Well, after much worry and much great advice from the members of this site, I turned the key on Saturday to my top end/timing chain rebuild, and after turning over and over to get everything primed, she started right up!

With the exception of one small exhaust leak, there were no oil or gas leaks and I couldn't believe after checking the timing, dwell, and carb balance, everything was dead on! It's running better than ever!

So, to all those that took some of your valuable time to answer my questions about engine rebuilding, thank you very much. Your help and support was very much appreciated. Things like getting the cam/crank/oil pump/distributor timed may be easy to some of the pros on this site, but to someone that hasn't seen it before, it's sounds pretty hairy. It was probably luck that I got it all put together right, but the advice I got on the boards certainly helped!

I may not know the bottom end of the L24 yet, but I think I've seen just about every part of it from the fan to the back of the cylinder head!

Once again, I really appreciated your help.

Edited January 5, 200916 yr by bobc

Congratulations Bob! Bottom end is easy. Just keep it all clean and put it together. It's the top end and the timing chain that requires a brain...