5/29

Well the holiday weekend went pretty well. I have to start with the thrill of the weekend which was driving Dave Borden's Spec Racer in the local Autocross. What a blast!!!! Although I cut 2 seconds off of every run my best time was still a 54, I'm thinking I did OK for a rookie.

Finished re-assembling the motor by mounting the timing chain cover, water pump, oil pan, and the lower intake. I had actually purchased a set of ARP bolts for the aluminum timing chain cover and water pump. Although the sales person on the phone at Summit assured me that they were the right ones, what I received was nowhere close to the right bolts. So,....I ended up cleaning up the old bolts and reusing them. That was a waste of $30.00.

I also replaced the pilot bearing and removed the rear main seal. However, the replacement seal that I had looked different from the one I removed, so I'm gonna stop by the parts store on the way home for a different one.

Note - The seal I have came with a complete set of gaskets from TrickFlow which I also purchased from Summit. The only gaskets I ended up using out of the set were the head gaskets, the intake to head mating surface gaskets, upper plenum gasket, and thermostat housing gasket. Those were the only ones of good enough quality in my opinion. The valve cover gaskets from the set were cork and I didn't want to use those. The oil pan gasket from the set was a 4 piece cork gasket, and I opted for the one peice rubber gasket from SCE. There were various paper gaskets for the timing chain cover and water pump assembly, but none of them fit correctly between the waterpump and backing plate, so I replaced those with a set from FelPro. And for the headers I'll be using the gaskets from Earls. Now that I know this I'd be reluctant to go with a complete set from anyone other than FelPro in the future. Gotta stop listening to those salesmen on the phone at Summit.

Still waiting for the valve covers from Summit as well. Hopefully those will arive today with the new throwout bearing retainer from D&D. If all goes well I sjould have the motor and trany in the car by the end of the week.

Well its been a roller coaster of a weekend, but Dave Borden came over this morning and we went from this................

Dave had come buy to help put the motor in the car. Little did I know that he was going to bring the racing tires over to set the chassis on the ground. I was so damn excited about getting the car on the ground I almost forgot about puting the motor an trany in. Sure is nice to ba able to roll the car around.

We started by buttoning up the front of the trany tunnel.

I finished the day off by installing the clutch cable, water radiator and heater hoses, and oil filter relocator and oil hoses.

Of course I had to get some shots with the helpers.......................