Odds 'n ends

With major mechanical operations now completed, attention turns to the little annoying things.

Today, the annoying things that were scratched from the to-list were the flexplate cover and the driver side exhaust leak.

The flexplate cover was a pain. I had two OE plastic ones, and neither fit. Apparently I bought the wrong flexplate, and it's too big around for the stockers. So, I called Jeg's and got a chrome cover for a TH350 or 400. It fit better, but was still contacting the flexplate in one spot. I spaced it off the bellhousing with three washers and moved on.

The leak was at the junction between the driver side header and the tube that runs under the engine over to the cat. The donut gasket wasn't thick enough, and the pipe was contacting the oil pan, causing some misalignment at the flange.

Ten minutes with a ball peen hammer solved the clearance problem, and the nice guys at O'Reilly managed to dig up a thicker gasket, which I shoved in.

I also drained the 500-mile break-in oil and dropped in four quarts of Rotella and one quart of Mobil 1.

I started it, exhaust leak gone. There's still another on the passenger side, but we'll leave that for another day. Tonight I get to take it out on the highway to a soccer game and the grocery store.