Other stuff

I also did some other cleanup on the car.  I changed the left side valve cover gasket since it was leaking pretty bad.  I didn't want to mess up my new headers!  Got the cover off and found that the previous a-hole who worked on the car put the RTV on the head side of the gasket, not the valve cover side.  Lots of scraping later I got everything clean and ready to go.

I was pleasantly surprised at how clean the rocker arms and oil return ports are.  I could see a bit down into the valve train and the lifters and push rods that were visible looked good too.  Not much sludge at all in this engine.

Here is a picture of the left head with the valve cover off.  Looks clean, don't it?

I also took this opportunity to remove the AC compressor and hoses.  The AC system is toast, and it was definitely in the way from working on the headers and power steering, so now it is out and sitting on a shelf.  This is Texas, so I do plan on putting an AC system back in since the car will be a driver, but I am hoping to find a modern - read that as smaller and lighter - system to replace the old 60's technology.