[njsteve]

Since the engine is mostly back together I was able to drop off the C6 at the transmission shop. It's an old Lee Myles that has been in business for 50+ years, in Union, New Jersey. The owner knew my uncle back in the 1970's when my uncle owned the Lee Myles franchise on Kennedy Blvd in Jersey City, New Jersey. It's a good shop. They have rebuilt transmissions for me for several previous projects. I even had them call me once after I dropped off an M22 and they called me back the next day and said it doesn't need rebuilding, just a couple of new gaskets: no charge. Nice!

I got the heads, intake, lifters, oil pump and pan on. I tried installing the Felpro rubber valve cover gaskets that came in the overhaul set and got extremely displeased when I went to put oil in the engine and it immediately started pouring out between the valve covers and the heads. The frikken things slid out of alignment when I tightened the valve cover bolts even though I had glued them to the covers beforehand. I HATE RUBBER VALVE COVER GASKETS. I have a set of old time cork gaskets in transit now.

I was able to paint the engine outside yesterday before the rains came.

Wanna know what the hardest part was? Getting the distributor to drop in and align with the oil pump drive. I spent an hour trying to get it into any position that would drop in and connect to the new ARP hardened oil pump driveshaft. No dice. Even though I test fit everything beforehand to make sure it would connect properly and not have any issues. So I gave up and then decided to prime the engine with a 1/2"drill and priming tool. Got 55 psi and ran the drill until oil came out every rocker arm bleed hole while I hand cranked the engine over to get all the lifters filled. I then tried for another hour to drop in the distributor and finally got it to plop in, coincidentally aligning the rotor in the exact same spot I had photographed it in when I took my disassembly photos (at TDC of #1 cylinder).