A Chunk at a Time

I'm starting to think that I am trying to remove my left index finger one bit at a time.  Attacked it again yesterday with the grinder, this time taking a nice chunk out of my knuckle. What the doctors call a full thickness skin avulsion (in layman's terms it means 'you dumb a$$, you ground off all the skin and then some"). Not that I went to the doctor or anything, but I did consult with my PA friend. Anyway, sure filled my glove up with blood fast. Good thing I'm not squeamish. Put a bandaid on it and went back to work.

Brian H came over to help me get the 345 off Heavy D and into the garage. His timing was perfect, arriving just as I was hooking it up to the hoist. We go it off and onto a dolly, then proceeded to do a little maintenance before stowing it in the garage. Took off the broken exhaust manifold (and while grinding off two bolt heads, did the aforementioned damage to my finger). Three of the bolts came out fine. Thankfully, the two that were stuck are the two that you can access between the head and the manifold. So, we cut 'em and the manifold came off and the studs backed out of the head with our fingers.

We also took off the TC and flexplate, piece of cake. Engine turned easily so we could get to all the bolts. That's always a good sign. Took off the air pump/ps bracket and lower rad hose to access the freeze plug. Popped out the rear main. I figure, while I'm at it, I'll swap it out. Picked up a gasket kit at Nats for $5, so I've all the bits.


Also popped out a few of the freeze plugs. Doesn't look too bad in there, but will have to flush it out good. The engine is listing to the front on the cart and when I popped the middle block plug, it belched nice green antifreeze. Another good sign. Just need to pop out the rest and go order some replacements. Might have a go at putting the rear main in tonight, but I'm pretty beat, so it will probably wait until tomorrow.