Between last weekend and this one, I’ve caught up on most my lost progress from August. Engine and TKX are in with the help of the buddies who responded to my HALP call on Instagram. Then starting from the back with the driveshaft and moving forward I’ve been cleaning, bolting, torquing and often re-bolting but getting it all to fit right. I’m under an October 2 dead line to head out for the 2026 Northeast Rod Run, but trying not to cut corners and have a stress free run this year.

After getting the engine bay prepped we were able to add some por15 added to the stock k member. Got the engine and transmission connected and installed. Slid the headers down in there. Added some black Cerakote brackets for alternator, power steering and AC, now it’s time for suspension rebuild, wiring and plumbing and all of the smaller fine details

Now this is another extremely cool thing that ICT Billet does!! Thank you folks!! That’s extremely kind of you to do!

After yet another frustrating session of check the Hydromaxx throw out air gap last night on a TKX install I was wondering if there’s a way to make a tool to standardize this process. My mind turns to those H shaped master cylinder rod length checkers but up sized for a transmission? I just don’t have enough hands and doing the measurement read outs while prostrate is rough. Would be great to get a static length on something then mic it out on the bench.

The funky angle of the thermostat housing has always been difficult to line up with a radiator never meant to work with each other. Since I did the swap originally there’s so many more products out there to make it better. So decided to update the housing with a 90 degree one from @ictbillet and silicon hoses which should create more clearance for the charge pipe and clean up the new install.