54 I had we tied a rope to the hood ornament. Ran it over the roof to the rear bumper over rider. Pulled hard and tied it off. Held the hood back so I could change engine an trans without removing the hood.
Just wanted to add that the Performer EPS manifold should not cause you any throttle response problems, unless there's a vacuum leak somewhere. It's simply an updated version of their popular Performer low-rise manifold.
Long time no update, been busy driving. The Smithys mufflers turned out to be a disapointment, the Chevy sounded almost as quiet as my old mufflers, after 2 weeks i removed them and went for a classic noisy muffler, 18 inch Cherry bombs, im quite pleased how they sounds, still quiet when going down the road, I could probably go straight pipes on this engine but som people out there doesnt like that.... The isolation i did on the floor did make a real difference on the exhaust/road sound, to really hear the V8 i have to roll down the windows. Listen to that V8 really puts a smile on my face
Nice car! I made this kind of hood spring removal/assemling tool: https://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/miscellaneous/hoodspring.htm There's also a video about using it in the link. IIRC it was better to make it a little of the long side for my 1950. Tool worked well, but it's still a freightening job, and the geometry of my jack was not the best working with the springs. I worked with the fenders off, so can't say how it would work with them on.
After the whole front suspension were rebuilt (last pieces this spring) the Chevy started eating tires really bad, I guess the really sloppy frontend compensated pretty good. After some checkup it turned out someting also were bent, couldn't aligne right side into spec, changed lower control arm and after a real alignment it turned out pretty good, before the car dragged pretty hard too the right, now you can let go of the steeringwheel and the car just run straight, im so pleased, also after driving around for a while i cant see any abnormal tire wear. It were time for a tire change, been lookin forward too this since i bought the car, really need some whitewalls. First choice would have been classic Firestone www but with all alignment problems and the cost of these tires i realised its wiser with radials, I know boring but they look ok i think, but you cant compare them too Firestones
That engine had some serious issues, after reassemble it i discovered, really bad scoring on crank wich had destroyed the bearings, piston clearence were like 3 times as it should have been, rings were badly worn, timing chain were slack, the cam had gone flat on one of the lobes. So it needs a full rebuild to be uasable again The heads were the only uasable, but they were on wrong engine.
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