Pelican Parts Forums - It was good engine-dropping weather over the weekend...

Seriously, nobody wants to roll around on an grimy garage floor in shorts, or sweat like hell in coveralls, so the mid-70s were perfect!
Why'd I drop the motor? Because I've owned the car a year, and no car of mine stays together that long. Other reasons; my office environment is a political nightmare, parenting has been exhausting, and I haven't started a good car project to escape into for 4 years.

First, a Public Service Announcement. If you haven't retorqued your intake manifold nuts this year, do so. My injector stacks have compressed with age and are >1mm shorter than a new one, and my car is a '92. I documented the stumbling issue and fix last fall on RL. Removing the top shroud revealed that those intakes were leaking gas/boost for a loooong time as my cylinder heads are caked around the manifolds.
Second, you can do everything for an engine drop by yourself... except the actual lowering. Wife does not equal good jack operator. Those of you who've rationalized "Hell, she can handle this one little thing!" know what I mean. My motor free-fell halfway to the floor with me desperately holding on to balance and screaming "Turn it to the RIGHT!!!" So no, after two days of the long learning curve of pulling a new engine I did not have the patience to call and wait for a friend to help me lower the motor.
Some thoughts/concerns/questions. Tins, sand-blast and powdercoat? I'm going to see if my buddy will let me throw all my cadmium (brackets, pullies, etc) in his tumbler for a day or two. It'd be a crime to put all this back together all cruddy. The only oil leak I have is my case seam, so I may actually do a full split and put in rod bolts and reseal.
Suggestions for Bay Area head machinists? Or should I just keep digging for <'80 SC heads? Anyone in the Bay Area willing to loan me the cam tools?

In starting this project I broke the cardinal rule; no budget. Hell I may find myself very desperately looking for a job a week from today. But I needed the spanner-therapy, and if it takes a year to do this, so be it. Build plan is very modest; Megasquirt V3.3, 964 cams, headwork (or SC heads), and ARP bolts. The K27 stays for now, I already have full B&B, the stock intake manifold will get bored to match whatever heads and stacks I use, and that's it.

EDIT: Mechanix are a life-saver. I always shunned and sneered at gloves until I was in a band and a metal splinter made me cancel a recording session (Ooof!). Doing this whole job with latex and/or Mechanix means I'm at the office with tired, but not scabbed, stained and mangled hands.