Cleaning up the plug wire guides that fit on the block behind the heads and lead the wires towards the back plugs and the wire shields for the front plugs. Same routine of scraping, cleaning, sand blasting and paint…
All cleaned up with some rubber tubing slipped on to help hold the wires firmly. They originally had a thin coating of rubber which was destroyed over time.
While waiting for paint to dry I’ve started to hook up the electrics. I have put on the left bank wires and will get underneath to run #1 &3 under the wire shield behind the exhaust manifold.
I’ve also put the alternator back and hooked up its wires.
I’m also installing the upper rad hose. I like to use the factory wire clamps as they look a whole lot neater.
Foiled again! The upper rad water inlet is one size smaller than the replacement rad hose. So no option but to use a band clamp there. The replacement (China) thermostat housing has such a large ridge on the end that the wire clamp couldn’t be spread far enough with clamp pliers to get it over the end of the housing. I’ll try putting the clamp on the housing first and then push the new hose through the clamp.
I was able to do that so it looks more factory like. Unfortunately there are a number of band clamps on the fuel line.
Back to the exhaust.
The upper shot is of the original factory exhaust manifold. The bottom one is the China replacement. As you can see the internal bore of the original is much smoother than the replacement. I didn’t go to the bother of grinding out the new manifold, but I will when I swap the original engine back in if I don’t go with headers or custom ram’s horn replacements.
Time to install the new left side manifold. This is how the spacer will go back into the car. The spacer held the original flapper that channelled exhaust gases under the intake for cold start ups.
I’ve put a good bead of exhaust sealant on the side of the spacer that will fit into the exhaust pipe top. In the end there was no way I could fit the spacer in the system for some reason with the new exhaust manifold!
So I used a regular donut seal and it squeezed in place just nicely. Not sure what I would have had to do to get the original flapper/spacer in place if I needed the original intake heater to work.
I was able to get the wire shield installed on the left side, but with the 305 starter and bracket in place it was impossible to get the shield on the right side. So I mounted a cushioned bracket to a pan bolt and ran the #2 &4 wires away from the exhaust system. I’ve also wrapped the transmission lines with header insulating wrap where they run near the exhaust pipe.
AC brackets in place.
Next: pretty well time to start the engine. Just need to add water and oil, put on the chrome valve covers and it will be time to get it going to check for problems and set the timing.