The battle continues. I am learning that with jobs such as this, the devil is in the details. One detail I missed was the alignment of the pulleys. Since I axed the AC compressor, and lost it's pulley, nothing else aligned. Who'd a thunk it. I did have a minor triumph though. I knew the anemic little radiator the 318 had would fail pitifully at cooling the 440. I went to the local pick and pull to find any radiator that would do. Nothing. Upon leaving a guy came up to me and said he had a radiator from a big block 'cuda. I followed him home and bought it. I also had the drive shaft shortened. I accidentally deleted the pictures. When changing to the longer 727 transmission, you must shorten the driveshaft. I had a local shop shorten it and replace the u-joints. They charged about $90. They made it too short though. luckily I had a spare driveshaft. I had them redo it. They whined like little pussies and I wonder if they balanced it the second time. My first experience with a lame shop.

Oh yeah, minor little side point. I started the engine for the first time. What an awesome feeling. I hooked up the power, cranked it about 4 revs and it started right up. I haven't set the timing or mixture, but it ran like a champ. There is something about a big block running open header. Needless to say, all my neighbors know I started it.