Now that the stainless radiator hoses are installed I filled the radiator with coolant (water for now), filled the engine with oil (Mobil 1 5W30) and filled the T56 with ATF (Valvoline Dextron III). I also have almost completed the temporary wiring to get ready to fire the engine for the first time since I re-assembled it last fall.

I filled the fuel tank with about 3 gallons of 91 octane and ran the fuel pump to pressurize the fuel system and check for leaks. Everything is okay . The starter cables are attached to the Optima Yellow Top battery and the Holley C950 is wired. I've done the minimal temporary wiring to crank and fire the engine as far as I can tell, using the stock ignition switch. I have a WBO2 and although I don't intend to do a lot of tuning right now, I still want to wire it up to see where I'm at as far as A-F ratio once the engine starts, so I still have to wire up the Holley WBO2 controller. Probably won't try to run it closed-loop for a while.

Just before I try to fire it up I need to pull the distributor and prime the engine oil system. Then I need to install the distributor and set the base timing at 10 degrees advanced. My son is bringing me a laptop to load the EFI maps I got from Holley for the 502 since the software won't run on anything past Windows XP.. After buying a new battery and charger for my XP laptop the disc crashed!

So hopefully before next weekend I should be able to fire the beast! I'll be videoing the startup!