I confess, 5 years ago I was trying to test-fit the polyurethane mock block, after (following advice from others) denting the passenger side firewall to clear the big block, and ... unexpectedly (to me, anyhow) there was major interference on the driver's side too. I gave up, for a while, and 'a while' turned into 4 years gone by with not much done, then during last Spring I convinced my neighbor (who was for 40+ years a body man in a Cadillac dealer) to help me refurbish my dented/rusted hood, with the following result:

Then Florida Summer arrived, and no more could be done until Autumn (little garage A/C could not keep up with the constant heat). Then, I went back to building the 496 - next step was finding TDC and setting timing pointer correctly ... but the motor seemed to be too hard to turn over, leading to question if there was an internal problem, or what? Did not want to fully assemble it then discover problems when firing it up.

Then, whilst talking to our youngest son, who just last year took a new job in road construction (Union, pays REALLY well), in Ohio, where they do not work during the winter (cold and snow, alla youse Canadians sure know about that, eh?), and he was going nuts doing nothing at home, so **IDEA!** we'll fly him down for 2 weeks and his mom could spend time with him, and since he is a gearhead (sadly the only one of our 5) he was ready/willing/able to help out. So with his young body doing the heavy labor, we made major progress and now I know the big block will fit.

Summer is almost here but I WILL get the engine compartment sanded (ooh those inside fenderwells are rusty) and painted, so next Autumn the BBC install can be done.

To be continued ...

Dave