I got it started yesterday after work. I am very pleased. Basically I bought this engine years ago. I finally took it apart and swapped the original lightning camshaft with the roller cam from a mustang. I cleaned it up as best I could. Roller cam meant roller lifters, new distributor gear, etc. I guess hearing it run after I put all those things together is a thrill for me.
I tried to re-seal the water pump and it leaked right away. I tried to over tighten the exhaust headers to h-pipe, and the exhaust leak never went away. So I ordered a new water pump and h-pipe.
Sometimes, it's not the pump that causes the leak, but the separator plate behind it, so make sure the pump you buy comes with a new one. Also, if you can run the engine for a minute or two, after putting in coolant, without the accessory drive installed, then allow the engine to cool and retorque the bolts, that also helps the sealing of the pump and timing cover gaskets.
I can hear the valves... yes. Not sure what to do yet. Maybe I will fire it up without the valve covers when I re-torque the heads. It runs well. I can rev it up. It hunts a little bit, but I can't help but think the exhaust leak might have something to do with that.
With EFI, a hunt is a vacuum leak, or a problem with the IAC. An exhaust leak would just give a false oxygen reading but not affect idle quality. However, if you think you have a sticking valve or a bad lifter, running with the valve covers may not be conclusive. It would be a bloody mess, and the easier way to find out if a cylinder is not making equal power is to short the plug wire and see if the engine speed doesn't change. That'll give you the specific cylinder, and you can focus your diagnosis on it.
To set up for plug wire shorting, you need 8 pieces of 5/16" vacuum hose, 1/2" length, and a 12 volt test light (a wire can work, but a test light insulates you from the ignition secondary voltage, which can be deadly). Pull each wire at the dizzy cap, one at a time, and place one piece of vac hose over the tower, then put the wire boot down over the vac hose. Start the engine, then one at a time, touch the probe tip to the vac hose side for 2-3 seconds, so that the computer can't compensate for the RPM drop. If all the cylinders react the same, dropping the engine speed, then you have a vacuum leak around the upper plenum, throttle body or IAC, and if you have MAF, a bad MAF body to throttle body hose. Then you should look for an air leak in the hose from the MAF body to the throttle body, a missing PCV fresh air intake hose or a loose band clamp on either end.
Awesome! I appreciate any diagnostic assistance I can get! Once I get my coolant and exhaust leaks squared away I will chase the erratic idle if it persists.
Do you have the DLC set up, to where you can hook up a scan tool with datastream? That would help you look at what step or how many steps back and forth the IAC is at or going; it would also give you codes, unless you flashed a computer to not support self-diagnostics. And, one other thing: it takes about 30-50 key cycles for the computer to 'learn' idle, so you should fire it up every day, get it to temp and shut it down, on those days you're not driving it, otherwise, drive the heck out of it.