I picked up my newly rebuilt head last night. Looks nice. Now I have all
hardened seats, new hard guides, and everything's been milled and cleaned. I
spent last evening putting the manifolds on in the warmth of my living room,
to minimize outdoor work.
I had an interesting situation. Over each pair of inlet ports on the head is a
stud for bolting on the intake manifold. Under each pair of ports is a pin, I
assume for locating the manifold in the correct position. My problem is, the
middle pair on the manifold doesn't have a hole for the pin. Since this pin
doesn't have anything to do with sealing the manifold, I thought I'd pull it
out. I then discovered, after bloody fingers, that I don't have the tools or
skill to remove this pressed-in pin. So instead, I drilled a hole in the
manifold. That was easier. From what I can tell, it won't matter to the
manifold, since the hole is in an area that has no stress and has lots of
extra metal in it. Fits nice, now, too.
Does this now make me an official PO?
I also thought I had lost a stud, but when I went to get the smaller nuts for
the top of the intake manifold, I found it. I had forgotten that it had come
out when I removed the manifold. So the manifolds are on with almost all-new
nuts and spring washers, and two new manifold clamps. What a wacky design!
Both manifolds bolt on at the top and are held on with these funky little
clamps on the bottom. Strange.
I also cleaned up and painted the rocker cover (it wasn't chrome on the GT6+
models, just the GT6 and Mk.3, I believe). I'm going to paint the air cleaner
can tonight, and then Saturday morning all I need to do is clean up the deck
and the face of the water pump and place the new head on, tighten some bolts,
put in the pushrods and install the rocker shaft, then connect up the
appropriate plumbing, and go!
I plan to change the oil as soon as I get it running, since it mayhave gotten
contaminated with the block sitting open like that for two months.
Just think, tomorrow I'll be back on the road! Varoom!
Larry
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