I was on my own and after hours of grunting, sweating, swearing, jacking up the trans, fiddling with the engine, using pry bars and pieces of timber, as it's getting dark I FINALLY manage to get one of the bellhousing bolts in. Yes!       Are you missing the 2 guide pins that line up your bellhousing to the block?  These line up everything and the bolts hold it in place.  MUST HAVE.  After seeing the pic again of the block on the stand, I can see the pin in the block.

Edited December 9, 20214 yr by JUSTA6

Yes JustA, those bellhousing locating dowels were certainly there and were used to locate the block - it was more the limitation of my El Cheapo engine crane. The boom is adjustable for weight and the entire structure was never intended to be playing with fullsize Yank Tanks. So, after I lowered the engine into the bay, it wasn't far enough back. I had to gently lower the engine and had it resting on some padding sitting on the crossmember, then pulled the boom out to the 250kg position (it's maximum length) raised it slightly and then coerced it further back. Obviously I couldn't use that maximum boom length as I was dealing with considerably more weight than 250kg. It was lining up the engine mount holes that was a bit fiddly. With a helper, it would have been far easier. Anyway, it's in.

I know the lone wolf scenerio all to well.  I'm sure your face feeling like ya been in a barfight doesn't help.  Glad it's coming together for ya.

Stitches came out today and doctor is pleased with the healing. How the wound managed to stay together whilst I was grunting & sweating and covered in dirt is a miracle, but despite my best efforts to try and get it infected, no cigar which is of course very good news.

Only had a coupla hours of daylight today and managed to get both mounts and all the bellhousing bolts tightened up. Gotta fit the starter, bolt up the headers and connect the flexplate to torque converter tomorrow. Can't wait.

rock n roll tomorrow mate!!!

Another torturous day under the car sweating, grunting & swearing. Sound familiar? Of course, today was as humid as hell, no breeze, stinking hot - perfect Pontiac repair weather. Bolted in driver's side headers. Easy, coz I left them in situ as engine was lowered in place, but I was forced to pull other side headers out coz engine was catching on stuff everywhere. Today I replaced those headers. Under the car - they caught on the trans cooler lines, the oil filter adapter, the dipstick tube and the exhaust collector. After dismantling all that crap they still wouldn't go. They needed about a tenth of an inch to clear the head. Out comes the engine mount bolt, so with the car suspended on jackstands and the engine suspended by the crane I eventually got them in. Then came the arduous task of actually getting those bolts to go in. Whatever - they're in and bolted in place. The starter motor was another adventure in gravity defiance (remember when 'gravity' made it to Homer's shit list?) but it too is in place. Trying to hold that heavy thing in place, position the plate that is sandwiched between it and the block and getting one of those bolts started is further evidence that with our next evolutionary phase, I'm suggesting once again a third arm be added to all humans. Torque converter bolted up, cover plate reinstalled - I think I'm ready to start adding all the stuff that goes on top of and in front of the block. It sounds like I'm moaning but after a shower and a sit down, I feel quite content knowing that each day is another step closer to either sweet engine sounds, or an explosion.

We have visitors tomorrow and I'm barbie chef, so a day's reprieve of spannering and beers instead.

1 hour ago, Fitzy said:

Another torturous day under the car sweating, grunting & swearing. Sound familiar? Of course, today was as humid as hell, no breeze, stinking hot - perfect Pontiac repair weather. Bolted in driver's side headers. Easy, coz I left them in situ as engine was lowered in place, but I was forced to pull other side headers out coz engine was catching on stuff everywhere. Today I replaced those headers. Under the car - they caught on the trans cooler lines, the oil filter adapter, the dipstick tube and the exhaust collector. After dismantling all that crap they still wouldn't go. They needed about a tenth of an inch to clear the head. Out comes the engine mount bolt, so with the car suspended on jackstands and the engine suspended by the crane I eventually got them in. Then came the arduous task of actually getting those bolts to go in. Whatever - they're in and bolted in place. The starter motor was another adventure in gravity defiance (remember when 'gravity' made it to Homer's shit list?) but it too is in place. Trying to hold that heavy thing in place, position the plate that is sandwiched between it and the block and getting one of those bolts started is further evidence that with our next evolutionary phase, I'm suggesting once again a third arm be added to all humans. Torque converter bolted up, cover plate reinstalled - I think I'm ready to start adding all the stuff that goes on top of and in front of the block. It sounds like I'm moaning but after a shower and a sit down, I feel quite content knowing that each day is another step closer to either sweet engine sounds, or an explosion.

We have visitors tomorrow and I'm barbie chef, so a day's reprieve of spannering and beers instead.

sounds like you certainly deserve that beer mate !!! well done

fitzy i ment to say, i know how you like apricots  ! for some weird reason our 3 apricot trees never blossomed this year!!! last year we had dozens of fruit... this year none... well nearly none.... ok one to be exact !!! 

Edited December 11, 20214 yr by 64 kiwi boni

so too with the plum trees... no blossom and no fruit.!! 

justa nature doing her thing i guess, trees are healthy, feed and watered but a big no go!!! 

No apricots? We cancelled our trip.

Not really - we'll have to make do with fresh fish, beer & pizza instead.

i Know Mate!!! its a wtf moment !!

We have 3 mango trees at our place and this year we got ONE mango, until the fruit bats destroyed it. Now we have none. It's apocalypse now.

Righto, another day of putting the engine ancillaries on proved to be the usual ongoing nightmare. Now I don't know if it's just me but as you get older you can no longer roll under the car, twist a spanner and then roll out and spring to an upright position as if nothing had happened. That was how I remember how it was working on a car - nothing was a problem. Now I crawl under there, switch on the worklight, put my glasses on and then grunt and heave as I try to attach or detach whatever component is giving me the shits. I then crawl outa there whimpering & broken, like someone crawling out of a hole after a period of solitary confinement. I'm pretty sure I have done my time underneath the car: everything that had to be reconnected has been attended to with the exception of a transmission vacuum line that disappears under the firewall to God knows where. I guess I'll be jacking the car up one more time in order to find out where the hell that thing goes. Other than that, all the other bits went back on and once I fill the new radiator (& block) with coolant, fill the carby float bowls with 98 octane fuel and chuck 20 litres in the tank and charge up the battery, it's time to rock.

I have a fire extinguisher close by and shall pray to several gods & deities tonight to ask for blessings as I turn decayed fossils into noise!

Looks sooo good.

Here's to automotive gods that you fire up the motor and it doesn't fire you back! 

The wife got an interesting care package on Friday. It was a 65-lb FedEx box. In it was Styrofoam cooler loaded with 8 freshly caught but frozen Triggerfish and about 30-35 -lbs of fresh Gulf of Mexico shrimp! Seems it was from a grateful employee of hers whom she helped save his job at work (from downsizing). He and his family is Vietnamese, and his family owns a fishing boat in Panama City Florida. So he had them send up some fresh catch seafood as a way of saying thank you.

I've never had Triggerfish before but I've read it's great eating, especially grilled on the barbie or blackened. The shrimp seem to almost be the size of prawns. However, they still need to be cleaned, beheaded, and de-legged.

What a lovely gift - how nice of them (and your missus) to have done each other a huge favour. This is the sort of story that restores one's faith in humans. I can just see you now: standing around in the snow all rugged up, barbecuing your catch with a pair of tongs in one hand and a beer in the other. When Kiwi & I visit, we'll stick to summer, I think.

We were in Toronto a coupla years ago and I couldn't help noticing there was a Hooters restaurant a few hundred metres from our hotel. She was okay with me going, but the northern hemisphere was experiencing a protracted winter that year and there were metres of snow & slush I had to mush through in order to get there. Sadly, it is an experience I shall have to wait for. Insert hint of "we'll take you guys there - we have one just around the corner." Hooters, beer, seafood...sounds good.

I’m sure JUSTA and I can find a Hooters here and there. 

Wait, is that a threat of you two showing up at our doorsteps? Bad enough I have I have to deal with a Canuckistani refugee on Saturday.

8 hours ago, Frosty said:

Here's to automotive gods that you fire up the motor and it doesn't fire you back! 

The wife got an interesting care package on Friday. It was a 65-lb FedEx box. In it was Styrofoam cooler loaded with 8 freshly caught but frozen Triggerfish and about 30-35 -lbs of fresh Gulf of Mexico shrimp! Seems it was from a grateful employee of hers whom she helped save his job at work (from downsizing). He and his family is Vietnamese, and his family owns a fishing boat in Panama City Florida. So he had them send up some fresh catch seafood as a way of saying thank you.

I've never had Triggerfish before but I've read it's great eating, especially grilled on the barbie or blackened. The shrimp seem to almost be the size of prawns. However, they still need to be cleaned, beheaded, and de-legged.

oh my god Yumm yumm !! you lucky bugger!! enjoy

5 hours ago, Fitzy said:

What a lovely gift - how nice of them (and your missus) to have done each other a huge favour. This is the sort of story that restores one's faith in humans. I can just see you now: standing around in the snow all rugged up, barbecuing your catch with a pair of tongs in one hand and a beer in the other. When Kiwi & I visit, we'll stick to summer, I think.

oh yes !!, we certainly will be!! hehehe

Thanks! It’s a cushy job but somebody has to do it! 

2 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Thanks! It’s a cushy job but somebody has to do it! 

Can you post pics of bbq the shrimp in the snow??? fitzy has me laffing my arse off with jutsA picture of doing that !

 many a night i will bbq and its cold as outside justA because .... i want bbq food !!!

steak is always best on the bbq! shimp/prawns same thing !!

i hate it when the boss does steak on the gas hob, never hot enough, to truly cook it fast and trap the juices in the meat!

 its a art !! fitzy knows what i am talking about 

I just had to post this: today I bought some coolant concentrate and the radiator hose clamps that I had 6 months to get but forgot all about until the last minute. I attach my nice new radiator hoses, clamp them down, look at everything and decide I might as well chuck the coolant in. I mixed the concentrate with rainwater which is largely demineralised (it's not a Ferrari - just an old Yanker) and started to pour it in the radiator. After about a minute when the coolant is starting to fill the block all of a sudden I hear the unmistakable sound of liquid hitting concrete. I have a look and coolant is all over the garage floor. It is at this exact moment that I remember about the 2 little brass plugs that sit near the bottom of the block on both sides towards the rear. Shit. FORD. Piss. Jack the bloody car up, get under there and locate the holes. Would you believe, the driver's side one is up behind the starter motor and headers in a spot that God Himself couldn't reach. I managed to cobble together the most outlandish contraption composed of a tiny socket and all manner of extensions & universal joints and somehow defied all the laws of physics and managed to get my hand up there and at least get the thing started in it's threaded hole. In contrast, the passenger side one was almost laughably reachable and I could tighten it with a wrench. Whilst I was under there swearing and sweating I thought I might as well connect that mystery trans vacuum hose. I eventually located some sort of cylindrical device on the side of the trans that seemed to be crying out for a pipe to attach to it, so I shoved that pipe in and that was that. This time when I released the jack I knew that if all was well, it was the last time I would need to crawl under the car for quite some time.                                                                                                                                      Oil in engine? Check. Zinc additive? Check. Coolant? Check. Fuel in float bowls? Check. Fuel in tank? Check. Spark plug leads on in correct sequence? Check. Points adjusted? Check. Static timing set? Check. Carb mixture screws set to initial start? Check. Battery charging up? Check. Exhaust connected so that entire neighborhood is treated to the sound of an old skool V8 firing up? Check. Fire extinguisher handy? Check. Here we go.

3 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

Can you post pics of bbq the shrimp in the snow??? fitzy has me laffing my arse off with jutsA picture of doing that !

 many a night i will bbq and its cold as outside justA because .... i want bbq food !!!

steak is always best on the bbq! shimp/prawns same thing !!

i hate it when the boss does steak on the gas hob, never hot enough, to truly cook it fast and trap the juices in the meat!

 its a art !! fitzy knows what i am talking about 

He's absolutely right, folks. Only a hot grill plate will do a steak properly. There's something comforting & primal about cooking meat on a fire. Chuck some beers in and it's a night out! Keep it simple: good quality salt & fresh ground black pepper, some Dijon mustard. Man, my mouth is watering.

When I did my apprenticeship as a chef (it's true) we used to marinate big trays of cooked lobster meat in olive oil, lemon juice and salt & pepper. For lunch, I would make myself the thickest lobster & avocado sandwich, which was free for me but which the punters had to spread their arse cheeks for!

I haven't shown you blokes my grille either. Here it is in front of Lucy.

It is the engine with the zoomies, it is literally a BBQ grille. It is called the Hot Rod Grills. I won it almost a decade ago in a raffle contest in Charleston WV.

https://www.hotrodgrills.eu/product/v8-hot-rod-grill-bbq/

Edited December 14, 20214 yr by Frosty

OK, thats justa badass Frosty!

9 hours ago, Fitzy said:

He's absolutely right, folks. Only a hot grill plate will do a steak properly. There's something comforting & primal about cooking meat on a fire. Chuck some beers in and it's a night out! Keep it simple: good quality salt & fresh ground black pepper, some Dijon mustard. Man, my mouth is watering.

When I did my apprenticeship as a chef (it's true) we used to marinate big trays of cooked lobster meat in olive oil, lemon juice and salt & pepper. For lunch, I would make myself the thickest lobster & avocado sandwich, which was free for me but which the punters had to spread their arse cheeks for!

oh you have MY mouth watering !!!!

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

I haven't shown you blokes my grille either. Here it is in front of Lucy.

It is the engine with the zoomies, it is literally a BBQ grille. It is called the Hot Rod Grills. I won it almost a decade ago in a raffle contest in Charleston WV.

https://www.hotrodgrills.eu/product/v8-hot-rod-grill-bbq/

thats SOOOO cool mate!! whats the block made out of??

3 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

thats SOOOO cool mate!! whats the block made out of??

Cast metal alloy of some sort. Not 100% sure what it is. Its definitely not iron, its too light for iron (and it isn't rusting(. Its not all aluminum, although I suspect the "heads and intake" are aluminum. The grille is stainless steel. So is the handle, timing cover and air cleaner.