Look at the pictures he posted, he has at least 2 exhaust leaks at the headers. He has those tall ARP head bolts and they're probably keeping the header from seating properly.

Update....Both dowl pins our out thanks to the air chisel and removing half the car....Things I have broken so far Starter, 3 spark plugs, Header scrapped up, Spark plug wire and a big ass mess.

Now to start to align the bellhousing and put it back together if I remember where eveything goes.

I'm living murphy law on this one.

Some how I ordered the wrong offset pins, I was told to order the .007" pin and today I put them in and still can't get it to under .005, now I call the place back and they said I need the .014" and they are not sure why I was told .007" and they won't take back the old ones...oh well. Anyone in need of .007" pins let me know and I will give them to you for half price. The are great pins and that is why I still ordered from them.

I won't have them till next Wed or Thursday so no car this weekend...I have plenty of stuff to work on that does not affect the transmission.

Damn Ric this sucks. I will say though, for all the trouble you are having, once you get it going you will not regret it at all. I cruise down the highway in my car at 1800-1900 rpms no problem. I love it, its so much quieter and the engine just isnt taking the beating winding out 3500 rpms's constantly like that. Plus I can get over 18 mpg out of my car, and my engine makes 686 horsepower, so thats not so bad. The TKO600 has made my car a real drivable car now, and for that all the trouble was well worth it.

Jeff

Jeff, thanks for the postive words ...I really need that about now. Thanks again.

You're close Ric, not quite June yet so you'll be good to go for the summer season. Lynda's working tomorrow, come on down and we can go over to Baker's together. Maybe she'll get done early and we can all go. I have plenty of chairs, you just need to get your butt here. Give me a call if you're interested.

Hank, I just seen this tonight, I spend the day with Leslie pulling weeds, shopping and planting all the flowers in the pots and powerwashed the deck so I did not get a chance to get to Bakers today as I was planning. Thanks for the offer, if I would have seen it earlier I would have made time to get there.

I have not touched the car all weekend and that is my plan today......It's funny Leslie walk by it today and looked at it and said "what were you thinking" since I still have the interior, heater, headers, transmission, inter fender wells, removed from the car. Tomorrow is removing the head bolts and grinding them down and installing the headers and starter. Hope you had fun today.

Finally
 

Got the new 014" dowel pins yesterday and installed them today and got the the bell housing to within 001" after removing and installing and adjusting about 5 times...could not get it any better than that..it's almost perfect. Now to put everything back together...it's going to take me forever.

Supposed to rain off and on all day so you have nothing better to do. Get 'er done, it's June.

Well started back on it today since I have not touched it since last Sat as I could not stand the thought of even crawling back under the car. Got the headers installed (Yes Hank I did grind the heads bolts down so the headers do not hit..thanks for the tip) and got the clutch and bellhousing put back on with the starter.


The part I dread the most is getting that beast of transmission installed and that is Saturdays project after that is installed, things should go pretty good I'm hoping.