Here's the approach...

Ladies and gentlemen, we have insertion.

Too bad it needs a radiator, I like this view:

It's nice to see this milestone, but there's still a lot to do.

For instance:

Ahh yes, headers. The hot rod accessory everyone loves to hate.
They may take up a lot of valuable wrench swinging space, but they
sure do sound nice once they're in. IF you can get them in.

In a rare moment of intelligence, I decided to actually read
the instructions that came with my new Hooker headers;
they suggested that I leave the passenger side motor mount
attached (as a pivot point), unbolt the driver's side motor mount,
and lift the engine as high as possible in order to thread the
driver's side header up and around the steering box and
in to position. Well, the instructions almost worked. Almost.

So, we had to unbolt both motor mounts and raise the engine
again (after we were just so happy to have it in). After much
wrestling and wrangling, we finally got the engine in with the
driver's side header correctly attached. I'm not sure what the
magic move was, but when the motor mounts finally clunked back
into the correct position, I put the bolts in and had a victory beer.

I gotta hand it to the header designers at Hooker;
these babies hug that steering box with about 3/16"
clearance in numerous places.

With this complete, there was only one
thing to do before calling it a day:
Put the hood back on.

 Well, actually this shot was taken the next day
while I was doing something that was very much needed:
Cleaning my parents' garage.

I felt compelled to do this because my li'l project has had it destroyed
for 4 months now. Besides, the next day was his birthday and I wasn't
going to be there because...

March 10th was day 2 of qualifying at the 49th annual
March Meet drag races out at Famoso. It's an annual tradition:
It just wouldn't feel like Spring if I didn't get to smell nitromethane,
tire smoke, beer and rotting agricultural waste (they have
compost heaps on the other side of the track).

While I was out at the drags, I saw a great piece
of inspiration in the classic car show:

Now here's a guy with great taste in automobiles. It was a real
beauty. Not only did he have a flawless black paint job and
dent free gleaming chrome trim, he also had the 460 cubic inch
engine. Color me green with envy.

Oh well, it's inspiration for me to get crackin'.

CONTINUE >>