Steve, my 1995 K1500 Cowboy Cadillac.

[MIHELA]

Once I had the block fully torn down, I gave it a good scrub with some oven cleaner and elbow grease and a good power wash. I cleaned all the oil passages with brass brushes. Then I oiled it all up and shrink wrapped it for winter storage.

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[MIHELA]

The morning of August 21, we headed out at 5:30 AM to find a spot to watch the eclipse. We aren't that far from central Nebraska, so we set our sights on Broken Bow, NE. Our first choice was Beatrice, NE but agonizing over the weather forecasts for the are it looked like it was going to be rainy. The center of the state looked fine. We were worried by the dense morning fog in places. We drove through Atkinson, Burwell and Ord. Around 9:30 it started to clear up and got to be pretty nice. We accidentally went the wrong way at Ord onto Highway 70 and discovered the lovely town of Arcadia, NE. It was reasonably well within the path of totality, so we decided to creep around and find a good spot to set up the scope. We found a really nice park right on the Middle Loup River, and better yet no one was even there! It was about 10, so we had time to set up before the eclipse began.

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[MIHELA]

I took all sorts of pics of the neat shadows cast by the eclipsed sun and got a few through the scope as well while we waited for the real show.

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[MIHELA]

This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It's like a sunset around the entire horizon and the stars come out. The birds go quiet. Then it's over as quickly as it started. I just realized I'm wearing that same shirt right now.

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[MIHELA]

Ahem...
The next few days I helped my buddy install his new engine in his Subaru, and then take it out again. Turns out I installed the head gasket backwards on one side. Don't work in low light conditions I guess! After we got that straightened out I installed my new rims.

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[MIHELA]

Painted the oil pan and prepping the valve covers for paint.

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[MIHELA]

Painted the manifolds with VHT high temp paint...

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[MIHELA]

Then the accessory brackets and pulleys.

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[MIHELA]

I mocked up some cardboard gaskets to assemble the engine for test fitting and painting. Here's a closeup of the casting notch that 500 blocks have to clear their huge stroke.

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[MIHELA]

Then I bolted the accessory brackets in place, and started splicing in some of the wiring.

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