Engine Basically Complete!!

Well its been awhile...and I haven't had much chance to work on the Cruiser lately, but finally...some warmer weather and some time off work and I have made some great progress.  My goal for was to have the engine basically finished by the end of January...and mission complete (minus the radiator hoses which I'll get when I get the radiator).  Most of my time this past weekend was figuring out what parts I needed.  The fuel system was pretty straight forward...new fuel pump, new hard lines, new soft lines...bolt on and you're done.  My only issue was trying to bend the hard line.  The first tube bender I bought broke...so I had to go back and get it replaced and now the hard line is installed.  The soft lines were much easier...measure...cut...slip on where they go and clamp them down. 

The ignition and distributor were a bit harder.  Turns out the dizzy and ignition coil were off another vehicle and who knows what.  My thought is that when somebody installed the tach they needed the electronic part of the ignition coil and jerry-rigged something together to get everything to work.  The folks at the auto parts store finally figured it all out...the distributor came from a late 70s Camero and the ignition coil from a mid 80s Buick (all this on a 1970 GMC truck engine!).  So after a few phone calls (thanks Uncle Tom) we determined that I could use (and it would probably be better for the engine) the original 1970 distributor and ignition coil which saved me about $200!  Installing the distributor was a pain.  My main problem was that I couldn't get the shaft all the way into the hole.  Turns out the #1 cylinder is supposed to be top dead center and mine wasn't...so it was a guessing game as to when it was.  I tried removing the spark plug and turning the crank shaft trying to feel for the vacuum to be generated.  All I really felt was air moving out.  So more research lead to the brilliant idea of putting a screwdriver into the spark plug hole and turning the crank shaft.  When the screwdriver lifts up...the cylinder is top dead center (or very close).  That did the trick and the dizzy dropped in.  Lastly it was just install the plug wires and hook up the vacuum line and it was complete.

The only things left on the engine are the temperature sending and oil sending units...have to figure out how to get a Toyota unit (so I can hook up the original dash gauges) to a Chevy motor.  From what I've seen the only thing you have to do is by a plumbing fitting from metric to standard...so we'll see.  Then there are the radiator hoses...but that will come soon enough!