The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster

Today was a huge day for me. I have realized a long time dream of building an engine and taking it to the dyno. Hoisting the motor into the back of the D100 for the ride down to the machine shop was a great feeling. Everything just came together and I knew it was all gonna be great.

Of course, there was the usual amount of drama. I primed the oil system but initially was not getting oil to the driver's side valve train. I had good pressure and oil to the passenger side but the driver's side was bone dry. WTF? My heart sank. What now?

My head was spinning with all sorts of worst-case scenarios - bearing holes not lined up, galley plugged, rocker shaft installed wrong... thankfully, it was none of that. Basically I just needed to keep going with the drill and rotating the engine over until things lined up so the oil could reach the rockers. After sitting there spinning the pump for a while and rotating the engine over a bunch of times oil finally came up out of the holes in the rockers. Whew!

After that I got the timing lined up, set the gap on the distributor reluctor and gapped the plugs to .045".

I fumbled around with the engine dolly for a bit after I lifted the engine off the stand. Took me a while to figure out how it was supposed to go but eventually I figured it out. My driveway must look like a shop with the engine crane and stand. My neighbors must think I'm nuts.

Hopefully I will have good things to report tomorrow, stay tuned.