And now.......paint.  Finally a good Friday and weekend, dry, warm, etc.  From that ugly blue to ugly gray.  Then Daytona blue pearl from TCP.

So, time for some paint, almost anyway.  Sanded all the blue color with 600, scuffed with scotchbrite, wiped with wax and grease remover, which took maybe an hour.  Then taping off the color, that took a bit longer........

Is this in a boat you have?  If it is you're probalby not to far from me if you ever need a hand with it let me know.

Is your tach accurate and working properly?  Have to ask, that RPM seems kinda low for the HP you are claiming. 

I don't think it would hurt anything if you left it in there.  Cant you grab the end with some needle nose? 

Moved the junction box from the back of the motor to the head with a piece of angle.  My old headers were only about 3/4 of an inch to the transom, mainly because they were for a v-drive setup, wasn't sure if it would burn the gel, happened to stumble on a set of jet headers at a reasonable price so I snapped em up.  They have an odd collector neck down, probably because they are for a small block, haven't seen that before but since it is at the transom, and I like the headers to end there, that's where the cutting will take place.  Then I'll be able to stick my baffles in for the local lakes.  Might have to do some testing, I'll make it so the reducers can be bolted on using the baffle bolt, see if it makes any kind of difference.  I had the interior at the shop at this time. 

They also make 4 bladed billet versions, in both stainless and aluminum.  For now the 5 blades are only available in aluminum.  Not cheap, but by the time you buy a regular impeller and have it detailed it probably works out about the same. 

I would lean more toward the HEI setup like 77GT is talking about.  It simplifies the hookup for one, cleans up the wiring, and parts are available EVERYWHERE.  If your running a tunnel ram I dont think it would work though. 

Now that the engine is in I'll take the interior out and have it redone in white.  I also need to make or find that interior piece that goes in front of the engine.  I'll do the carpet, once I have the seats being redone I'll start sanding and prepping for paint, hoping for some good weather in April so I can shoot the paint.  Wiring is next, then cables, then, etc.....
Wanted some old school looking stuff, like gauges so this is what I'm going to run.

Cleaned up the engine bay, called Tom at JBP and picked up a rail kit.  I used the bellhousing to position the rails.  Had to notch the one side for the starter.  Will also be using a short oil filter next time around, or go to a remote mount it's pretty tight, the stringers are only 22 inches across.  Initially I had the rails mounted up near the top of the stringer, wont work with this hull and a mechanical fuel pump, not enough material in the right place to cut the front mount down.  Many thanks to Tom for helping me sort thru that issue.  I painted the kit a nickel color.  I'm not into polishing the stuff every time I go out.  I almost left them the raw aluminum, I think that would have looked good, just not for very long.  Yes, that is a rail on the other side of the stringer also, there are some carpeted bunks that were originally screwed into the stringer, I wanted a better mounting setup so that's what's going on there. 

I've heard some people mix the a 0.001 under shell with a std shell to arrive at .0005", but it seems like that would have kind of a screwed up parting line...there would be a 0.00025 step, which I'm not sure will have an affect on anything.  So, out of all the different ways to skin the cat...what's the prefered method of hitting the mark?

I've done that a time or two, still means buying another set of bearings though.  Never gave me any issues.  Clevite even mentions doing just that somewhere on one of their tech pages. 

I second that.  On a car the noise is in front of you muffled by a bunch of sheetmetal.  In a boat you are right in front of it, be kind of like listening to someone run their nails on a chalkboard after a couple hours on the lake.