Started at 700 this morning, worked till 330 including cleaning up the tools and garage. Got it all back together and battery back in, no smoke. Did not start it yet. The label on the fel pro RTV for the front and rear of the manifold says 15 minutes to skin, 5 hours to dry, 24 hours to cure. So, can't put the coolant back in till about 0800 Monday. For now, I've triple checked it all and have no left over parts and all the connections are made, hoses and electrical. Also tightened up the two weeping frost plugs....hopefully they will seal otherwise I'll have to dismount the motor.
Removed the gaskets first thing this morning and dry fit the manifold three times to ensure I could hit the guide studs I put in and had all the cables and hoses routed out of the way so the manifold would drop down straight onto the gaskets and rtv at the ends with no smear. Wound up finding that the best position was belly across radiator, feet on garage door.....so, gaskets on and guide studs in place and rtv on the ends....
Slipped the manifold right into place without any slippage that could have knocked out the rtv on the ends. After sealing the manifold bolts with white pipe thread sealer, I put some in finger tight and pulled the guide studs and started torqueing the manifold bolts. Three torques, 50, 100 and 144 in lbs in the proper cross sequences and did a final check to ensure all were at 144 in lbs....just for peace of mind. Here, the MPFI sits on the original manifold in place of the popped valve injection. I reused the poppet valve bracket, the mpfi injectors snap right onto the original bracket. The MPFI is a standard motors product from amazon, about $160 less than the price at the parts stores.
Stabbed the dizzy, no dice, a tooth off....pulled aligned the lower dimple with the line and stabbed again 5 more times, no dice, would not seat except when off mark. Finally got a long screwdriver down in there, rotated the oil pump shaft a touch clockwise, realigned the dizzy and dropped it in and finally, seated on mark. I'm hoping I got it right. If not it'll either not start or run rough as a cob....but I have high hopes.....I believe its right. Here's a photo of it seated but off mark....one tooth off and 30 minutes to get it to pick up the right gear tooth and bottom out.
Here most of the manifold fittings and electrics and modified throttle body is back in place. I worked back to front in order to ensure I didn't cover up something that needed hooked up!
Everything back in, bolted/torqued/snugged/lubed/sealed, etc. Looks right. Many double checks as I went and upon finishing up. Fixed a broken windshield washer line....no more drip there either. Coolant in the radiator tomorrow morning and I'll turn the key. At least here, with the battery hooked back up, I'm not seeing any smoke!
Drivers side rear frost plug that was leaking. The press in plug was replaced with an expandable plug and I put my wrench on the nut,,,,,finger tight. So, snugged it up and the weep stopped. So, we'll see. With luck, and even though this one can be got to without raising the motor, I'd rather try snugging it up for now than replacement. It was only put in this summer when the motor mounts were replaced. Fingers crossed. Close inspection reveled another expansion plug on the Passenger front under the motor mount....and I found a drop of coolant on that motor mount....so......sliding my 3/16" thick open wrench into the 5/16" open slot between the motor mount and the block, I find the nut on the expansion plug.....spend several minutes figuring out upsidedown-clockwise to tighten and sure enough, it was only finger tight. Gave it a good snugging up. They leak now, its goin to a shop to have the motor lifted out!
I think the hard part now is waitin till the rtv cures.