heads pulled

Hey, I'm down to the short block!  Some brackets and stuff to get off yet, motor mounts, transmission brace, oil dipstick, etc, but pretty near there.  I have to rent/borrow a puller for the damper too but I may be ready to let it rest for a while, once I get the oil pan all drained.

Took the intake manifold to a car wash to pressure-clean it... much better.  I'll do this with the heads, too.

First pulled cylinder head.  Those are some dirty combustion chambers.  Can't wait to see what the intake valves look like on the other side.

Closeup of combustion chamber deposits.  I may just get new valves.

Much lighter on the stand... I should weigh the intake and heads.  It's fun to turn the crank and see the pistons go.

My shelf of parts gets more loaded.

Checked the lifters, they're worn concave so it's looking like the cam/lifter upgrade/update is required rather than optional.  340cam, here we come!  :-)  I can't figure out how to take the pulley off of the water pump... there are no screw heads or anything that I can see through the holes on the outside of the pulley.  I know it has to come off... because there are bolts in there that won't even come out all of the way with the pulley in the way.

I'll probably leave it as it is for a while... probably.  We'll see.  There are still brackets and stuff to take off, but nothing big for now, until I get a damper puller and take off the front cover... then the timing chain and whatnot... I should get the transmission out first, but it's so easy and tempting to take things off of the motor.  Also need to play with the welder and work on the body, for that matter.  The engine is a serious distraction...