Lots to update!
Motor is in, and it purrs like a kitten! Can't believe how well and how smooth its running. Was a bit of a rocky road to get there though. Read on if you want to hear the story.
Got it put in early last week, and was waiting on a pile of parts to get it ready to run. Once all the parts showed up I tossed them on and got to work getting it fired up. After putting the distributor on about 90* out of time, I fixed that and it would run, but very very poorly, what sounded like several dead cylinders, even after messing with the timing a lot. I talked to a buddy of mine that has built quite a few engines, he suggested loosening up the valves. So I did that and it instantly fixed my problems! Ran pretty well.
Had a co-worker who's also has built quite a few engines come over and help me dial in the timing. We got it running very smooth. Then I asked if he'd go through the valves for me since I wasn't very confident in my work at this point. He ran through them, and when we fired it up it ran like crap again. We ran out of time for the day and he said he'd come over the next day and help me some more. So next day we pulled the plugs, they looked ok. Pulled plug wires as it was running and figured out what cylinders weren't firing. Changed plugs and made no difference, so we went back and started over on the valves, being a little more lenient on what "zero lash" was. And only 1/2 turn instead of 3/4 turn after zero lash. Did that, and fired it up and voila, purrs like a kitten again.
After that fiasco, we played with the timing. Set the inital timing to 12*btdc, and it looked like full advance was around 30-32* so should be plenty safe to run 87 octane. Really happy with how smooth it runs. Fires up pretty much on the first piston over. Even cold yesterday it popped right off instantly. Has 30+psi of oil pressure at idle, climbs up to around 50 with some throttle. Knock on wood, no oil leaks yet.
The rest of this week I need to fab up a bracket to hold the throttle cable, the stock one from the 2 barrel isn't even close to fitting. Then I can start putting the interior back together. Then throw the alpha unit on, new gear oil, and a new impeller, and it'll be water ready. Hope to have all that done in the next couple weeks. I'll take a few more pics as I make some progress. Kind of a pain to try and upload videos, so sorry for no pics this time.
Now it's going to be painful, I'll have the boat ready to go, and there's no decent weather in the forseeable future, so it's just going to sit.
