just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has helped me so far with my questions and figured i would post some pictures of my progress.

curts 383 pics

 

Looks nice man. You're using the same oil pan I went with. Good luck with it.

 

sweeeeeet!

 

What's the blue stuff? Is that the gaskets or some perma gasket?

 

the blue around the pan is a fel pro gasket and the blue around the timing cover is perma gasket

 

Very Very nice, well done!!

 

more pics online now

 

How did you get away with not pulling the transmission? And, why did you plug the old water pump gear hole? If you left it open, wouldn't it just allow oil to flow over the timing chain?

 

it wasnt that hard to get the engine out without the transmission. the bellhousing bolts are tight but with the right tools it can be done. as for the water pump gear hole i dont really think it matters either way. some people plug it some dont. i told my machine shop that i was taking the w/p gear drive out and they plugged the hole which is fine by me.

 

Why'd you put a freeze plug where the water pump drive hole (in the block)?

 

because the electric water pump doesnt run off the water pump drive shaft.

 

I left mine open, didn't see how it was gonna hurt anything seeing oil runs down the front anyways, no point in shoving a freeze plug on it.

 

Yeah, that was my thought too. The only things that need to be pluged when installing an electric water pump are the bearing cavity in the pump housing, and the drive hole in the timing cover. the block hole does not need to be pluged, but it wont do any harm I guess. Otherwise it looks great! What color are you going to paint it?

 

Nah won't do any harm. Thats just not how I did it with my electric pump. But yea, that 383 looks sweet. Are you gonna juice it? You must be if you got a dished setup .

 

yeah, maybe just a little