Many thanks to Craig for sending along the trans tunnel vent. It has yet to go in the car due to the drivetrain still being out of the car, but here is a comparison between the auto vent (the butchered one, top) and the manual trans vent (the one in good shape, bottom). The manual vent seems to fit well so far on a trial placement.

As for any type of overall update, I am trying to get the engine I bought in Calgary (thanks to Dale and Matt for the experience!) prepped for paint. Then hopefully I can get it back in the car so I can at least get it driving down the block, and call it a success for the season. Summer ain't lasting forever.

David, good luck getting the car on the road this summer, I'm in the same boat so hoping to see your's rolling.

I've been really bearing down on the block lately, cleaning it up and getting it ready. I built an extremely cheap paint booth (if you can call it that), to try to keep the overspray contained.
Multiple passes with brake cleaner and paint thinner, combined with a ton of shop towels, made it clean as I can get it. First coat of primer is on right now, I'll get another coat on, let it all cure, and hopefully pop on the color coats tomorrow.

Ready to go...
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Drop sheet paint booth


First primer coat on

First coat is on! It feels good to finally get to this point.

Looking good. What paint are you using?

Thanks!

I used Plasti-Kote 228 grey primer to cover the bare metal after I took a lot of flaking paint off.
I scuffed the primer coat up with some 400 grit, and cleaned it off before spraying Dupli-Color CDE1605 Ford Red. I read somewhere (I forget at the moment) that the Plasti-Kote 206 was as close to Volvo Red as one can get other than custom colors. I can get the P-K primer here, but not the color, go figure. But, the Dupli-Color is supposed to be a direct match and changes up to CDE1605. I think it looks pretty presentable.

I still have to pull the pan and clean that up, and paint it. I can do that separately when I get a bit more time.

Voila! The block is done.I am starting to clean up other odds and ends to get ready for paint. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Looks great! Painting that valve cover?

Definitely, the valve cover is going to get some new color... it's pretty ratty on top, so a good amount of cleaning up has to happen to it first. I do have a couple chrome valve covers that I will test fit as well, and a couple of other steel covers that might clean up easier/quicker. I put that cover on to keep the dust out for now. My end goal is to get one of those sweet aluminum valve covers eventually, but those monies can be put to better use at this time.

Just a few picture updates for now, got some garage time to do more paint prep. Oh, the prep, the most important stage and the most tedious. Etch primer next, a light sand then on with the color. I took most things down to the bare metal just to get ride of a lot of junk buildup on the base.


I got a lot of priming to do... you may notice that the pulley has 3 grooves. I only need one. I tried to fit the pulley from my B18 onto the B20 in the hopes that it would fit, but all it did was bind up when tightened. A bit of a head-scratcher, but i haven't gotten back to it yet. So in the meantime, I'll go with what worked before. I would like to save a couple pounds of the crank eventually, though.


The below picture doesn't do it justice, but this part was quite grimy with paint and hardened sealant. I thought about just leaving it as is, but it's there, I'm here, so let's just get it done. The other side is more or less prepped, just another light sand then on with the primer.
Before:


After...


Hopefully in a few days I can get a shot of primer on. I don't like to leave the bare metal uncovered for too long. Will post the pics as they happen, or as I remember to take them.

Looks good. Don't forget to straighten that sealing flange on your oil pan. I see bolt dimples and that means it will leak. Just get a hammer and a dolly and knock each of the bolt holes back to where they're supposed to be and don't over tighten the pan.

Will do Craig, thanks for the information on the pan, I thought they looked a bit uneven. There was a lot of oil gasket material and what appeared to be sealant between the holes, and the oil pan gasket was quite mooshed between the block and pan. I think the top of the flange should be flat, and there should be no 'dips' in between the bolt holes. Considering all I have is essentially a thin paper gasket, it totally makes sense to straighten it out.

Ok, I think I got the pan fixed up as good as I can make it. There were some definite high spots that had to be taken down. I do have to put some sealant with the gasket when I put it all together just to make sure of the final seal. I didn't want to go too far on my first try and damage the pan. I hope the differences can be seen in the picture.

Hard to tell from the angle you've taken that picture at...you won't damage the pan per se - I've recovered many of them with massive dents and you can't tell. Just make that bolt area level and well below the seal surface and don't torque the snot out of the bolts.

Thanks Craig, I think I have the pan flange to a state where it'll be suitable. It's worlds from what it was before.

This Saturday is prime/ paint day. I'm looking forward to getting some color on these things already. I chipped the coolant pipe when it was moving/dropping it around the garage and since I dry-sprayed it on one side, it needs another topcoat anyways.