We're in a holding pattern after some hurdles. We did, however, find out that the timing chain and gears had previously been replaced but the chain was sloppy as hell.
Bret you should get in touch with Ethan a.k.a. hugger to see if he still has that 70 stage one engine it's worth a shot Least it would be an SS block that's what I would do it would help the value of your car .
After doing this job last year and spending far more time taking gasket goo off off everything from 7 years back, than any mechanic-time putting it all back together, I'll tell you this - use gasket sealant sparingly and mostly limited to everywhere pressurized fluid passes. On the driver's side at the top of the cover against the block you find the gasket fills an exposed area. You should trim this out and leave the "V" shaped area sans gasket. Just trim that "V" out of the gasket. Otherwise oil will wick up and pool on top of the cover - no matter how well you seal it up. This area in the cover I'm talking about is like a v-ditch in the cover just under the driver's side of the distributor cap. I heli-coiled most of the crappy ancient threads in the cover while it was on the workbench. Any bolt going into a water jacket needs PTFE bolt sealant or they'll leak. Once assembled leave it all to dry over night before refilling coolant so your sparingly applied gasket sealant sets up with no interfering moisture. Get your block drained down enough so you don't get moisture on the fresh gasketed assembly before it all dries.
Ah,just went down this rabbit hole late last year. Don't know what timing set you're using but be aware a roller chain may have to be installed at the 4+ keyway to duplicate the 4 degree advance on the factory timing sets. Compare your new set to your old one. Might as well give the oil pump some love too while you have the timing cover off. Here's a link to my thread: http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?th...stem-is-a-slippery-slope.316028/#post-2640656
Spray the crap out of the WP bolts with PB Blaster or similar and hope for the best. Steel bolts plus aluminum timing cover equals snapped bolts waiting to happen.
Feel free to read up on this'n here... Just be advised: You may chuckle a few times and blow coffee outa yer nose LOL... ws http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/the-odds-are-4-to-1.317709/
The breaker bar trick works like a charm. I'm waiting on the new cover and pump from TA that will be here Friday. I also have all new Todd Miller bolts, a new water pump, belts, hoses and distributor, so I'm hoping these mods do the trick. I also dropped the radiator off at a local shop to have that checked out. Made sense since it was out of the car. It's been a month since I've driven it and I went to a huge car show today. As a passenger.
For that, you use Yardley's trick. You remove a sparkplug and feed a length of nylon rope into the cylinder, than turn the crank until the rope stops the piston, then use a big breaker bar and lean on it.
Took today to try and button up a few things while waiting for the timing cover to arrive. One of the new tires had a slow leak. That's squared away. The balancer, crank pulley and water pump were painted and will be affixed with all new bolts from Todd Miller. Hopefully, my next post will be announcing a successful resurrection.