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The longblock is back together, with the cast-in logo milled off the front of the left head. The accessory brackets all fit now. I'm hoping the side-hung AC compressor clears the frame once the engine's in the car. I decided the thirty-year-old rubber in the used damper I had on hand was a little too ugly to use, but a $230 Romac damper was definitely overkill on a 5000RPM street engine, so I ordered up a rebuilt from Damper Dudes.
Speaking of overkill for a 5000RPM street motor, I just won an eBay auction for a Weiand tunnel-ram, it should make good EFI conversion material. A variety of eBay bits and parts are going into the project. The cover plate between engine and transmission came from an eBay auction, in remarkably good shape - the shipping cost more than the plate itself.
There's all manner of little issues that get in the way in a project like this. The engine is hanging on the engine stand, and the transmission is sitting on a cart. There's no way to maneuver the pair of them within mating distance of one another without a lot of jacking and blocking. And, once they're together I'm left with 800 pounds of powertrain hung from the engine hoist with nowhere to go but into the car, and I'm sure it'll have to go in and come out a couple times before the mounts, transmission tunnel, and other problem children have been dealt with. So this weekend I'll be welding up a caster-equipped cart to set the engine on, with a long enough base to support both engine and transmission when bolted together.
The steering rack conversion mockups are looking pretty good. The frame brackets should work out okay, the only potential snag is finding the right combination of tie-rod ends.