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I RTV'd that cap when I did the o-ring too. Believe it or not, Napa didnt have a SBC dist gasket in stock.

Our AAP shows as having the gasket in stock, and if they don't then there's AZ, or Napa, or a dealer, lol.

How tall is the drive shaft, because the more I look at my engine, the less fun this looks lol. It looks like the line to the t-stat housing is going to make this thing a pain to do (getting something in there to clean the area, to pry the cap off, and pulling the shaft out without banging it up or getting it dirty). Before I was thinking this would be a fairly quick ordeal, but now it looks more like an elaborate puzzle to get things in/out amongst obstacles.

Just to make sure my procedure rundown is correct...

Pry off cap with something like a screwdriver
Something about a bolt?
Something about a clip holding it in?
Pull out drive shaft
replace o-ring
Put shaft back in, if it doesn't seat, lift, turn a bit, try again
Gasket goes on somewhere in process
Clip
Bolt
Plug

I have a feeling I'll end up failing (or giving up) and passing the job onto someone else.

I don't recall that you have to pull the shaft completely out, but that you had to get to the end where the seal is. Since I have never done one, I can't say for sure though.

Edit:

As for the TS heater core line, that is easy to remove. One bolt holds a bracket in the rear head, then you can either unclip and pull the line or unscrew the whole assembly out of the thermostat housing. The clip is easier, but it also can be broken, though a new assembly (clip and retainer) at Napa is like 3 bucks so no biggie. (if you do remove the line either way, best to put a new one back to prevent leaks) With that and the TB out of the way, you should be able to get right to it.

All that should take an average person less than 30-45 minutes to remove. Some of the car geeks here could probably do the same task in less than 15.

It looks worse than it is. If you really wanted more room, you could also pull the EGR off and out of the way, but it doesn't block much, so no real need I think. More of a visual obstruction than anything else.

its not that bad to do thats for sure, just remove everything in the way.

There's no clip on it, or prying. There's just a bolt with a hold-down on it. Just like a distributor would be.

DTMAce wrote:I don't recall that you have to pull the shaft completely out, but that you had to get to the end where the seal is. Since I have never done one, I can't say for sure though.

I'll start with just the TB off & see how it goes. I'd rather not screw around with the t-stat housing & have to deal with draining & refilling coolant. The shaft has to come out because the o-ring (while located near the top) slides on/off from the bottom.

Thanks Cliff. Guess I'll have to get a better look at things because I didn't notice any bolt there, just looked like a sunken in cap with a lip around it.

Just keep in mind that it's been in there for a while... It might not want to come out easy.

Looked back through my pics & found the bolt. It's all just covered in so much crap that I couldn't even tell there was a hold down with it. And when does anything ever actually want to come out easy

When you use a bfh it works... lol

I got on mine with some vice grips and pulled it out.

Just a note on the oil pump drive, you can not remove it unless you remove the bracket hold down for the fuel lines and move them around, the front hard line goes directly over where you need to pull up.

Way easy to get out if you dont mind pulling the upper off.