So on jackstands it went to try to address these problems.
Off came the AC/PS bracket
Painted the upper radiator piece
Wrapped a little bit of the passenger side header. Not the world's greatest job by far but better than no wrap at all.
Painted the lower pan
Used a cut up hose for a later 70s Bronco that worked much better than the old hose
Mounted an idler pulley where the stock one should go. This also eliminated the issue of the belt touching the upper radiator hose.
Installed a regular in block oil filter. Plenty of clearence and no leaks.
Threw some blue plug wires on, along with new plugs. One of the old ones was mismatched
New mini starter
Replaced the Thrush muffler with a Magnaflow.
For some odd reason, the PO put a PCV valve in each valve cover. I eliminated one and put a breather on it.
And how the engine looks now:
Like I said, it's a work in progress. I plan on swapping the heads for some Vortecs. I'll have to get a new manifold too. The mini starter still touches the header as does part of the tie rod when turning. I'm thinking about ditching the headers for maybe some manifolds. On the driver's side I had to take off the header just to remove the #3 spark plug wire! A few other things I need to do are hook up the oil pressure and temp gauges. Once its running good it needs an alignment, then I'll buy some 15" wheels and possibly lower it.
