageable level. Struggled for a day attempting to raise the trans up to the engine from under the truck.

When the trans was initially installed we used the engine hoist to lift it up onto the engine. I was trying to avoid that now since it meant pulling the shifter and the floor out. Finally conceded defeat and used the engine hoist᠁ trans is officially back in the truck.

Now where did I put that match book?

Lite update from yesterday...oil pressure gauge line and oil cooler lines connected. Driveshaft re-installed

Got the old trans pan off᠁ looked nice and clean. Put on the b&m extension piece, new filter, Moroso blue gasket and partially bolted the deep pan in place.

Weather turned nice so got into the garage for a bit... mostly minor updates.
Throttle and choke cable are connected, brake light switch re-crimped and connected ( I forgot the wires were attached to the floor when the floor came out).
Hood prop is back in place, put the remaining bolts into the trans pan, also found 2 longer bolts to finish off the bellhousing and modified the shifter plate to fit the new pan.
Cut and fit the lower rad hose and the parking brake is back in place.

That's about it for today, would be nice if I never have to take this thing apart...again. But highly unlikely

Looks like you are running ported vacuum to the distributor. Are you going to try it with full manifold vacuum?

Full manifold vacuum is going to the trans, ported for the dist. According to Holley, that side port is designated as timed spark for the distributor VA.

Holley's instructions for the 4160 on my Buick say that too. (use timed/ported vacuum port) However, the Buick runs cooler with full vacuum. It does have a relatively mild street cam.

There's a lot of discussion about this issue . I found this article helpful: https://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Hot_rodding_the_HEI_distributor#Vacuum_advance

Another nice day so I spent some time working on the truck.

Replaced the header collector gaskets
Reconnected the exhaust
Tightened the trans pan bolts and the drain plug bolt
Put roughly 7.5l of trans fluid in
Main floor is back in
Shifter’s mounted
Redid the throttle cable
Checked the fuel line connections for tightness
Connected the dist to the negative side of the coil
Fought with the cross member to get it into place᠁ missing a bolt and it looks like the front of the new trans pan might interfere with it
Had the tire mounted on the 15x7 rim the other day. Now both rears are sporting 255/70r15
Got the truck off the stands and back on solid ground
Made a list of things still to do.

Working on the distributor tonight. Set the truck at 12TDC, marked the distributor base where number 1 should be at. Aligned the vacuum advance can towards the center of the pass side valve cover, moved the rotor an inch past the mark and dropped it in.

Hopefully timing is close at start up᠁ new cam break in terrifies me

I know what you mean about new cam break-in. I am going to be there next spring (I hope) but getting all of the pieces and parts for the ignition system and fuel system in place and functional without actually starting the engine always leads to anxiety about what could go wrong.

Been a while since this threads been updated. Today’s activities involved math and numbers that I likely won’t remember.. documentation time in the build thread.

The aftermarket torque converter and flex plate required spacers to set the correct gaps.

Factory parts are so much simpler to work with.
Anyway᠁ with the converter seated the gap between it and the flex plate measures out at .694 of an inch minus the .368 depth of the mount᠁ for a total of .326.

Desired gap is 1/8 to 3/16 or .125. to .1875.

I have .150 and .25 spacers᠁ so if I use the .150 I end up with .176 gap and that should work out pretty well.

Now why am I documenting this trivial event᠁ b/c I had it all bolted up.. couldn’t find my previous numbers, doubted myself and then had to redo everything again.

Old trucks are a barrel of fun

Been working on the rear exhaust since the turn downs were kicking up to much debris.

One thing that I haven’t been happy with is that I reused the original leaf springs on the truck. Over the holidays I decided to replace the springs.. ordered new front and rear springs from General Spring out of Kansas City.

Stuff showed up pretty quickly and arrived in excellent condition. No complaints᠁ except that shipping was a killer᠁ not surprising but still a bitter pill to swallow.

Got one front side done.. one more to go and then it’s on to the rear.

Weather here has been awfully cold as of late᠁ so work on the truck came to a halt. Decent enough today to get out and work on it.

Ran the vacuum line from the manifold to the trans. Had to clearance the starter support bracket in order to clear the dipstick tube and got the heat shield back onto the starter.

Very little accomplished but by stuffing a big block and a th400 into the truck everything takes much longer to access.

There is a 1500km hot rod tour of my home province taking place this June and I decided to take the truck. Since there’s a good chance of rain and little to no storage in the truck᠁ figured I’d fashion up some kind of tonneau cover. Picked up a canvas tarp from Amazon as a starting point.

Took the fight to the driver side leaf spring᠁ and came out victorious. The passenger side fell in but for some reason the driver side put up a lot of resistance.Still need to reconnect the steering, shock and tighten everything back up.

Truck went up 1.5 inches from the previous springs. If they settle it may come down slightly.

Next up replacing the rear springs.

Went out after work today and managed to get the passenger side rear leaf in.The new rears have 8 leaves and the old ones sported 7.

Guessing the truck will sit a bit taller and ride stiffer᠁not sure that’s winning.

Not necessarily. The new stack of 8 may have the same tension as the old stack of 7.

Would be nice if the ride didn’t get rougher ᠁the height definitely went up. Before and after measurements have the truck currently sitting 2inches higher in the rear.