It's Been a Month, Has Anything Happened?

You'll have to read the entire post to get the answer.  When I last left off, I had built the engine and hoped to have it in the car for the first start on June 21.  Here's what happened.

When my brother and has family came to visit, he and his son wanted to work on the car.  I had them finish the steering and mount the tires on the chassis.  Since the car is officially a "roller" we decided to give it a try.  Check it out.

The ride was comfortable and quiet (except for the huffing a puffing coming from somewhere behind me).  But getting pushed by teenagers just won't do, I need a real engine!

Before installing the engine, I temporarily mounted some of the gauges so I'll be able to monitor what's happening as I try to start the engine.

How fitting to get to install the engine on Father's Day with the help of my father and brother.  We started by moving the engine off the rotating stand and onto a fixed stand so we can mount the clutch and transmission.

Here, my brother and I are wrapping up the transmission installation.

The engine sees daylight.  I had to remove a bunch of components that were in the way (carburetor, alternator, valve covers, exhaust headers, and various water fittings).

Up and over the front of the chassis.

It actually went in quickly.  No problems.

Well, the motor mounts didn't quite line up, but after making a few faces, Tom got them tightened down.

I'm getting the transmission mount in place before we remove the engine hoist.

A good day's work and a Father's Day I'll never forget!

There was a lot to do before the engine would be ready to turn-over.  I had to reinstall all the components that had been removed.  Here I'm priming the oil pump.

We got good oil flow from all the pushrods, just like the book says.

Then I had to figure out the wiring.  Should be easy for an electrical engineer and it would have been if I had a wiring diagram (no such luck).

This wiring is just temporary anyway.  I installed switches for main power, the fuel pump, the fan and the starter.  Then I wired the gauges.  I probably should have wired in some fuses, but I was on a tight schedule.

Well, I didn't have everything ready on June 21, but by June 25 I rolled it out of the garage, put fuel in the tank for the first time and got ready to hit that start button.  Here it is ready to go!

And now the moment you've been waiting for!  I bought this engine block on eBay a year ago and I've gotten it to this point.  With my family around to watch and my heartbeat thumping in my ears, it was time!  Roll the video!

I can't say it ran perfectly, but it did run.  I'm checking things over and doing some tuning to get it running just right.  I guess I'm a little surprised it started, but failure was not an option.

I feel like I've crossed over a major milestone and now I want to get the car moving under the power of that engine.  I guess I'll need to finish those brake lines first.