OK, here's the run down on the re-assembly:
- New nitroseal head gaskets installed, with no sealer of any kind - just cleaned the deck and head with laquer thinner.
- Torqued the heads down in 3 steps: 70, 85, 100 ft lbs
- Coated NitroSeal intake gaskets with spray adhesive, put Permatex gray around the water jackets and stuck them down
- Put Permatex gray on the rails - no cork gaskets
- Set the aluminum intake down and bolted down to 34 ft lbs
- Put the pushrods back in order wtih a dab of grease to hold them into the hydraulic lifter cups
- Installed rocker arm assemblies and torqued to 42 ft lbs
- Pre-loaded / set lash on the lifters at 1/2 turn past tight
- Stripped the top surge tank bolt, so drilled it out and re-threaded to 3/8"
- Installed thermostat with weep hole drilled in the top
- Installed the carb w 1/2" phenolic 4 hole spacer
- Filled the block with distilled water and Water Wetter via the water temp sensor hole and then filled the surge tank and radiator lines from the surge tank
- Filled with Shell Rotello 15w-40 plus 1 quart Lucas
Oil Conditioner, which I poured over the rocker arms and down into the cam valley to try and coat everything
- Used a drill and shaft to prime the
oil system
- Replaced the valve covers
- Installed the distributor so that the rotor was pointing directly at #1 spark plug wire connector when the harmonic balancer timing line was at 20 deg advanced
- Verified TDC and that I didn't have the distributor 180 off
- Fuel lines connected, carb float bowls show fuel in the site windows
- Installed new Champion plugs gapped at .050
Looked everything over and turned the key. Starter kind of sounded funny, like a higher pitched sound, but crank appeared to be turning over. However, wasn't getting any ignition. Tried some starter fluid in the carb and got a couple of puffs and one backfire.
Starter seems to have a hard time turning the engine over, so hooked up the battery charger. However, I can turn the engine over by hand using a breaker bar and have rotated it around a couple of times when verifying TDC.
Tried it 3 or 4 times and then had to stop to tend to kiddie duties. Figure I'll post this, and sleep on it.
Any ideas or tips to try? Could I have done something to the starter when the engine was locked up and I tried to start it?
Thanks!
Scott
