I'd like to start this week's post by offering a giant middle finger to mother nature.  I'm trying to get shit done and it won't stop snowing.  Anyone who says global warming is a bad thing is a fucking idiot.

Despite my frustration, I made a bunch of progress on some random things this weekend.

Put the compression fitting on my power steering pump return line.  Originally it would have been just a slip fit hose barb but I wanted a solid -AN hose connection to help prevent leaks.  I hate power steering leaks almost as much as I hate winter and hippies.

Sanded the barb off until the fitting and ferrule fit.  A use a file / sandpaper for rough shaping, and a bearing scraper for final shaping. 

Exploded view of fitting.  I'm using an Earl's tube-to-AN adapter, PN# AT165006ERL.  The brass olive gets crushed and digs into the tube, locking the fitting in place. 

Installed.  I gave it a test by making a witness mark and pulling on it as hard as I could - it didn't budge.  I wouldn't trust it to anything of higher than 50 psi (which is the max they recommend) or with anything that could start fires (like fuel) but it should work fine for a power steering return.
 

Also starting grinding away areas on my valve cover that could be potential interference points with my rocker arms.  I'll be running thicker gaskets as well, but it was still a little close for comfort based on what I could see.  I don't want to risk making contact, so I'm taking precautions.  I removed the baffles and will be grinding away most of the associated casting.  Unfortunately I couldn't do this very long because my compressor was sending so much water through the line that I was afraid it'd damage my die grinder.  Again, fuck winter.

Still to do.  Left behind are the rivet bosses the held down the sheet metal baffle / splash guard.  I'll be running a catch can so I'm not concerned about any oil that might make its way out of the valve cover.

 Also worked on some alternator parts.  Cleaned the stator and sprayed it with some Dolph's EB-41 electrical insulating enamel.  Takes any electrical part from zero to badass in a matter of minutes! 
 

  

  
Also sprayed my ignition coils with it.  It took longer to mask them off then it did to spray them.  And unfortunately for me they don't photograph well.

 

Tinned up the coil leads, and also soldered the rectifier and diodes together.  Laid it all out on the housing first to make sure I had it in the right position.  Great success.

 

I also pulled the heads off tonight to check on the cylinder bores and reapply some oil to keep rust away.  Everything looked good.  

I also labeled all my pushrods to reflect their individual valve assignments....with 9 different lengths there's a lot to keep track of.  Happy to say my measurement tool was dead nuts accurate to the measurements I took ~ 3 months ago.

I also pulled the intake manifold apart to fix the paint on the top shell - the paint cracked when torquing it down despite my efforts to prevent that from happening.  Next time I'm going to experiment by adding some felt washers underneath to hopefully serve as a "thrust bearing" of sorts.  My brief testing showed that the felt washer remained stationary while the bolt / washer spun as I tightened them....which is awesome.  Some black fabric dye and they'll be good to go.

Parts everywhere.  Standard.

I know where everything goes.  I promise.