January 2004
Took some time off for Christmas and a trip to California. Kinda dug into our budget so had to wait for finances to resurface.
1/22/2004 -- Finally found the correct speedo cable @17.99 and began to buy bondo, filler putty, and gray primer. Speedo sending unit at the transmission was stripped since the cable was melted solid and the unit was still trying to spin. So, I used bondo to seat the speedo cable into the sending unit, mounted it, and it worked!
sub w/tax = 59.46
1/26/2004 -- Finally got brave and decided to remove the heads and have them worked on @ 187.27. Sent them to AAMI (the gun shop, Angleton Automotive Machine Inc) and he found 4 bent INTAKE valves (I guessed exhaust). He recommended that I drop the oil pan and clean out the chunks of valve seals that he could not find. He reported that they were dry and broken, and would likely be clogging the oil system.
Spent the next few days ruining all my work clothes, a pair of Doc Marten shoes, and my clean garage floor by getting all the grease off the engine block, oil pan, and all brackets, components and anything else I saw that was greasy. Bought new gaskets for intake manifold, oil pan, heads, exhaust manifolds, and all that jazz @ 81.25.
sub w/tax = 268.52
Dad came over and helped after I cleaned everything up. We put the heads back on, exhaust manifolds, and he was spent. I proceeded to do the intake manifold, carburetor, and all that to get it running again. It leaked water from the rear seal of the intake manifold, so I took it all apart, did it again, but this time used the cork front and rear seals rather than the 1/4 bead of sealant (as per Edelbrock instructions). I am not sure if it was the thickness of the sealant or the cool December temperatures, or both, but the sealant never kicked off and leaked as soon as it got wet. Finally got it back together, leaving a shoplight on the seals overnight to keep them warm and help them kick off. It is completely amazing how much horsepower you get when you add three more cylinders (after fixing the 2 dead and 2 half dead valves). This car will now lay rubber from a standstill without powerbraking.
total = 2646.60