Thanks for all the replies on this topic. You guys helped A LOT and now I've got a pretty good list made of the things I need to fix! That'll give me something to do tomorrow while the kids are at "mothers-day-out". I'm a stay-at-home daddy for a 3-year old and 10-month old -- needless to say, I don't get much time to work on my K5.
I saw a bunch of different throttle return springs online, but I have no clue how I'd find one that's the size (and is less stiff) that I would need. I don't understand why the parts store wouldn't have these. Actually, they did have one, but it was one of those by Mr. Gasket and it was about 2.5" too small. Do you think there's a spring kit for the Edelbrock carbs that eliminates that spring going all the way to the "engine hook"?
The last couple'a questions I would have is about the valve guide seals.
My back is in pretty bad shape so I'm actually thinkin' about lettin' someone else do those seals. I haven't decided for sure, yet. I wanted to see if anyone on here could give me a decent estimate for what someone would charge to replace those seals? I was thinkin', for no particular reason, that it'd cost me somewhere around $300 - $400... The higher the price goes the more I have to consider new heads. I mean, can't you get heads for somewhere around $400?
The second question is this... If I do decide to do the seals myself, wouldn't it be a lot easier to take the heads off to replace those seals rather than standin' on a stepladder bendin' over the engine compartment for hours on end doin' one at a time? Seems like all you'd have to do is take the heads off, replace the seals, even paint the heads or clean them or whatever, put new head gaskets on, replace the heads and be done with it. While the heads are off it seems like it'd be a lot easier to get to the bottom end of the block to clean the muck off of it (do a krylon rebuild
)....
As always, Thank You!
Sam
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