7 Aug 2022
New motor

It's like they put a big bow on it for me.
Also that's the seatbelt from the donor vehicle - tied around the exhaust manifolds on both sides.
Disassembly in progress.  Someone's been in this motor - the front cover is "made in china", the intake gaskets were Fel-Pro, and the rockers were all way too tight.

With the rockers removed, a leakdown test showed a lot of air getting past the valves - ranging from < 10% on cylinders 1 and 3 through 60-70% on the ones towards the back.

There is no ridge on the cylinder wall, and I would have expected one on a 150k mile engine.  Maybe the bottom end is relatively fresh (wouldn't that be nice!)
Pan is dirty but not sparkly.
I've got parts I need to get rid of now.  Like this block/crank/most of the pistons...
.. truck intake, dbw throttle...
.. exhaust manifolds, ps pump, truck brackets and water pump...
Two sets of 853 heads...
Valve covers, truck coil packs, flexplate, motor mounts... you know, everything.
The head bits I'm keeping.
Going to update the trunnions and use them.  This had been on the to-do list anyway.
I lost track of which shims went where on the McLeod clutch.  Hopefully this pic from 2008 will steer me in the right direction.
LA Awesome cleaner melts carbon.
Maybe multiple applications and a brush helps.
Is this a GM cam?  The "1721" in quotes makes me think no, but searching on the numbers didn't help any.

The actual stamped values are:
"1721"
1237
419967
Holley's 302-1 oil pan is actually *really* similar in shape to the stock F-body pan.
Looks like maybe it gives a little more clearance to the back edge of the crossmember?
Got a new cam.  This one is much more aggressive.  Conveniently, the directions suggested the trunnion update I was already doing.
Not pictured, and I don't know why, is my tearing down the heads to replace the seals/springs and lap the valves.  I think most of the air leaking past the valves was due to the carbon buildup though.  New valve springs/seals/keepers/retainers, head, header, and oil pan gaskets should arrive tomorrow.  At that point my shopping list consists of a pilot bearing, and a spark plug to replace the one beaten to death by the piston,

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