UPDATE: SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night I fired the engine for the first time. I was pretty nervous, the previous owner told me the owner before him rebuilt it, but never had it running. I don't know the specs, I do know the lifters were covered in assembly lube, the oil looked new (which I drained when I resprayed the oil pan), there is a gear drive, a cam, and the piston looked brand new. However, the thing sat outside for a long time, and looked like ****.

For reference, here is a photo from about 1 year ago:


And last night, ready to fire:




I pulled the ignition wire off the distributor, and cranked it for about 1-2 minutes to get the oil flowing. Also made sure there was power steering fluid, as that was empty. I haven't wired the fuel selector switch yet to choose which tank the go-juice is coming from, so I put $10 worth in both of them, and hoped for the best. The first time it caught, it shot out a large clump of what later turned out to be paper towel. Looks like one of the paper towels I wedged in the exhaust port fell into the cylinder. Woops.


Here's a good shot of the front of the engine. I mounted the fuel selector switch on the port side motor mount, under the engine. I mounted the battery isolated on the starboard side, again on the inside. This helps keep the floor next to the engine free of wiring and extra crap, which makes working on everything a lot easier. Unfortunately, it made assembling everything a bit more annoying. Oh well. You can also spy the bilge pump (harbor freight baby) and the chrome fuel pump ($18 ebay special baby). Remember, this is a BUDGET build.



These headers are absolutely incredible. I know I was extremely lucky/fortunate to come across them... but I have to say Stellings makes a truly incredible product. The welds and craftsmanship are absolutely amazing.





Opened up the garage doors, rolled it out, and hooked up the hose to the stern drive. Triple checked to make sure it was in nuetral!


BOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wake up everybody. 9:15 is too early for bed.


So. Satisfying. Let it run for a few minutes, my boss adjusted the lash on the valves on one head while it was running. Tried to get the other side done but switching valve covers with the headers on was a PITA so I'll do that later this week.


After the intial run I found a few leaks. The thermostat housing is leaking wherever hte brass plugs are; seems like I need some teflon tape. What is a bigger concern is the reverse lockout switch on the shift plate. Anybody have any suggestions?

And I'm leaving with this shot:



Thank you to everyone who has helped me so far, I still have a lot of work to do! Video of the startup will come in a little bit.


Dan, cool idea, but I can't find any big enough to slip over that gigantic electrical connector with 15 pins or whatever. Know of any that's huge?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h4BmuYxNYw

RIGHT ON!! It sounds great. Is she going to be ready for a water test by this weekend?


Darrell.

Hey Cash, if you cant find some heat shrink big enough (what do you need, 2 inch diameter?), then get some heat shrink tape.

Take a look at this.

http://www.wirecare.com/products.asp?prodline=H2

It is going to look great on the lake with the water coming out the tubes in the exhaust, but don't bother with a sound system, you'll never hear it

Awesome work! We'll have to meet up on Monona for a tuning day soon! The Python has been wet 5 times, but is still being stubborn.

Still need to:

- Wire fuel selector switch
- Fix leak on reverse lock valve (I read on the internet that it's just an O-ring)
- Dremel dash for horn button
- Figure out why the temperature sender isn't working (gauge was showing nothing)
- Wire distributor to shift cutout switch
- Teflon tape the brass plugs on the thermostat housing
- Install interior

Gettin' busy tonight.

Great work, Cash. Can't wait to see pics of it sitting in the water.

Well, tried adjusting lash on the other side of the engine, but that cylinder bank starting poofing white smoke. :\ Still isn't broken in, don't know what's going on. The oil looks clean. Headgasket? I hope not!

Anyway, got the brass plugs in the thermostat housing sealed up with some teflon tape.

The temp sender still isn't working. While I had the engine on I ran a piece of wire from the temp sender to the gauge signal tab. Nothing. I'm assuming the temp sender is bad, I put a multimeter from the sender to the ground, and it read 80 ohms. Sound okay or?

Also tried my hand at repairing the reverse lockout valve. The O-ring was in a stupid place,with no pressure on it. I reassembled it with the O-ring in a slightly different spot that I THINK will cure the problem. We'll see this weekend.

Oh... and I read the DNR method for testing for noise. 3ft behind the mufflers. 4-5 ft above water. I backed my boat out, which to be fair IS facing a building about 20 ft away, and fired her up.

Uh-oh.

106db.

I had the meter set at "slow" and "a", like it stated. That's not good. I really really really want to keep those headers.

Bring that thing to Lake Texoma (OK/TX) and you wont' have to worry about those "db's". Seriously though, I just found and read you're thread front to back and you've done a great job. I've no doubt you'll solve your "db" problem. Normally it's a good idea to match a new gauge to a new sending unit. No tape or goop on the sending unit threads. Good luck this weekend!