Dad's First Car to My Never Ending Project...

[FeSo4man]

@jft69z good call, thanks; It does appear to fit, by the skin of its teeth. Not much clearance but the bolt holes line up without touching the valve cover. Dipstick access might get hairy around the hose but it is past the housing. To me it looks like a bit more clearance on the brake booster side, but I’ll have to confirm when the booster gets back from getting cleaned up. 

IMG_0055.HEIC IMG_0054.HEIC IMG_0056.HEIC

[willie]

Looking good Ed!!!!    You can do it, no sleep for 49 days!!!!   lol

[1970mcss]

Very late to the post, great story and looking good. I hope you get it done for the wedding. Good luck

[72 Monte Carlo]

Ed, I had tall aftermarket valve covers on my Big Block in my 72 Monte Carlo factory AC SBC car, and that forced me to get an aftermarket 8" dual diaphragm brake booster. 

Then, because I only had a 1/4" space between the passenger side valve cover and the hvac box, I opted to install different valve covers that are shorter but still clear my rockers and valve lift.

[FeSo4man]

Update for proof of progress- after a couple weeks of staying up way too late every night after work, the soon-to-be FIL coming down for a weekend and lots of help from friends, changes are starting to be noticeable. I’m gonna owe a lot of joy rides when this thing is done. 

Most recently got the wiring side of the SS gauge conversion put in (thanks for the instructions @MCfan) and based on several reviews here, my Classic Auto Air system arrived Friday to get the firewall to-do list buttoned up and get the dash reinstalled/harnesses re-taped. Here’s to hoping it’s as drop-in as possible 🤞🏼

One thing that has me puzzled- I have a JEGS high flow fuel pump installed that calls out the inlets as 1/4 NPT. I’ve tried about 5 fittings at this point, the last of which was straight from JEGS, and it can’t just be the parts guy giving me the wrong fitting at this point. The 1/4 just don’t fit except for one port, which I believe is the outlet. (The farthest right port as pictured) Anyone have any idea what I should be using? (I have also tried MNPT)

[DragCat]

4 hours ago, FeSo4man said:

One thing that has me puzzled- I have a JEGS high flow fuel pump installed that calls out the inlets as 1/4 NPT. I’ve tried about 5 fittings at this point, the last of which was straight from JEGS, and it can’t just be the parts guy giving me the wrong fitting at this point. The 1/4 just don’t fit except for one port, which I believe is the outlet. (The farthest right port as pictured) Anyone have any idea what I should be using? (I have also tried MNPT)

Progress is always good 🤘

On the fuel pump, what ive done in similar circumstances. Take the fuel pump to Ace hardware/Tractor Supply, they usually have a good selection of nuts and bolts. That way at least you can get the size and thread spec identified. Might even be Metric 🙃 or an AN fitting 

[GRAY 70 Monte Carlo]

I don’t know if this will help but I just had a similar issue on a fuel pump I had to use a 5/8-18 fitting not mnpt .i hope this helps great story and congratulations on the car and up coming wedding

[Stuckin70s]

Looking good... One bite at a time... Thank you for sharing...

[FeSo4man]

It's been a couple weeks of air install and wiring... I think the Classic Auto Air kit will be sweet in the end, but man it is eating some precious time! I would've loved to put it off till after the wedding since it's not "operation mandatory" but I just couldn't pass up getting it in while the dash is all the way out. Starting to get nervous on making the deadline, fingers crossed that things will "throw together" quickly from here on out and a few more phone-a-friend assistance calls work out. On a bright note I was able to get the power steering pump cleaned up, new low bracket order and installed.

A LWP question- all of the diagrams I've seen for the return line from heater core -> water pump show an inlet on the driver side of the pump. I don't have an inlet there, but there is a port blocked off (like this when I bought the engine) right next to the bypass line on the top of the water pump. Is that heater hose supposed to be routed there, or does it need to go directly to the radiator?

[jft69z]

41 minutes ago, FeSo4man said:

A LWP question- all of the diagrams I've seen for the return line from heater core -> water pump show an inlet on the driver side of the pump. I don't have an inlet there, but there is a port blocked off (like this when I bought the engine) right next to the bypass line on the top of the water pump. Is that heater hose supposed to be routed there, or does it need to go directly to the radiator?

 

The 5/8" heater hose (pressure side) is going to go to the intake manifold fitting (top left of picture, where the 90^o fitting is), and the 3/4" heater hose (return line) is going to the port you have circled. The fitting next to it on the driver side will go to the bypass port on the front of the intake manifold.

[Scott S.]

Not the best shot, but I thought it might help. 

[72 Monte Carlo]

Here's my big block with coolant hoses installed. 

[DragCat]

Some old vs new configuration. And yes I tend to over document projects 🤣 Hence the colored tape on the hoses 🤣

[GRAY 70 Monte Carlo]

16 minutes ago, DragCat said:

Some old vs new configuration. And yes I tend to over document projects 🤣 Hence the colored tape on the hoses 🤣

Very nice and you can never over document 

[Scott S.]

It's not like wiring and the multitude of colours used.   

[FeSo4man]

T-17 days to wedding- we have progress!

Thanks for the pics; heating system is all hooked up, ignition is (almost) spark ready, and just need to bend a hard line to be ready for AC charge. Goal is to get the dash in tonight and be ready to function-check/fire this baby up by the end of this weekend! 
I’m mentally preparing myself to punt the interior work till after the wedding and just bolt the seats in. If this thing runs, drives and has glass in by July 12th it’s making the trip. Anything more will just be a bonus. 

[Dtret]

Progress looks great. Hopefully all go well and you can get it there. 

[72 Monte Carlo]

Ed,

Great progress on a big project! It's looking great!

[GRAY 70 Monte Carlo]

Looking good keep burning that midnight oil and I am sure you will get it to the point you want it to be congratulations 

[FeSo4man]

Soft launched the dash last night! Everything is hooked up and ready for a function test once I throw a battery on it. The AAA HVAC box interfered with the glove box side bracket on test fit, so here’s to hoping there’s a way I can rig that up without too much trouble when I bolt it back up…

Wish me luck, hopefully by the end of this weekend I’ll have a video of a running car for y’all. And no doubt everything will work on the first try 😂

[Scott S.]

Nice work !!!

It always looks like a "sampler" bag of Twizzlers when you're finished.   

[FeSo4man]

Inner Fenderwell/battery tray question- Am I missing a piece that should come off the radiator support for the Fenderwell to bolt to, and is there no other support on the right side of the battery tray? When aligned with the rest of the holes the wells don’t reach the core support, and it sure seems like there should be something more holding the weight of the battery than one bolt on the support and the plastic Fenderwell…

Note: These busted up original Fenderwells are getting replaced, the set I ordered in February from OPGI are still back ordered so these ones are going on to get us through the wedding.

[GRAY 70 Monte Carlo]

You are missing the two liner extensions that go from the liners to core support. There is also a bracket from the battery tray to the rt fender liner where that square hole is cut in your right fender liner

[Dtret]

Yes. They look like this.  And they are side specific 

[FeSo4man]

T-12 days to wedding with a BIG update- it runs!! After getting the timing worked out I was very pleased with how it ran for the short time we had it going. And it’s LOUD in that garage coming straight off the headers!

 

 

As far as the fillers for the fender wells, I haven’t been able to find them anywhere online so I have a call out to a guy in our area with some parts Montes- hoping I can pull a set off one of those.

Some electrical bugs to get worked out after hooking the battery up- This black wire from the horn relay is constant hot with the key on. I’ve looked at the schematic and if I’m reading it right, I can’t figure out why that one would be getting constant ACC power- any ideas?

Other bug, the BATT plug on the fuse block is giving me constant 12v power, but neither the ACC or IGN plugs have power in any condition (key on, off, crank). Am I missing something there?

Other issue is the tach I installed with the SS tach conversion wasn’t working, but I didn’t have time to put the multimeter on it yesterday to dig deeper. It’s plugged into the MSD box tach output- has anyone with MSD had to change anything from factory wiring to make that functional? Unit is a 6A analog. 
 

Thanks for all the help thus far y’all, hearing it run was a big morale boost for all involved and we wouldn’t have been nearly this far along without the quick responses and wealth of knowledge this group brings to the table!