It is ALIVE

I have not kept up with this blog as I originally intended, but I have kept up work on the car.
On Sunday, I had my wife crank the car, while I checked the timing. It was WAY off, so far off, that I had to move the distributor one tooth!. That would make up for the really bad way that it ran before!.
What I have done in the last year:
1. Fixed the driver side fuel rail to make space for the valve cover. You can now remove the valve cover without taking out the fuel rail.
2. Finished all the hoses, and connectors. One of my home made connectors was a flop though, and at this point in time, I just bought 2 Female M14 X1.5 to AN-6 adaptors that I found on the web. These 2 go to the original fuel line outlets, and they will save a lot of aggravation in the long run.
3. Replaced the fuel pump... Dumb me left the car with gas, even though it had stabil, it still congealed inside the old one. No way to get it out.
4. Replaced the timing chain. There is a pretty good write up about this on the web. Toughest part was actually getting the dumb cir clips back on the chain... This is cheap insurance when you do not know the history of the car, and it takes about 2 hours to do. I also replaced the timing chain tensioner, took off the air pump, replaced all the fan belts while I had the fan off.
5. Finished wiring the megasquirt relay, and installed the MS-II ECU. Programmed it.
6. Replaced the US spec headlights with Euro specs. Car looks so much cleaner. I also rewired the turn signals to operate with the Euro lights. Need to flesh out a connection at the switch, as it seems that the low beams are always on. Who knows what the PO did to this.
7. Wired the Fuel pump directly to the MS relay board. This way it will be turned off with the engine. I never felt safe with the old wiring (left it intact though) not knowing when to turn off the fuel. That would be a bad thing in a major crash.
8. Timed the engine properly. Specs for a 1976 450 call for 7 degrees advance. My nifty Craftsman timing light can be set with the advance. Also, make sure that you highlight the marker, and the TDC 0 line, so that you can see it.
9. Once the car was running, it was nice and smooth. Was surprised at how easy it was to start.
After jumping up and down a couple of times, I noticed some minor fuel leak at one of my constructed adaptors. I immediately turned the car off (gas, and hot engine=bad). This had not happened while testing the fuel system before, (I would not have tried to start the engine had I seen the leak), so I waited while the engine cooled down, and pressure in the system was lost before taking off the connector. What I found was that the blue aluminum connector had sheared inside the makeshift adaptor. I took both off, and ordered 2 more of the NPT to AN-6 adaptors, and I found the M14 to AN-6 adaptor, that I also bought. With the second type, you will just need that single adaptor, and no NPT adaptor. Much cleaner solution, and will look far better.